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The lithium industry today
Eatw Vd. 3. pp. 237-24 @P~aPmrW.,1!378.
PrimediGmtBrimi~~
THE LITHIUMINDUSTRYTODAY E. P.
COMERt
Chemicals and Minerals Division. Foote Mineral Company.
(Recciutd 11 Norm&r
Route 100. Exton. PA 19341. U.S.A.
B77,
Abstract-The element lithium was discovered in 1817 by the Swedish geologist. Arfvcdson. The first commercial production of lithium metal was in 1925 in Langckheim. Germany by the German company. MctallprllschPft. Shortly thereafter. Maywood Chemical Company in New Jersey became a producer. followed by Foote Mineral Company. Kerr-McGee and Lithium Corporation of America. Early uses of lithium were for lithium hydroxide for CO? absorption in submarines and for lithium-based lubricants beginning during World War Il. Major uses of lithium today arc lithium carbonate for ahrminum cell bath additions. lithium hydroxide for lubricants. litbium carbonate for ceramic and glass rppiications. lithium bromide for absorption type air conditioners. butyRiiium for synthetic rubbers. lithium metal as an intermediate in the pharmaceutical industry. Many other low vohrme lithium chemicak arc consumed in specialty areas. Total consumption in 1976.was between 40 and 45 miffion pounds expressed as lithiim carbonate quivrknts: some increase over this is forecast for 1977. More than ndquate reserves exist for present and forecasted demands and the industry has demonstrated its Rexibility in npidfy incr&i production capacity as increased demand warrants. Earlier experimce between t9SS and 1960. when the U.S. Governmcut created extraordinary demand. resulted in the industry gearing up for this in a timely fashion. but was foflowcd by fourteen years of overcapacity. Industry spokesmen decried thii and wkh to avoid a repeat by unwarranted claims by the uninformed that tlmrc is a shortqc of lithium reserves.
I. HISTORY
lithium, the lightest metal in its elemental form, was discovered in 1817 by a Swedish geologist, Arfvedson, but was actually first isolated in 1855. The first commercial production was by McMgesekhaft in Langelsheim, Germany about 1925 and soon thereafter by Maywood Chemical Company in New Jersey about 1927. Foote Mineral Company began commercial production in the late 1930s. Kerr-McGee and Lithium Corporation of America during World War II. The first significant use was for lithium hydroxide monohydrate for CO2 absorption in submarines and for lithium based lubricants beginning during World War II. Ceramic applications followed and then a major use between 1955 and 1960 by the U.S. Government and the Russian Government for the production of hydrogen bombs. About the same time, in the late 1950s and beginning in the early l%Os, lithium bromide in the airconditioning industry and normal-butyllithium in the synthetic rubber industry. The history of the commercial development of lithium has been a fascinating unfolding of somewhat serendipitous events marked with somewhat erratic surges in new uses and demands for increased quanjities. Wh~k the total commercial market for lithium products in all forms is still a small industry, the versatility of this unique element continues to stimulate man’s creative interests and probably the most fascinating applications for lithium still lie in the future, rather than in the past.
The
element
2. WORLD
PRODUCERS
AND
CONVERTERS
There are relatively few active producers of lithium chemicals in the world today. Foote Mineral Company, a subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation, operates two facilities recdvering lithium values from the earth’s crust, i.e. Kings Mountain, North Carolina where an open pit mine containing spodumene ore is the headfeed for a spodumene concentrating plant via flotation and results in several grades of spodumene concentrates being sold per se, i.e. chemical grade, ceramic grade and low iron spodumene, as well as the use of chemical grade spodumene feeding a new lithium carbonate plant which was compkted in late 1976 and engaged in startup in 1977. This lithium carbonate plant, costing approximately $22 million, has a rated capacity of 12 million pounds per year of lithium carbonate and represents a 20% increase in the free world’s supply of lithium. Foote Mineral Company also operates a large tVicc
