{"id":25419,"date":"2024-05-24T11:09:26","date_gmt":"2024-05-24T05:39:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=25419"},"modified":"2026-01-05T15:46:55","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T10:16:55","slug":"lithium-upsc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/lithium-upsc\/","title":{"rendered":"Lithium"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>Lithium Latest News<\/h2>\n<p>A recent study published in Science Advances by Duke University has uncovered distinctive geochemical properties of lithium-rich brines found in salt pans (salars) in South America and Asia.<\/p>\n<h2>About Lithium<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Lithium<\/strong>\u00a0is a\u00a0<strong>lightweight, silvery-white alkali metal<\/strong>\u00a0with the\u00a0<strong>lowest density among metals<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It reacts vigorously with water and makes\u00a0<strong>alloys with aluminium and magnesium<\/strong>, enhancing\u00a0<strong>material strength<\/strong>\u00a0and reducing\u00a0<strong>weight<\/strong>\u2014ideal for\u00a0<strong>aerospace and battery technologies<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Lithium<\/strong>, also known as\u00a0<strong>\u201cwhite gold\u201d<\/strong>, is a\u00a0<strong>critical mineral<\/strong>\u00a0essential for the\u00a0<strong>renewable energy sector<\/strong>, especially in the production of\u00a0<strong>electric vehicle (EV) batteries<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>energy storage systems<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>Around\u00a0<strong>40% of global lithium supply<\/strong>\u00a0is derived from\u00a0<strong>evaporative brine mining<\/strong>\u00a0in\u00a0<strong>salt flats (salars)<\/strong>\u00a0of the\u00a0<strong>central Andes<\/strong>\u00a0(Chile, Argentina, Bolivia\u2014<strong>\u201cLithium Triangle\u201d<\/strong>) and the\u00a0<strong>Tibetan Plateau<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h3>Key Findings<\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li>The study focused on\u00a0<strong>Salar de Uyuni<\/strong>\u00a0in\u00a0<strong>Bolivia<\/strong>, the world\u2019s\u00a0<strong>largest lithium brine reserve<\/strong>, located in a\u00a0<strong>high-altitude arid region<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It was found that, unlike seawater, where\u00a0<strong>carbonate molecules<\/strong>\u00a0dominate pH regulation, the\u00a0<strong>pH of these brines is controlled almost entirely by boron compounds<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Boron<\/strong>, present in the form of\u00a0<strong>boric acid<\/strong>\u00a0and\u00a0<strong>borates<\/strong>, was found to\u00a0<strong>determine the pH and alkalinity<\/strong>\u00a0of natural brines.<\/li>\n<li>During brine evaporation in mining ponds:\n<ul>\n<li>The\u00a0<strong>concentration of boron increases<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Boric acid breaks down<\/strong>, releasing\u00a0<strong>hydrogen ions<\/strong>, which\u00a0<strong>lowers the pH<\/strong>\u00a0and makes the brine\u00a0<strong>highly acidic<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Lithium FAQs<\/h2>\n<p><strong>Q1:\u00a0<\/strong>What is Lithium?<br \/>\n<strong>Ans:<\/strong>\u00a0Lithium is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal used mainly in rechargeable batteries for electric vehicles and electronics.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Q2:\u00a0<\/strong>Why is Lithium called a critical mineral?<\/p>\n<p><strong>Ans:<\/strong>\u00a0It is termed a critical mineral due to its strategic importance, limited global supply, and growing demand in green energy technologies.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source:\u00a0<\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/phys.org\/news\/2025-05-unique-chemistry-critical-lithium-deposits.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">PHY<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Lithium, also known as \u201cwhite gold\u201d, is a critical mineral essential for the renewable energy sector, especially in the production of electric vehicle (EV) batteries and energy storage systems.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":47993,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[523,21,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-25419","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-lithium","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","11":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25419","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25419"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25419\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47993"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25419"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25419"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25419"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}