Share Demand for lithium, one of the key materials used in making lithium ion batteries, is rising rapidly. The metal is used in a wide variety of industrial applications including glass, ceramics and greases, but it’s the use of lithium as a key component in the batteries that power electric and hybrid electric vehicles that has so excited markets. Lithium does not occur naturally in nature. Instead it is found in a variety of mineral salts which needs to be chemically processed to form the lithium compounds and chemicals required by industry. A number of lithium compounds are used by industry but it is lithium carbonate that is the most commonly used form of lithium, accounting for more than half of total demand. The lithium industry often expresses lithium production and trade in lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) units. If electric vehicles, which rely wholly or partly on electricity stored […]