President and General Manager Member of RoanI of Directors. 237
238
E. P.
COMER
and solar evaporation operation in Clayton Valley, Nevada where production has in recent years reached the 16 million pound per year level. The actual plant for producing the final lithium carbonate has a capacity of some 24 million pounds per year, depending upon the headfeed supply being expanded from the well and pond system there. Foote Mineral Company has also announced a joint venture in Chile at the Salar de Atacama and exploration work, as well as a feasibility study and preliminary engineering work, are progressing at the present time, which may result in the decision sometime in 1978 to build a lithium carbonate plant at that location. The size of that plant has not yet been finalized, but is tentatively I2 million pounds per year as L&CO,. Foote operates at other locations to convert L&CO3 to the full line of downstream commercial lithium products. Lithium Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Gulf Resources & Chemical Corporation. has a large open pit mine near Bessemer City, North Carolina where it mines its spodumene ore as headfeed for a spodumene concentrate flotation mill.which. in turn. is used for headfeed to manufacture an announced 27 million pounds of lithium carbonate per year. The Lithium Corporation of America, at its centralized Bessemer City, North Carolina operation also manufactures the full line of downstream lithium chemicals, lithium metal and other more exotic and less commercially known lithium chemicals. The Lithium Corporation of America has announced a 50% increase in their productive capacity to be accomplished during the next two years. Kerr-McGee Corporation, operating at Searles Lake, California produces modest quantities of lithium carbonate as a by-product from its potash operation there. Soviet Russia also has production capabilities to make lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate from a spodumene deposit in the Ural Mountains. While the exact size of this production facility has never been officially announced by the Russian Government. informed sources indicate that it is somewhere between 8 and 15 million pounds of lithium carbonate equivalents per year. Metallgesellschaft of West Germany have a full line lithium chemical facility located in Langelsheim, West Germany and, as I indicated earlier, this was the first commercial producing location of lithium metal. In Japan, Honjo Zinc Company has conversion facilities whereby they can make some downstream lithium chemicals from lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide, which are imported to Japan from either the United States or Russia. In 1976, we believe that free world purchases represented a total of about 40-45 million pounds of lithium carbonate equivalents. 1!377we believe, will probably result in some increase in free world purchases over the 1976 number but, since the year is not over, we have no precise numbers to offer at present. well
3. MARKETS
FOR LlTHlUM
METAL
AND LITHIUM
COMPOUNDS
largest single use for lithium carbonate is in the aluminum industry, where it increases production, lowers costs and reduces fluoride emissions. This application for lithium carbonate, which becomes lithium fluoride in situ in the cryolite bath. was first pointed out by Mr. Hall in 1886 in his first patent for the “Hall Process” for making aluminum metal. It was not until much later, i.e. sometime in the early 1960s. that renewed interest in this application was sparked by some new patents by Kaiser Industries. It was not until the early 1970s that any significant consumption of lithium carbonate was actually begun by the aluminum industry. At the present time, we believe that approximately 25-30% of all aluminum manufactured in the United States utilizes the addition of lithium carbonate to the potlines. It is this area that we have the highest optimism for continued growth in the use of lithium carbonate. Lithium carbonate and lithium ores are also used extensiveiy in the glass and ceramic industries. Use of lithium ores and lithium carbonate in the ceramic industry is probably the second largest consumer of lithium at the present time. Ores are used in products such as Comingware, black and white television tubes, and in rigid foam fibreglass insulation. Lithium carbonate is used in the ceramic industry for producing porcelain enamel frits, photochromic lenses and cooking countertops. Foote Mineral Company is the only commercial supplier in the U.S. producing various grades of spodumene consumed by the ceramic industry. Significant quantities of petalite were consumed in the U.S. prior to the U.N. sanctions against Rhodesia, and, following sanctions against petalite from Rhodesia, Foote Mineral Company developed a patented process commonly referred to as “the Low Iron Spodumene Process*’ for decreasing the iron content in spodumene to a level of about 0.12 Fe203. The
The lithium induw\ today
239
Lithium hydroxide monohydrate is the third largest application for lithium and the second largest application for any lithium chemical. Its primary use is in the production of multipurpose greases. The lithium based greases have the advantage of wider temperature range applications without changing the grease viscosity and also they are more water resistant than other greases now made. The penetration of lithium hydroxide in the grease industry in the United States and most other industrialized countries. is somewhere around 55% of all greases manufactured. A minor use of lithium hydroxide is also in certain zinc-based paints utilized for such purposes as bridges and high corrosion prone ship holds. There is a very minor quantity of lithium hydroxide consumed as CO2 absorbent in submarines and manned space vehicles. Lithium organics. such as normal-butyllithium and secondary-butyllithium. are used in the production of certain synthetic rubbers, This application first began in the United States about l%l. showed some encouraging growth for about a decade. slowed down and has experienced