A lithium mining machine moves a salt by-product at the mine in the Atacama Desert in Salar de Atacama, Chile on October 25, 2022.
Lucas Aguayo Araos| Anadolu Agency | Getty Images
Iran says it’s discovered a massive deposit of lithium — a key element in batteries for devices and electric vehicles — in one of its western provinces.
“For the first time in Iran, a lithium reserve has been discovered in Hamedan,” a mountainous province in the country’s west, Mohammad Hadi Ahmadi, an official at Iran’s Ministry of Industry, Mines and Trade, was quoted as saying on Iranian state television Saturday.
The ministry believes the deposit holds 8.5 million tons of lithium, which is often called “white gold” for the rapidly growing electric vehicle industry. If the claimed figure is accurate, that would make the deposit the second-largest known lithium reserve in the world after Chile, which holds 9.2 million metric tons of the metal, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
The lucrative element is a crucial component in the cathodes of lithium-ion batteries in EVs, as well as in rechargeable batteries like those used in cellphones. The metal’s price has skyrocketed in the last year due to higher demand for electric vehicle parts, global supply chain problems and inflation, but fell more recently, undergoing a correction amid a drop in EV sales and slow business activity in China, the fastest-growing EV market.
Iran’s lithium deposit news, if true, would be a lifeline for the country’s battered economy.
Weighed down by several years of heavy international sanctions and faced with a spiraling currency, which hit its lowest point against the dollar in late February, Iran would benefit greatly from the ability to export such valued resources — though its trading partners would likely be limited due to those sanctions.
Isolated from the global financial system, Iran continues to draw penalties from Western nations that accuse Tehran of supplying Russia with weapons that are…
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