THIS LITHIUM WILL NOT POWER THE

INDIAN BATTERIES

Dr. Devarajan Mylappally, M.Sc. (Geology), Ph.D. (IIT-Mumbai), MAusIMM, MMEAI

Vice President Exploration,

Supreme Gold Corporation, Canada.

Date: 12/FEB/2023

In recent years, the Indian media has broken a number of stories on national TV about
the discoveries of huge mineral resources, often reported as "reserves." There was this
discovery of a huge 'reserve' of gold in the Sonbhadra district of UP in 2020, followed
by another discovery of huge 'reserve' of gold in Bihar, a year later. The minister of
mines also made an announcement about the latter in the Indian Parliament.

Unfortunately, all of these news stories originated in the government's exploration

departments.

The latest in this series is a news story on the discovery of a huge ‘reserve’ (5.8 Million
tonnes of Lithium) in the Jammu and Kashmir State associated with a Bauxite deposit.

The story caught the attention of the global exploration and mining community,
unfortunately for the wrong reasons.
Firstly, most of lithium extracted worldwide is from liquid brine reservoirs beneath salt
flats (salars), in southwestern South America and China.

The other major source of lithium is pegmatite hosted lithium ore deposits. These are
often richer in lithium content than the salar brines. Although there are over 100
different minerals with some amount of lithium, only five (spodumene, lepidolite,
petalite, amblygonite, and eucryptite) are mined.

However, extraction costs from pegmatite ore are nearly twice that of brines due to
their mining, milling, and metallurgy costs.

The saleable product in both brine and pegmatite hosted mines is commonly Lithium
carbonate.

Lithium is one of the secondary elements occurring in bauxite, where lithium content
can reach up to 0.3% (as Li2O). Most Li in bauxitic ores is mainly hosted in illite, a clay
mineral, whereas Li in aluminous claystone is mainly hosted in kaolinite, another clay
mineral. Hectorite is a silicate of Na, Mg, and Li and contains about 0.5% Li. It is a
member of the smectite family of clay minerals and is considered the most widespread
among the Li-clay minerals. However, the extraction of Lithium from the clays is
challenging and costly.

Jammu and Kashmir has a few small, isolated bauxite deposits. A 3-4 m thick bauxite
deposit occurs in Salal area in the Reasi district. This is apparently developed over the
Jangalgali Formation of Upper Cretaceous to Eocene age.

Exploration by the Geological Survey of India estimated an Inferred Resource of 5.9

million tonnes with an average SiO2 of 37% and Al2O3 of 45.3%. This is a high silica
bauxite and will not be suitable for most alumina plants unless beneficiated. Among
the trace elements analysed, Li is reported to be 332 ppm (parts per million).

This equates to a mere 2950 of contained metal. The saleable lithium carbonate
equivalent is 15,703 tonnes. The uncertainties on the host mineral, the metallurgy, etc.
remain.

Obviously, this will not catapult India to the status of the second largest lithium-
resource rich country, as claimed in the media. India needs to look elsewhere to power
its huge battery requirements.