some recovery in 1977 over the recession experienced in 1975. Lithium bromide is a heat exchange fluid in absorption type airconditioners and has had a somewhat spotty history. This type of absorption airconditioner was first developed in the mid and late 1950~ experienced good growth in the MOs, and seems to have plateaued in recent years due to the shift in the cost of energy and in the slow rate of construction of shopping centers. high-rise apartments and large office buildings. Lithium chloride, both as a brine and as a salt, has very minor applications in one or two very special types of humidity control devices for surgical operating rooms and ship holds. In anhydrous form, it has a relatively minor application in certain eutectics used in aluminum honeycomb brazing. Lithium metal again has had a fairly flat application in certain pharmaceutical applications as an intermediate. The most talked about and highly publicized applications for lithium and lithium metal are of course, in the infant lithium battery industry, which has shown some important potential and some important scientiftc breakthroughs in the past five to seven years but, in terms of actual quantity consumed, remain quite minor in the overall lithium marketing picture worldwide as of this date. I will not dwell any further on the lithium battery and its potential. both for primary and secondary batteries, since I know other speakers on the program will cover this material in far more detail than is appropriate for my paper. 4. LITHIUM
RESERVES
Detail about the known lithium reserves and lithium resources in the crust of the earth are discussed elsewhere. It is my belief that the delineated Ethium resources available at present day economically recoverable parameters are more than adequate to meet the real and realistically to-be-anticipated requirements for lithium for many. many decades to come. 5. CLOSING
COMMENTS
The marketing situation in the lithium industry today has been described in the preceding sections. Compared to many other industries, there are actually very few lithium compounds that are sold in suficient quantity to be regarded as commercial products. Their applications are rather limited numerically and, except for the possible opportunity for growth in the aluminum industry, do not appear to have an unusually high growth rate anticipation in most other applications. Unless, indeed, it does come to pass with the development of lithium batteries or ultimately, some decades hence. controlled thermonuclear fusion reactors for the generation of electricity. One of the most disturbing things that has happened to those of us who have spent most of our working careers in the lithium industry has been the unfortunate news stories which have indicated that widespread use of lithium batteries for vehicular propulsion are just around the corner and that that use, coupled with unrealistic growth projections for present lithium based products, plus the possibility of there eventualiy being a successful utilization for lithium in thermonuclear reactors, has caused some people to believe that lithium resources are inadequate to meet all these demands. In the first place, many of the people who have made wild projections, or at least projections that I believe to be wild, irresponsible and very blue sky, have often been unaware of the actual lithium reserves and resources known when they made ECY Vol. 3 No LB
240
E. P. COMER
such public statements. In other cases, there have been individuals who, to perpetuate their own special interests and self-interest, have made public announcements on several occasions that have been publicized around the world that vast shortages of lithium resources exist and. therefore, it is imperative that massive new programs be instituted for the exploration and delineation of new sources of lithium. I feel that this has done a great disservice to the lithium producers, who have struggled valiantly and long and quite successfully in this field for thirty or forty years to try and build a reliable and responsible industry and who- have expended their own private funds for the exploration and development of lithium at a rate that has more than kept pace with any demand that has as yet been placed upon the industry. The most notable jump in the demand for lithium occurred between 1955and 1960.when the United States Atomic Energy Commission had enormous sudden requirements for lithium hydroxide as a source for the isotope 6 for use in the hydrogen bomb program. Within less than two years from the time this huge nonrecurring demand was made known, the lithium industry responded, built plants and indeed supplied the quantity required to the Federal Government within the allocated five-year time period. At the end of this program in late 1959. the lithium industry was left with 500% overcapacity in its mining, concentrating and lithium hydroxide producing facilities. While this may not have been of much concern to the Atomic Energy Commission or other government agencies, it was an agonizing concern to those of us who were day-today participants in this industry and trying to keep it alive during such oversupply conditions. The lithium industry went through a period of thirteen years in which profits fell to a nonexistent or minimum survival level and a number of producing companies and plants actually did not survive during this period of vast overcapacity. It is, therefore, with special concern and real remembered pain and agony that I wish to state that I believe that those individuals who continue to express unrealistic concern about thesupply of lithium resources and the ability of the lithium industry to convert these resources into usable forms of lithium, should behave more responsibly. As I said eighteen months ago at the first Lithium Symposium in Golden, Colorado to those who expressed this concern about the unavailability of lithium, I am prepared at this meeting or any time to take your orders for lithium ores, lithium chemicals or lithium metal in whatever form you wish to have it.
