Track: Undergraduate Student Paper Competition

Abstract

Lithium is a lightweight, ductile alkali metal used in a wide variety of applications, ranging from batteries, cell phones, ceramics, glass, and lubricants, to pharmaceutical uses such as medications for patients with bipolar disorder. This metal allows for the storage of high densities of electrical charge in small spaces. However, the extraction of lithium has raised concerns among communities surrounding mining areas, due to the environmental and social impact that these mining projects may cause, such as the impact on groundwater levels in wells, land destruction, displacement of nearby communities, and the impact on artisanal miners, among others.This study aims to develop a dynamic model that allows measuring the socioeconomic and environmental impact that lithium mining projects could cause in producer territories, as well as predicting the behavior of the lithium industry through machine learning algorithms. As a result of the research, a dynamic model with five level variables is proposed, which were found through an exhaustive literature review of relevant articles and databases from mining and government companies of producing countries. These variables were considered relevant thanks to correlational analyses that confirm their relationship, as well as their presence in the analyzed literature. The model resulting from this study is able to be replicated with different data, which has allowed us to confirm the impact of lithium mining on the increase in CO2 emissions, as well as the contamination of fertile lands in the space where it is extracted. This, combined with the notable growth in global demand for lithium rooted in the production of electric cars and related applications, means that the practice of lithium mining lacks sustainability. Therefore, it is concluded that it is of great importance to generate policies and restrictive factors around this practice, such as massive recycling of lithium-ion batteries, large-scale tree planting by mining entities, and possible limitations on production itself in search of making lithium production a sustainable industry.