Currently, Russia does not mine lithium, and all the metal has to be brought in from other countries.
Denis Manturov, the Minister of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation, and Alexey Miller, the Chairman of the Board of PJSC Gazprom, signed an Agreement on Cooperation in the Lithium Industry in the VKS mode. At the same time, the Irkutsk Oil Company, Gazprom and the Ministry of Industry and Trade signed a tripartite action plan for the project to extract and process formation brines to produce lithium compounds.
The agreements put into action a project to extract and process formation brines (mineralized groundwater) from Gazprom's Kovykta field. The brines are needed to obtain lithium compounds and other valuable components. The parties also agreed to work together on research and development to create domestic technologies, equipment and materials needed for the project. The Agreement also involves preparing proposals for state support for scientific and industrial enterprises.
“Today’s event is an important, substantive step towards solving the ambitious task of fully providing the Russian industry with domestic rare and rare earth metals by 2030. This goal was set by the Government and fixed in the roadmap “Technologies of new materials and substances”. And in this context, the development of the lithium industry is a prerequisite. In Russia, lithium mining, despite a solid resource base, is not yet carried out. And this only adds to the significance of the project, which Gazprom and the Irkutsk Oil Company intend to implement. This will allow us to form a full-cycle lithium industry with good export potential. Our common task is to strictly comply with the obligations of all parties in order to ensure that the project implementation deadlines indicated in the roadmap are met,” Denis Manturov said.
Lithium, its compounds and alloys are crucial for the technological advancement of various industries such as automotive, aircraft manufacturing, metallurgy, power engineering, microelectronics, and chemistry. According to the minister, the Ministry of Industry and Trade of Russia will offer maximum assistance to the project participants to adjust the regulatory framework, provide tax preferences, and ensure stable demand for the planned production volume.
“According to experts, the demand for lithium will keep growing rapidly in the next few years. At the same time, Russia currently imports all the lithium it uses. That's why it's important to develop domestic technological competencies in this area. Gazprom is actively involved in creating a complete cycle of industries to replace imports for extracting and processing lithium. A feasibility study for such a project at the Kovykta field has already been conducted. It has a lot of potential and could largely satisfy domestic demand for lithium in the future,” said Alexey Miller.
Lithium is one of the most sought after rare metals in the world. At the moment, all lithium in the country has to be imported from abroad.
The underground waters of the Kovykta deposit contain large resources of natural lithium compounds. It is widely demanded in various industries, including the production of batteries for electronic equipment and electric vehicles.
“Since 2018, the Irkutsk Oil Company has been actively developing technologies for extracting lithium and other valuable components from brines, as well as conducting exploration work to search for deposits with these components. Kovykta deposit, in our opinion, is one of the most prepared and promising for the processing of lithium-containing associated water in Russia. Cooperation with Gazprom will create a new direction in the industry. We thank the Ministry of Industry and Trade for supporting the development of a new direction. We hope that, thanks to joint efforts, Eastern Siberia will become one of the centers of the lithium industry in Russia and the world,” said Nikolai Buinov, Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Irkutsk Oil Company.
The Kovykta field is the largest in the East of Russia. The license to use the subsoil of the field belongs to Gazprom. Recoverable gas reserves are 1.8 trillion cubic meters. The field is the base for the Irkutsk gas production center and the resource base for the Power of Siberia gas pipeline (along with the Chayandinskoye field in Yakutia).
In October 2021, as part of the St. Petersburg International Gas Forum, PJSC Gazprom and LLC Irkutsk Oil Company signed a Memorandum of Intent to implement a joint project for the extraction and processing of formation brines (mineralized groundwater) from Gazprom’s Kovykta field to produce lithium and other valuable components.
