Africa has significant natural lithium resources, and many African countries may contribute to meeting increased demand for lithium and supporting economic growth by engaging in the battery supply chain. This report reviews known resources of lithium and engagement in the battery supply chain across key African countries.
Africa has very little capacity for lithium mineral processing, further refining of lithium chemicals, or manufacture of battery components. As a result, lithium mineral concentrate is typically exported from Africa. Value is added outside Africa and products using lithium-ion batteries are then imported.
For that we need batteries - and Lithium-ion batteries might just be the kind Africa needs,” as ESIL Director Professor Bernard Bladergroen explains. Photovoltaic (PV) panels are common, and the energy they produce in South Africa is approximately 40% cheaper than that generated from fossil or nuclear fuelled power stations.
They could provide energy while overcoming Africa’s infrastructural challenges. But this energy would still need to be stored. Lithium ion batteries might provide a solution. The Conversation Africa asked Bernard Jan Bladergroen about the challenges and opportunities. What is a lithium ion battery and what are its benefits?
The batteries are charged when power is available from, example, a wind turbine, solar panels or the grid, and then provide power when it’s not. If Li-ion batteries could be manufactured in Africa, on the appropriate scale, they would become cheaper and power users could rely more on renewable energy than they do now.
In this same way, a study of the Scopus database shows that Africa has a great advantage, in terms of natural resources, compared to the rest of the continents in the cobalt and manganese mining industry for the production of lithium batteries (Mayyas et al. 2019).