How is Lithium made?

Trace the history of lithium from 1800 mineral discoveries by Jose de de Andrade and Arfvedson to industrial production and modern uses in glass, ceramics, aluminum, polymers, and batteries.

Explore lithium properties as the third element with three protons, neutrons, and electrons and one valence electron in the alkaline metals; crust abundance is about 0.006%, roughly twice cobalt.

Explore lithium’s properties, including its status as least dense solid at room temperature, melting point 180°C, density 0.543 g/cm³ at 20°C, ionization energy 5.37 eV, and electropositive potential -3.024 V.

Explore lithium's uses in ceramics, glasses, pharmaceutics, lubricants, alloys, and batteries, and outline production from brines and ores to carbonate and chloride derivatives.

Discover how lithium powers batteries and cathodes like NMC and LCO, and identify its roles in ceramics, glasses, lubricants, air treatment, aluminum production, and pharmaceuticals.

Explore the lithium supply chain from deposits and brines to mineral concentrates and derived salts, including carbonate, hydroxide, chlorides, and organolithiums used in batteries, lubricants, steel, and advanced industries.

Explore fundamental geologic terminology, including minerals, rocks, ore deposits, and gangue, and learn how minerals form rocks and yield economically valuable ore.

Explore the main lithium sources, including granitic pegmatites with Spodumene and Petalite, continental brines in salars, geothermal brines, and sedimentary-hosted clay-type deposits with rectorate and Jadeite.

Explore the geochemistry of Lithium, its small ionic radius and limited substitution of larger alkali ions, showing why it concentrates in pegmatite and granitic rocks like rhyolite through differential crystallization.

Explore lithium abundance across types from ultramafic to felsic and pegmatites, highlighting higher Li in felsic rocks, with sandstone sediments to 216–2000 ppm, seawater at 117 ppb (14th most abundant).

Explore typical lithium minerals, noting that only about 10 minerals hold economic value, with spodumene as the primary focus and other examples like aluminum silicate and silicate phosphates.

Explore lithium deposits, resources, and reserves across Bolivia, Argentina, Chile, the United States, Australia, and China, and how brine and hard-rock mining shape production.

Learn how crushing and screening reduce ore size and separate fractions by size and density, using cone crushers, gaps, mechanical screens, and flow sheet sequences.

Learn how a hydrocyclone separates large from small particles using centrifugal force, sending large particles to the wall and discharge while small particles stay in motion for collection.

Explore the principle of froth flotation with a water tank, particles, and surfactant molecules that cause minerals to float or sink, using sequential reagent changes in a circuit.

Explore filtration as a solid-liquid separation step in lithium production, using filtration paper to separate slurry, with liquid passing through and solids remaining, plus various filtration devices.

Explore ion exchange using a resin to swap calcium and iron in hard water for sodium, removing impurities and even exchanging sulfate to soften water.

Learn how precipitation converts dissolved compounds into solids to remove impurities, such as iron, from solutions by changing solubility with bases like sodium hydroxide, carbonates, or sulfides.

Learn how solvent extraction uses an organic solvent to separate target molecules from an aqueous solution, creating a dispersed organic phase, settling, and recovery through washing, stripping, and reuse.

Outline lithium production from spodumene, detailing mining, concentration, washing, filtration, and impurity removal, then describe mineral conversion to lithium carbonate or hydroxide and three processing approaches.

Explore crushing and screening workflows in lithium ore processing that reduce ore size with cone crushing, ball milling, and cyclones, and manage fine dust and 0.03 mm targets.

Process concentrated spodumene through mineral conversion to carbonate or hydroxide, highlighting acid hosting, slime hosting, and an exchange.

Master the acid-roasting flow sheet for lithium from spodumene or petalite, including sulfuric acid digestion, leaching and washing to remove impurities, and precipitation of lithium carbonate using sodium carbonate.

Learn acid-roasting and sulfuric acid digestion in lithium processing, including digestion at around 250 degrees, furnace lining requirements, and handling hot sulfuric acid and CO2 gases.

Describe acid-roasting leaching in lithium production, where salt water in steel tanks dissolves sulfates while silicate impurities remain undissolved through several tanks until everything is dissolved.

Filter the sulfate solution to remove alumina silicate and impurities, then add sodium carbonate to precipitate alkaline metals and iron, with purification by sulfuric acid, active charcoal, or ion exchange.

Follow a lime roasting flowsheet to convert calcium carbonate to lithium hydroxide, through leaching, concentration, mixing and settling, purification, evaporation, and crystallization into lithium hydroxide crystals.

Explore lime roasting as a one-step calcination of spodumene with limestone to form calcium silicate and impurities, control temperatures around 900 and 2040, quench and grind to powder.

Leaching with hydroxide and water, in multiple stages, leaches lithium and removes all solid products, echoing solvent extraction concepts from the slides.

Lime roasting refines lithium production by crystallizing hydroxide via a multi-stage vacuum evaporator, with water purification, crystal washing by filtration, and attention to yield losses from coordination steps.

Purify brine and extract lithium through solvent extraction with sulfuric acid, then precipitate calcium and magnesium as gypsum and magnesium hydroxide using calcium carbonate and sodium carbonate.

This lecture outlines lithium metal production, compares it to sodium production, and explains producing lithium from chlorides, including the down process and how potassium chloride lowers the melting point.

Explore a typical LiCl electrolysis cell for metal production: a cathode assembly, insulating lining, gas and metal collection, and voltage considerations for large-scale operation.

Explore lithium alloys overview and aircraft applications, highlighting aluminum-based alloys, low density metals that change properties—especially hardness and tactility—in wings, tails, and space shuttle external tanks.

Examine lithium alloys for battery anodes, including conductivity, liquid mobility, and their ability to support reasonable charge–discharge rates, with references to a nature article on negative electrode applications.