On June 25th Alessandra Hool, CEO of ESM, gave a talk at the Paulus Academy in Zurich about materials and their role in the age of digitalization. She talked about how metals are essential for new technologies and where they come from. The presentation was part of a series of talks in the context of digitalization.      

  On May 19th, the IRTC held a workshop on the topic of “Identifying risks in industry supply chains” with Alessandra Hool, CEO of the ESM foundation, as the moderator. Over a hundred participants took part in it and there was a lot of valuable input that will be used to develop the decision tool further. The workshop first introduced different perspectives on supply chain risks and how companies can address them. In a second part, a draft decision model for industries was presented and discussed in three working groups. Some impressions are seen in the pictures. The full report of what was presented and discussed can be found here.  

No electromobility without lithium Due to the ever-growing battery sector, the demand for lithium has surged over the last years. In 2016, battery grade lithium accounted for about 35% percent of the lithium demand and soared to almost the double quantity of 65% of demand in 2019. Besides batteries, lithium is also used in ceramics and glass, lubricating greases, air treatment, casting and polymers (see figure below).   Mining / Production Lithium is being produced from minerals or brines. The exploitation from minerals is relatively quick process, taking only a few days to produce high purity lithium. However, mineral exploitation is costly, requires energy, chemicals and water and produces waste. […]