Common assumptions that state that demand for battery metals will continue to increase for the foreseeable future, as they are essential for high-performance lithium-ion batteries, may be misleading, a new report by CSIRO states.
According to Australia’s national science agency, unsophisticated models based on current supply levels and basic recycling rates are promoting many mischaracterizations of the real opportunities in both metal mining and recycling.
In the view of experts at CSIRO, such models ignore the dynamics of materials flows on a global scale and the expected changes in underlying technologies. “Metal flows are complicated and dynamic,” the report reads. “Metals can be locked-up for decades in durable consumer goods. Product life spans differ. Uptake rates of technologies vary under different policy settings.
Technologies such as EV batteries may enter second-life applications like home or grid energy storage. All of these factors interact to create the aggregate demand picture.
For the rest of this article: https://www.mining.com/researchers-push-for-more-accurate-battery-metals-demand-forecasts/