PrimediGmtBrimi~~
THE LITHIUMINDUSTRYTODAY E. P.
COMERt
Chemicals and Minerals Division. Foote Mineral Company.
(Recciutd 11 Norm&r
Route 100. Exton. PA 19341. U.S.A.
B77,
Abstract-The element lithium was discovered in 1817 by the Swedish geologist. Arfvcdson. The first commercial production of lithium metal was in 1925 in Langckheim. Germany by the German company. MctallprllschPft. Shortly thereafter. Maywood Chemical Company in New Jersey became a producer. followed by Foote Mineral Company. Kerr-McGee and Lithium Corporation of America. Early uses of lithium were for lithium hydroxide for CO? absorption in submarines and for lithium-based lubricants beginning during World War Il. Major uses of lithium today arc lithium carbonate for ahrminum cell bath additions. lithium hydroxide for lubricants. litbium carbonate for ceramic and glass rppiications. lithium bromide for absorption type air conditioners. butyRiiium for synthetic rubbers. lithium metal as an intermediate in the pharmaceutical industry. Many other low vohrme lithium chemicak arc consumed in specialty areas. Total consumption in 1976.was between 40 and 45 miffion pounds expressed as lithiim carbonate quivrknts: some increase over this is forecast for 1977. More than ndquate reserves exist for present and forecasted demands and the industry has demonstrated its Rexibility in npidfy incr&i production capacity as increased demand warrants. Earlier experimce between t9SS and 1960. when the U.S. Governmcut created extraordinary demand. resulted in the industry gearing up for this in a timely fashion. but was foflowcd by fourteen years of overcapacity. Industry spokesmen decried thii and wkh to avoid a repeat by unwarranted claims by the uninformed that tlmrc is a shortqc of lithium reserves.
I. HISTORY
lithium, the lightest metal in its elemental form, was discovered in 1817 by a Swedish geologist, Arfvedson, but was actually first isolated in 1855. The first commercial production was by McMgesekhaft in Langelsheim, Germany about 1925 and soon thereafter by Maywood Chemical Company in New Jersey about 1927. Foote Mineral Company began commercial production in the late 1930s. Kerr-McGee and Lithium Corporation of America during World War II. The first significant use was for lithium hydroxide monohydrate for CO2 absorption in submarines and for lithium based lubricants beginning during World War II. Ceramic applications followed and then a major use between 1955 and 1960 by the U.S. Government and the Russian Government for the production of hydrogen bombs. About the same time, in the late 1950s and beginning in the early l%Os, lithium bromide in the airconditioning industry and normal-butyllithium in the synthetic rubber industry. The history of the commercial development of lithium has been a fascinating unfolding of somewhat serendipitous events marked with somewhat erratic surges in new uses and demands for increased quanjities. Wh~k the total commercial market for lithium products in all forms is still a small industry, the versatility of this unique element continues to stimulate man’s creative interests and probably the most fascinating applications for lithium still lie in the future, rather than in the past.
The
element
2. WORLD
PRODUCERS
AND
CONVERTERS
There are relatively few active producers of lithium chemicals in the world today. Foote Mineral Company, a subsidiary of Newmont Mining Corporation, operates two facilities recdvering lithium values from the earth’s crust, i.e. Kings Mountain, North Carolina where an open pit mine containing spodumene ore is the headfeed for a spodumene concentrating plant via flotation and results in several grades of spodumene concentrates being sold per se, i.e. chemical grade, ceramic grade and low iron spodumene, as well as the use of chemical grade spodumene feeding a new lithium carbonate plant which was compkted in late 1976 and engaged in startup in 1977. This lithium carbonate plant, costing approximately $22 million, has a rated capacity of 12 million pounds per year of lithium carbonate and represents a 20% increase in the free world’s supply of lithium. Foote Mineral Company also operates a large tVicc
