olelog

One of the reasons that China is “interested” in Tibet is (most probably) Lithium. Chabyer salt lake, in the Tibet Autonomous Region, at an elevation of 4,400 m is the largest lithium mine in China. I have of course a few problems with the name as it is transcribed from either Tibetan (or should I say Tibeto-Burman) or one of the Chinese languages. Another way of spelling it is “Zabuye”. This has lent its name to the mineral Zabuyelite, with the formula Li₂CO₃. Zabuyelite was discovered in 1987 at Zabuye/Chabyer Salt lake. It forms colourless vitreous monoclinic crystals. Such is the solubility of Lithium carbonate that it is unlikely to occur naturally anywhere except in evaporites and arid conditions. Chabyer salt lake is also known as Chabyer Caka. Caka is just the Tibetan word for salt lake, and actually there are more salt lakes than fresh water lakes in Tibet.

Chabyer Caka is a large bittern-salt lake (the main compounds of the salt are Lithiumcarbonate and Borax) in the Gangdisi Mountains (or is it the Lunggar Mountains?) in the interior of the Tibetan Plateau. The lake consists of two sub-basins, a southern and a northern one, joined by a narrow channel. The lake has a total area of 243 km², a mean depth of 70 cm, and a maximum depth of less than 2 m. The salt content of the lake water is 360-410 g per litre. The basin originated through faulted structures. The underlying bedrock is Cretaceous-Eogene acidic igneous, mudstones and sandstones. A large area of playa is being exposed around the lake, and mirabilite (also known as Glauber's salt, a hydrous sodium sulfate mineral) is currently being deposited in the lake. The location of the calabash-shaped lake is 31° 20' N 84° 05' E, which I have tried to pin-point on my map of Tibet - 1050 km from Lhasa.

The lithium exploration began in 1982. By the end of 2004 it had reached a production capacity of 7500 tons of solid lithium carbonate per year. China may emerge as a significant producer of brine-source lithiumcarbonate around 2010. There is potential production of up to 55,000 tons per year if projects in Qinghai province and Tibet proceed.

The total amount of lithium recoverable from global reserves has been estimated at 35 million tonnes, which includes 15 million tons of the known global lithium reserve base.

Here follows an overview of lithium production from the U.S. Geological Survey, Mineral Commodity Summaries, January 2009.


Lithium salts are indeed found in evaporites and salt lakes. Subsurface brines have become the dominant raw material for lithium carbonate production worldwide because of lower production costs as compared with the mining and processing costs for hard-rock ores.

The market for lithium compounds with the largest potential for growth is batteries, especially rechargeable batteries. Non-rechargeable lithium batteries are used in calculators, cameras, computers, electronic games, watches, and other devices. Demand for rechargeable lithium batteries continues to grow for use in cordless tools, portable computers, mobile telephones, and video cameras. Future generations of electric vehicles may use lithium batteries (so-called lithium-ion batteries). Mitsubishi, which plans to release its own electric car soon, estimates that the demand for lithium will outstrip supply in less than 10 years unless new sources are found.

A misunderstanding seems to have crept into some of the articles. Chabyer Caka is certainly NOT one of the three largest salt lakes in the world. It may well be one of the three most important lithiumcarbonate-containing lakes ???.

• http://www.zabuye.com.cn/main.php?sLAN=en
  
• http://www.green-energy-news.com/arch/nrgs2008/20080024.html
  
• http://solveclimate.com/blog/20080415/tibet-land-lithium
  
• http://zabuye.en.alibaba.com/
  
• http://www.andhranews.net/Technology/2008/March/26-Tibet-lithium-producer-38867.asp
  
• http://my.opera.com/nielsol/blog/2009/02/10/lithium-bonanza