“The conventional way of extracting lithium from spodumene is in a rotary kiln, which requires very high temperatures (>1000 °C) and can only be applied to spodumene of a certain type and size.
This process is highly energy intensive, and the constraints placed on the feed applicable to this process, results in a large proportion of the lithium in these hard rock deposits being wasted.”
So not only is it energy intensive to mine lithium, it is also energy intensive to to extract the metal from the ore.
Even then it needs to be shipped halfway around the world, placed into a battery with numerous other metals before being shipped half way back around the world again.
It is then charged via an electric socket powered by 70% fossil fuels. Hardly saving the planet.
https://www.ansto.gov.au/news/australia-charges-ahead-new-lithium-technology
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