President and General Manager Member of RoanI of Directors. 237
238
E. P.
COMER
and solar evaporation operation in Clayton Valley, Nevada where production has in recent years reached the 16 million pound per year level. The actual plant for producing the final lithium carbonate has a capacity of some 24 million pounds per year, depending upon the headfeed supply being expanded from the well and pond system there. Foote Mineral Company has also announced a joint venture in Chile at the Salar de Atacama and exploration work, as well as a feasibility study and preliminary engineering work, are progressing at the present time, which may result in the decision sometime in 1978 to build a lithium carbonate plant at that location. The size of that plant has not yet been finalized, but is tentatively I2 million pounds per year as L&CO,. Foote operates at other locations to convert L&CO3 to the full line of downstream commercial lithium products. Lithium Corporation of America, a subsidiary of Gulf Resources & Chemical Corporation. has a large open pit mine near Bessemer City, North Carolina where it mines its spodumene ore as headfeed for a spodumene concentrate flotation mill.which. in turn. is used for headfeed to manufacture an announced 27 million pounds of lithium carbonate per year. The Lithium Corporation of America, at its centralized Bessemer City, North Carolina operation also manufactures the full line of downstream lithium chemicals, lithium metal and other more exotic and less commercially known lithium chemicals. The Lithium Corporation of America has announced a 50% increase in their productive capacity to be accomplished during the next two years. Kerr-McGee Corporation, operating at Searles Lake, California produces modest quantities of lithium carbonate as a by-product from its potash operation there. Soviet Russia also has production capabilities to make lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate from a spodumene deposit in the Ural Mountains. While the exact size of this production facility has never been officially announced by the Russian Government. informed sources indicate that it is somewhere between 8 and 15 million pounds of lithium carbonate equivalents per year. Metallgesellschaft of West Germany have a full line lithium chemical facility located in Langelsheim, West Germany and, as I indicated earlier, this was the first commercial producing location of lithium metal. In Japan, Honjo Zinc Company has conversion facilities whereby they can make some downstream lithium chemicals from lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide, which are imported to Japan from either the United States or Russia. In 1976, we believe that free world purchases represented a total of about 40-45 million pounds of lithium carbonate equivalents. 1!377we believe, will probably result in some increase in free world purchases over the 1976 number but, since the year is not over, we have no precise numbers to offer at present. well
3. MARKETS
FOR LlTHlUM
METAL
AND LITHIUM
COMPOUNDS
largest single use for lithium carbonate is in the aluminum industry, where it increases production, lowers costs and reduces fluoride emissions. This application for lithium carbonate, which becomes lithium fluoride in situ in the cryolite bath. was first pointed out by Mr. Hall in 1886 in his first patent for the “Hall Process” for making aluminum metal. It was not until much later, i.e. sometime in the early 1960s. that renewed interest in this application was sparked by some new patents by Kaiser Industries. It was not until the early 1970s that any significant consumption of lithium carbonate was actually begun by the aluminum industry. At the present time, we believe that approximately 25-30% of all aluminum manufactured in the United States utilizes the addition of lithium carbonate to the potlines. It is this area that we have the highest optimism for continued growth in the use of lithium carbonate. Lithium carbonate and lithium ores are also used extensiveiy in the glass and ceramic industries. Use of lithium ores and lithium carbonate in the ceramic industry is probably the second largest consumer of lithium at the present time. Ores are used in products such as Comingware, black and white television tubes, and in rigid foam fibreglass insulation. Lithium carbonate is used in the ceramic industry for producing porcelain enamel frits, photochromic lenses and cooking countertops. Foote Mineral Company is the only commercial supplier in the U.S. producing various grades of spodumene consumed by the ceramic industry. Significant quantities of petalite were consumed in the U.S. prior to the U.N. sanctions against Rhodesia, and, following sanctions against petalite from Rhodesia, Foote Mineral Company developed a patented process commonly referred to as “the Low Iron Spodumene Process*’ for decreasing the iron content in spodumene to a level of about 0.12 Fe203. The
The lithium induw\ today
239
Lithium hydroxide monohydrate is the third largest application for lithium and the second largest application for any lithium chemical. Its primary use is in the production of multipurpose greases. The lithium based greases have the advantage of wider temperature range applications without changing the grease viscosity and also they are more water resistant than other greases now made. The penetration of lithium hydroxide in the grease industry in the United States and most other industrialized countries. is somewhere around 55% of all greases manufactured. A minor use of lithium hydroxide is also in certain zinc-based paints utilized for such purposes as bridges and high corrosion prone ship holds. There is a very minor quantity of lithium hydroxide consumed as CO2 absorbent in submarines and manned space vehicles. Lithium organics. such as normal-butyllithium and secondary-butyllithium. are used in the production of certain synthetic rubbers, This application first began in the United States about l%l. showed some encouraging growth for about a decade. slowed down and has experienced some