Hyperdrive
China Lithium Probe Puts Spotlight on Reserves and ESG Risks
- Inspections target illegal mining of a key battery material
- Prices hit a record high last year as demand for EVs boomed
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If it’s grown, drilled or dug up, chances are there’s not enough of it in China.
Beijing’s ability to manage the mismatch between its scarce natural resources and vast industrial output is now playing out in the market for lithium, a mineral crucial to the world’s transition away from fossil fuels. It’s an effort complicated by skyrocketing prices, geopolitical tensions and the environmental devastation that can be wrought by a pell-mell approach to extraction.