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What Is The Future Of The Lithium Industry In Qinghai?

According to the Guidance Report on Lithium Industry Patents in Qinghai published in Qinghai on September 19, 2017, the world's proven lithium reserves are 34 million tons, where the lithium reserves in Qinghai Saline Lakes account for more than 60%.

How important are the lithium resources in Qinghai? In this regard, a Science and Technology Daily reporter interviewed Wang Min, a researcher with the Qinghai Institute of Salt Lakes, Chinese Academy of Sciences. "Extracting lithium from Qinghai Salt Lakes is of great significance to our country to occupy the strategic highland of the world's energy resources. First of all, in the eastern part of China, the majority of lithium materials for the processing of industrial primary products rely on imports of spodumene, and extracting lithium from Qinghai Salt Lakes can help get rid of the dependence on imported raw materials. Second, the South American delta takes up 70% of the world's lithium market. Extracting lithium from Qinghai Salt Lakes can break the international monopoly and seize the strategic highland. Third, Qinghai is the strategic base of the national lithium 6 (a stable isotope of lithium), and lithium 6 is a basic raw material for a nuclear reactor. Therefore, it is imperative to develop lithium in Qinghai Salt Lakes so as to promote emerging industries such as positive and negative materials, energy storage batteries and power batteries and build a national lithium industry base in Qinghai." Wang said.

Resource advantages are not equal to development advantages. What are the advantages and disadvantages of developing the lithium industry in the inland province of Qinghai?

As for advantages, Wang said frankly that Qinghai ranks first in lithium reserves with 2/3 of the country's total, so there is no need to speak at length about its resource advantages. In addition to the natural advantages of lithium resources, low cost is another advantage for developing the lithium industry in Qinghai.

As for disadvantages, the low grade of lithium in Qinghai results in a higher ratio of magnesium to lithium, and the separation of magnesium and lithium is a worldwide problem.

Therefore, the Qinghai lithium industry patent navigation research group hopes that Qinghai provincial government departments will set up special funding projects to encourage enterprises with technical advantages to establish an overseas presence, will strengthen the construction of the Federation and protect its interests, will refine the industrial layout and improve the lithium industry chain, will primarily support local enterprises while introducing foreign enterprises to maintain the healthy and orderly development of Qinghai's lithium industry, and will carry out industry-university-research cooperation projects to enhance comprehensive competitiveness.

"The development of lithium resources requires technological innovation of research institutions, while industrialization involves the establishment of a platform for technological innovation. The two are interdependent and will more effectively promote the construction of a lithium industry base. Circular economy and green chemicals should be emphasized during lithium development to improve resource utilization." Wang suggested.

The goal is to speed up industrial transformation and upgrading, and transform resource advantages into economic advantages based on core scientific technology.

In recent years, Qinghai has issued policy documents such as the 100-billion-yuan Lithium Battery Industry Development Plan of Qinghai Province, which clearly specifies that the resource advantages of Qinghai's lithium battery industry should be maximally transformed into economic advantages and that a nationally influential 100-billion-yuan lithium battery industry base should be built in Qinghai.

Zhang Chaoyuan, Deputy Director of the Qinghai Provincial Science and Technology Department, said that from 2011 to 2016, the Department has been supporting 23 technology projects in the lithium industry with a total fund of 4.794 billion yuan, a subsidy of 42.34 million yuan and a social investment of 4.752 billion yuan, and completed 8 production lines, which generated sales revenue of 1.027 billion yuan.

Over just a few years, Qinghai has initially built a lithium battery industry chain covering the extraction of lithium from Qinghai Salt Lakes, anode and cathode materials for lithium batteries, supporting materials such as copper, aluminum and foil for lithium batteries, energy storage batteries and power batteries. A whole "lithium" industry chain has gradually taken shape.