锂的用途及其资源开发

Uses of Lithium and Its Resource Exploitation

锂在原子能工业中具有十分独特的地位 ,被誉为“高能金属” ;它推动着能源工业 ,尤其是电池技术的发展 ,无愧于“能源金属”和“推动世界前进的金属”的称谓。随着技术的发展 ,世界锂业的传统格局和市场分布发生了较大的变革 ,盐湖提锂技术的进步打破了半个世纪以来锂资源的分布和供应格局 ,而澳大利亚、俄罗斯、加拿大和津巴布韦等硬岩型锂资源大国将失去其在世界锂资源和锂盐供应市场上的优势。智利、中国、阿根廷和玻利维亚等国将成为世界拥有锂资源大国。盐湖工业生产的锂产品适应于当今知识经济时代的需求 ,市场前景广阔。笔者介绍了金属锂的一些重要用途 ;分析了锂资源开发的现状 ;指出我国盐湖卤水提锂技术已取得了重大突破 ;透露了作为国家计委批准的西部高技术产业化示范工程项目有关信息 ,年产 30 0 0吨碳酸锂生产线 ,将于2 0 0 5年 6月正式投产。

Some important uses of lithium are introduced, and the present status of lithium resource exploitation is analyzed. Lithium plays a unique role in atomic energy industry, so called high energy metal, and it promotes the energy industry, especially the development of battery technology, and is worthy of the name: the power metal and the metal promoting the world forward. With the development of technology, the conventional status of the global lithium industries and the market distributions have greatly changed. The advanced technology of extracting lithium from salt lake brine has broken the equilibrium lasted for half a century in lithium resource distribution and production. Australia, Russia, Canada and Zimbabwe, as large countries of hard rock lithium ores, will gradually lost the predominant position in lithium resources and lithium compound supplies worldwide. Chile, China, Argentina and Bolivia will be the remaining large countries with lithium resources. Lithium products from the salt lake industries are appropriate for the demand of the present knowledge economic age, and have good market prospect. In China, great progress has been made in technology of lithium salt lake brine operation. As one of the Western High-tech Industrialization Demonstration Projects, a plant of yearly output of 3000 tons lithium carbonate will go into production in June, 2005.