The Mongolian government has granted ION Energy one of the largest exploration licenses in the country for the company’s Baavhai-Uul project in the Sukhbaatar province. The 81,758-hectare asset contains high-grade near-surface lithium brines of up to 810ppm with low potassium and magnesium ratios, which makes for better crystallization of the lithium hydroxide. ION Energy is the first company to be granted a license for this asset, which has never been mined previously. Previous exploration work has been conducted on the project by the Technical University of Mongolia and the Mongolian government.

The global lithium market was worth US$2.86 billion in 2017 and is projected to grow to US$5.88 billion by the end of 2025, according to data by Adroit Market Research. Lithium’s growth is being driven by demand from the green energy and electric vehicle markets. Rising concern over global carbon emissions is leading to the rising adoption of renewable energy generation technologies including electric vehicles and large-scale energy storage technologies, all of which require massive amounts of battery metals like lithium, cobalt and nickel.

The International Energy Agency projects the number of electric vehicles on the road to reach 125 million by 2030, with each one containing a large lithium-ion battery. Battery-producing megafactories, including Tesla’s famous giga-factories, are being built around the world, with 91 such facilities expected to be operational by 2028. Governments around the world, including the United States and Chinese governments, are working to secure supplies of battery metals to prepare for a green energy future.