Development and utilization of lithium mines in Australia and its enlightenments to China

As an important strategic mineral, lithium resource has received much attention from various countries in recent years.Australia is the world’s largest supplier of lithium resources currently, attracting investment from lithium-related companies worldwide.By the end of 2019, there are eight lithium mines completed and under construction in Australia, all of which are pegmatite spodumene.The eight lithium mines have a total proven lithium resource of 1.01 billion tons (equivalent to LCE 35.391 6 million tons), proven lithium ore reserves of 0.59 billion tons (equivalent to LCE 21.158 2 million tons), and the current design capacity of the mines is 3.425 million tons of lithium concentrate per year.At present, the overall quality of lithium concentrates products produced in Australia’s existing mines is good, but the overall recovery rate of beneficiation is low, and the comprehensive utilization level is general.At present, Chinese enterprises have a certain amount of high-quality lithium resources in Australia, which can guarantee the domestic and global lithium market demand in the short and medium term.At the same time, based on the analysis of lithium resource and lithium ore reserves, mineral rights, production capacity, development and utilization level of lithium ore in Australia, this paper puts forward some thoughts and suggestions.