recovery in 1977 over the recession experienced in 1975. Lithium bromide is a heat exchange fluid in absorption type airconditioners and has had a somewhat spotty history. This type of absorption airconditioner was first developed in the mid and late 1950~ experienced good growth in the MOs, and seems to have plateaued in recent years due to the shift in the cost of energy and in the slow rate of construction of shopping centers. high-rise apartments and large office buildings. Lithium chloride, both as a brine and as a salt, has very minor applications in one or two very special types of humidity control devices for surgical operating rooms and ship holds. In anhydrous form, it has a relatively minor application in certain eutectics used in aluminum honeycomb brazing. Lithium metal again has had a fairly flat application in certain pharmaceutical applications as an intermediate. The most talked about and highly publicized applications for lithium and lithium metal are of course, in the infant lithium battery industry, which has shown some important potential and some important scientiftc breakthroughs in the past five to seven years but, in terms of actual quantity consumed, remain quite minor in the overall lithium marketing picture worldwide as of this date. I will not dwell any further on the lithium battery and its potential. both for primary and secondary batteries, since I know other speakers on the program will cover this material in far more detail than is appropriate for my paper. 4. LITHIUM
RESERVES
Detail about the known lithium reserves and lithium resources in the crust of the earth are discussed elsewhere. It is my belief that the delineated Ethium resources available at present day economically recoverable parameters are more than adequate to meet the real and realistically to-be-anticipated requirements for lithium for many. many decades to come. 5. CLOSING
COMMENTS
The marketing situation in the lithium industry today has been described in the preceding sections. Compared to many other industries, there are actually very few lithium compounds that are sold in suficient quantity to be regarded as commercial products. Their applications are rather limited numerically and, except for the possible opportunity for growth in the aluminum industry, do not appear to have an unusually high growth rate anticipation in most other applications. Unless, indeed, it does come to pass with the development of lithium batteries or ultimately, some decades hence. controlled thermonuclear fusion reactors for the generation of electricity. One of the most disturbing things that has happened to those of us who have spent most of our working careers in the lithium industry has been the unfortunate news stories which have indicated that widespread use of lithium batteries for vehicular propulsion are just around the corner and that that use, coupled with unrealistic growth projections for present lithium based products, plus the possibility of there eventualiy being a successful utilization for lithium in thermonuclear reactors, has caused some people to believe that lithium resources are inadequate to meet all these demands. In the first place, many of the people who have made wild projections, or at least projections that I believe to be wild, irresponsible and very blue sky, have often been unaware of the actual lithium reserves and resources known when they made ECY Vol. 3 No LB
240
E. P. COMER
such public statements. In other cases, there have been individuals who, to perpetuate their own special interests and self-interest, have made public announcements on several occasions that have been publicized around the world that vast shortages of lithium resources exist and. therefore, it is imperative that massive new programs be instituted for the exploration and delineation of new sources of lithium. I feel that this has done a great disservice to the lithium producers, who have struggled valiantly and long and quite successfully in this field for thirty or forty years to try and build a reliable and responsible industry and who- have expended their own private funds for the exploration and development of lithium at a rate that has more than kept pace with any demand that has as yet been placed upon the industry. The most notable jump in the demand for lithium occurred between 1955and 1960.when the United States Atomic Energy Commission had enormous sudden requirements for lithium hydroxide as a source for the isotope 6 for use in the hydrogen bomb program. Within less than two years from the time this huge nonrecurring demand was made known, the lithium industry responded, built plants and indeed supplied the quantity required to the Federal Government within the allocated five-year time period. At the end of this program in late 1959. the lithium industry was left with 500% overcapacity in its mining, concentrating and lithium hydroxide producing facilities. While this may not have been of much concern to the Atomic Energy Commission or other government agencies, it was an agonizing concern to those of us who were day-today participants in this industry and trying to keep it alive during such oversupply conditions. The lithium industry went through a period of thirteen years in which profits fell to a nonexistent or minimum survival level and a number of producing companies and plants actually did not survive during this period of vast overcapacity. It is, therefore, with special concern and real remembered pain and agony that I wish to state that I believe that those individuals who continue to express unrealistic concern about thesupply of lithium resources and the ability of the lithium industry to convert these resources into usable forms of lithium, should behave more responsibly. As I said eighteen months ago at the first Lithium Symposium in Golden, Colorado to those who expressed this concern about the unavailability of lithium, I am prepared at this meeting or any time to take your orders for lithium ores, lithium chemicals or lithium metal in whatever form you wish to have it.