Lithium miners explore all options as battery demand pulls away

Recycling may offer a third way as global lithium industry struggles to ramp up supply to feed growth of electric vehicles

Approval by the US Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in January of Thacker Pass, a massive open-pit lithium mining project in northern Nevada, highlighted other challenges for resource extraction in the developed world. While federal approval is a big step, it is not the only hurdle.  The project, owned by Vancouver-based Lithium Americas, is already facing lawsuits from local ranchers and indigenous peoples. Given the surging global demand for battery-grade lithium, which is expected to rise by at least 1,000pc this decade, the mining industry will likely find itself bouncing back and forth between resources in highly regulated, litigious domains like the US and those in less-regulated but le