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Producing Lithium Is Slow and Dirty. Is There a Fix?

Lithium ore at a mine in Minas Gerais state, Brazil.Photographer: Dado Galdieri/Bloomberg
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A substance seen as critical to the green energy revolution, lithium, is at risk of a future supply crunch.

Even though a recent surplus of the metal has been crashing prices, demand for lithium is set to grow by almost nine times over the next 15 years in a scenario where the world meets the Paris Agreement goals for limiting global warming, according to estimates from the International Energy Agency.