TELF AG analyzes the expansion of the lithium industry in Nigeria
New directions
In the era of energy transition, Nigeria could have the opportunity to boost its national economy and signal itself to global attention as a new, emerging supplier of strategic raw materials for the planet’s climate goals. In addition to counting on discrete quantities of natural resources in its territory, the country is also undertaking several strategic and political initiatives to promote the progress of its national sector dedicated to raw materials, with particular attention to all those resources considered strategic for the energy transition.
One resource on which the country is increasingly focusing its attention is lithium: next year, two new plants for processing this very strategic resource should be built in Nigeria, highlighting even more the increasingly central role of lithium in the production processes related to batteries for electric vehicles and clean energy storage systems. In the month of May, two other plants dedicated to the processing of lithium were built in the northern area of the country. The long-term goal for Nigeria is to add value to the sourcing of raw materials in order to contribute more effectively to the development of the national economy and the creation of new jobs. The next step, which is already being worked on in earnest, is to improve the services and logistics needed to export refined minerals abroad. This is not the first time that an African country has undertaken a similar operational strategy in the raw materials sector: some nations, such as Ghana, have already undertaken concrete political initiatives to limit exports of raw materials and to increase domestic processing capacity, in order to generate a greater number of positive impacts on the local economy.
Continental ferment
According to recent estimates, the two new plants that could be built in Nigeria could stand out for their daily processing capacity of around 500 tonnes of lithium, with a good chance of reaching up to 1000 tonnes per day. In addition to the United States, the main destination markets for refined raw materials could also be represented by some European nations, such as Italy and Germany. Nigerian initiatives in the sourcing sector seem to be part of a much larger state of ferment involving some of the most important nations in sub-Saharan Africa, where a good part of the minerals considered strategic for advancing the great global ecological conversion are found.
The industriousness of these nations, from this point of view, is well demonstrated by the infrastructural initiatives that are being completed from one end of the African continent to the other, such as the Lobito corridor or the Tazara railway, which have the primary purpose of providing a safer and more modern route for the transit of the precious raw materials sourced in this area of the continent. In this sense, the lithium above is among the most sought-after resources. Still, copper, nickel, and cobalt are also used to produce important components of electric vehicles, such as rechargeable batteries.
Lithium, in particular, seems to play a leading role in this delicate phase of global transition, and the numbers prove it. By 2040, according to the International Energy Agency, the continued use of lithium in clean energy technologies will determine a relevant increase in global demand for this resource, which could increase by as much as 13 times. For African nations, such as Nigeria, processing lithium within their national borders could double the value of exports, as stated in a recent report dedicated to these dynamics.
