Mexico prepares the first International Lithium Research Center

Mexico is heading to be a pioneer in the investigation about him lithium. The mineral promise for the energy transition will have its first International Research Center promoted by the Hidalgo government.
The project already has a budget of 60 million pesos, between government and private.

It is in charge of Council of Science, Technology and Innovation of the State of Hidalgo and seeks to have its own laboratory, trained human capital and create lithium batteries.

Project

Francisco Patiño Cardona, director of the Council of Science, Technology and Innovation of Hidalgo and master of Sciences with a specialty in Metallurgyshared in an interview for EL DEBATE all the details of the project, although he warned that although progress is being made in resources and personnel, inertia still needs to be overcome, such as bureaucracy and the great unknown of how to free lithium from the clays and the you go out.

The specialist shared that until now there is no reliable information about the existence of lithium in Hidalgowhich is why they promote the project.

There are places that are salt flats that were created in past times, from a geological point of view, but it cannot be said that we have lithium. Normally we do have very alkaline areas, a very high alkalinity, basically calcium formations with a lot of calcium carbonate, a lot of lime, but that does not mean that we have lithium, he clarified.

Climate change

Given this panorama, he said that they decided to ask for the support of the governor of Hidalgo, Julio Menchaca Salazar, to dedicate important resources to establishing the first International Lithium Research Center and do things seriously.

I hope that in a medium time this International Center will coincide with its laboratories, and, at the same time, the human resources specialized in the issue of lithium to begin studying this wonderful metal that gives us hope to contribute to reducing the negative effect of climate change, he noted.

What does the specific proposal for this project consist of?

We are making alliances with universities. For example, we are doing alliances with the University of Barcelona, ​​on the topic of extractive metallurgy and mineral processing. Logically all this has to do with the lithium. Alliances, for example, with Cicata, from the IPN. Cicata means a Center for Scientific Research and Applied Technology of the IPN.

Now we have been looking for Roberto Garibay, who is a prominent national and international scientist at Cinvestav Saltillo. Other agreements that we have signed on the subject of lithium is he Metropolitan Technological Institute of Medellín, Colombia. So we are making those alliances. It is not easy because to achieve all this, to have a laboratory of that magnitude, we have to overcome many inertias that are sometimes established in bureaucracies that sometimes do not allow us to advance at the pace we would like.

But well, this is how it is, and that International Lithium Research Center He is going to dedicate himself to delving deeper into the issue of lithium. I think the heart of the matter, the center of the lithium problem, is how to release the lithium, that is the problem.

And Roberto Garibay is very advanced on this topic. But what we want is to reach build a pilot plant in Saltilloto obtain the lithium. Having salt in lithium, which is very easy to treat, is not the same as having the lithium mineral and going through a whole process to finally obtain the lithium in the form of salt or in metallic form. I mean, they are very different things.

And at the same time, also in parallel, the talks that we already have with Dr. Edilso Reguera. He has been working for about 35 years on the issue of Group 1 salts, where lithium is, and he already has some of the advanced technology, so with him we are already at a point.agreement with the National Polytechnic. Now we are going to reach an agreement to start producing the lithium battery.

Where would the lithium come from?

I don't know if the lithium salts are going to come out of Saltillo or if they are going to come out of these salts in Sonora, because there is a technical problem, the deposits that we have in Mexico lithium They are basically clays, but whose lithium content is very low compared to the lithium content that is found, for example, in Bolivia, and also has a very serious metallurgical problem to be able to release the lithium from those clays, so, The topic that Roberto Garibay is studying is an extremely complex topic and we want to accompany him, we want to support him and for that we are buying the equipment, the materials and surely he will soon have human resources there, students who will learn all the technology from the professor. of lithium, and with Edilson we have the commitment to perhaps bring the salts from Bolivia.

I think that this year we are not going to establish ourselves yet, we are not going to inaugurate our lithium laboratory, but we already have the financial resources to shape this international center on lithium.

Where do the resources come from?

Thus, directly for lithium, the State Government, headed by Julio Menchaca Salazar as governor, has given us 25 million pesos that we only have to start with the issue of the laboratory. But apart from that, we just got a resource of 35 million pesos to buy all the equipment, state-of-the-art equipment, for example, to carry out a deep characterization of lithium minerals and study the entire phenomenology of lithium, because that is the crux of how to know these properties in order to solve the technological problem. So we're doing well.

Would they open to private individuals?

Yes, yes, it's like, if you come with public support, private initiatives also have their doors open in the laboratories. In situations like Tecnológico de Monterrey we already have some agreements, but they are not involved in the issue of lithium. They have their doors open with us, at least the one in Monterrey here that we have in Hidalgo, in Pachuca, without any problem. Furthermore, for the private initiative that wants to participate in the creation of this International Lithium Center.

Have you had any contact with Litio MX?

So far we have not had any approach, but Mexican LithiumAt the time they consider it, we are open to being able to join forces, because Litio Mexicano is an effort of the president of Mexico, and the president of Mexico left with the illusion that we are a power in terms of lithium deposits. Then, the president of Mexico gave the instruction to release many economic resources.
I have not been to Sonora, I will surely be there at any moment, and to join forces I think the most convenient thing is to sign an agreement with them.

Our project lithium whom Gentleman It is a reality and it will not only be from Hidalgo, it will also be from Barcelona, ​​it will be from Colombia, it will be from Saltillo, where Cinvestav is, and we are making those efforts if Litio Mexicano joins in, it would be fabulous, because we will be contributing to that proposal made by the government of Mexico.

Nearshoring

Francisco Patiño Cardona, director of the Hidalgo Science, Technology and Innovation Council, also confirmed that the project would be something like nearshoring, by adding companies and agencies that want to participate. However, regarding the use of the mineral itself, he supported the measure to nationalize lithium.

He explained that the lithium It will allow us to solve many problems of alternative energies, such as wind, solar or geotechnical energy and, with this, pollution and CO2 generation will surely decrease significantly.

Furthermore, for economic activity, he observed a positive outlook. He indicated that Mexico could contribute to generating batteries for electric cars that are expected to enter full circulation in 10 or 15 years.

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