Putin says Russia should speed up lithium mining plans

By Dmitry Antonov and Gleb Bryanski

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia should speed up plans to mine its deposits of lithium, a metal crucial for the production of high-capacity electric batteries, and other critical minerals, including rare earths.

Russia has large lithium reserves, estimated at about 1 million tons by the United States Geological Survey (USGS) in 2024.

But it relied on imports until they were disrupted by Western sanctions imposed over the conflict in Ukraine, prompting Moscow to press ahead with development of its own deposits.

"We still do not mine lithium. And how can we develop without it? But we can do it. And we could have done it 10 or 15 years ago," Putin told a conference on advanced technologies in Moscow.

Russia, which aims to stop importing lithium and other rare metals by 2030, estimates it has 3.5 million tons of lithium oxide reserves. Russian forces are also closing in on one of the biggest lithium deposits in Ukraine.

Following Putin's remarks, Russia's Natural resources ministry said Russia in 2023 mined 27 tons of lithium as a byproduct at an emerald deposit in the Urals mountains.

Demand for lithium has surged in recent years as Russian companies work on the mass production of lithium batteries and electric vehicles.

Global attention to reserves of critical minerals has been heightened by U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal to Ukraine to cede control of 50% of its critical minerals, including graphite, uranium, titanium and lithium.

Putin said Russia should develop its own production of all critical minerals, including rare earth metals, which are used to make magnets that turn power into motion for electric vehicles, cell phones, missile systems, and other electronics.

Polar Lithium, a joint venture between Russian metals giant Nornickel and state-owned nuclear energy firm Rosatom, said in June it planned to speed up its only lithium production project, which was meant to come on line by 2030, by three or four years.

Polar Lithium is in the process of developing the Kolmozerskoye lithium deposit, the largest in Russia, located in the northwest.

Lithium supplies from Chile and Argentina dried up after sanctions were imposed on Moscow in 2022 and Russia has since had to rely on lithium carbonate supplies from Bolivia and China.

Polar Lithium aims to become Russia's first-ever domestic producer of lithium-bearing raw materials and to eventually build full local production facilities for lithium-ion batteries.

The U.S. imposed sanctions on Polar Lithium in its latest package announced on January 10.

(Writing by Gleb Bryanski; Editing by Andrew Osborn and Philippa Fletcher)