China has been consolidating its control over global lithium supplies for years now. As the lithium-ion battery sector continues to grow at a massive pace, the extreme concentration of lithium supply chains gives China a major economic and geopolitical advantage. It also creates worrying vulnerabilities for the rest of the world that has come to rely on imports of the \u2018white gold\u2019 to keep their tech and energy sectors running.<\/p>\n
Half<\/a> of the global lithium market is controlled by China alone. \u201cFor over a decade, China has meticulously orchestrated a strategic ascent in the global electric vehicle (EV) batteries market, culminating in a dominance that now presents a formidable challenge to Western manufacturers,\u201d the EE Times reported<\/a> last year. This dominance functions\u00a0 as \u201calmost a moat\u201d around battery production in China, protecting the sector from any external competition.<\/p>\n Lithium-ion batteries have become omnipresent, powering everything from your smartwatch and your phone to electric vehicles and grid-scale energy storage. As oil and gas prices skyrocket against the backdrop of the Strait of Hormuz closure, the EV and energy sectors are poised for takeoff \u2013 making competition for lithium, and the resultant benefits for China<\/a>, even more pronounced. But even before the current energy crisis breathed new life into the global clean energy transition, 2026 was already shaping up to be a \u2018hot year for lithium<\/a>.\u2019\u00a0<\/p>\n Incentive has never been higher for other nations around the world to step up their own lithium production and processing efforts. And this year, Canada may have made a major step toward breaking up China\u2019s near-monopoly on lithium-ion battery production, thereby helping to relieve a \u201cmajor choke point\u201d in the EV supply chain. Mangrove Lithium, a lithium refining platform in Delta, British Columbia, just opened North America\u2019s first-ever commercial-scale electrochemical lithium refining facility.\u00a0<\/p>\n Set OilPrice.com as a preferred source in Google here<\/a>.<\/p>\n The venture capital-backed company says that it will be able to produce 1,000 tonnes of refined battery-grade lithium per year, or about enough to support 25,000 electric vehicles. The venture reportedly<\/a> uses a cutting-edge electrochemical technology that allows for more economical, flexible, and sustainable lithium refining as compared to traditional methods.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a landmark moment not just for Mangrove, but for Canada,\u201d Dr. Saad Dara, CEO and Founder of Mangrove Lithium, was recently quoted by Interesting Engineering. \u201cBy commissioning the first commercial electrochemical lithium refinery in North America, we are proving that lithium can be refined domestically, sustainably, and competitively.\u201d<\/p>\n The Delta plant is just the beginning for Mangrove, which has grand plans of creating an entire homeshored mine-to-cathode lithium supply chain. The company plans to develop a larger facility in Eastern Canada capable of producing enough material to support 500,000 EVs annually through the refining of lithium and the processing of spodumene, a raw source of lithium. These primary materials would also be sourced from Canadian mines.<\/p>\n Mangrove\u2019s projects have the full support of the Canadian government, which sees these developments as critical to the country\u2019s own energy security and independence goals. Canada\u2019s national and energy security priorities have become heightened<\/a> under the shadow of the Trump administration, and were a central platform for current Prime Minister Mark Carney.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cCanada is leveraging our critical mineral resources \u2014 including our lithium \u2014 to unlock supply chain security, job creation and clean energy innovation,\u201d said Tim Hodgson, Canadian Minister of Energy and Natural Resources. \u201cMangrove Lithium\u2019s new headquarters will house North America\u2019s first commercial electrochemical lithium refining facility \u2014 exactly the type of cutting-edge, sovereign Canadian project we need. By supporting projects like these, our new government is advancing Canada\u2019s low-carbon potential, creating new careers, strengthening our security and creating reliable Canadian jobs in an uncertain time.\u201d<\/p>\n While domestic lithium production and extraction will be hugely beneficial for energy independence and resilience, it does come with some significant downsides. Lithium extraction tends to be extremely environmentally costly, posing major risks for local communities and water resources. Of course, homeshoring these processes instead of outsourcing them to poorer countries is not necessarily a bad thing \u2013 in fact, it\u2019s ethically a far sounder approach. But questions remain<\/a> about which communities will host these extraction sites, and under what protections.<\/p>\n By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com<\/a><\/p>\n