◀ Anchor ▶
The government has decided to designate 33 minerals, such as lithium and nickel, which are essential for national high-tech industries such as secondary batteries and semiconductors, as core minerals and manage them separately.
As these minerals, which are highly competitive internationally, have a significant ripple effect on our industry, we will take special care of them from the perspective of economic security.
In addition, for minerals with high dependence on a specific country, it was announced that the dependence would not exceed 50% through import diversification.
Reporter Go Jae-min reports.
◀ Report ▶
To make a secondary battery, lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and graphite are essential.
Demand for these minerals is expected to more than quadruple in the next 20 years.
However, most of them depend on imports, and the target countries are limited.
Lithium hydroxide, cobalt, manganese, etc. are absolutely dependent on China, and more than 80% of lithium carbonate is also imported from Chile.
This high dependence on a specific country is inevitably greatly affected by the international situation, and immediately following the US-China trade conflict, the competition between countries over mineral resources is even blatant.
The United States has already enacted a bill to subsidize electric vehicles only when the amount of minerals procured from the United States or countries that have signed free trade agreements with the United States exceeds 40%, and Europe is also promoting a similar bill. Reducing dependence has become a fire in the footsteps.
[이호근/대덕대 미래자동차학과 교수]
″In Mexico, the state will manage various minerals used in secondary batteries. It indicated some government intervention. Because the materials used in secondary batteries eventually become the most important core resource in the spread of electric vehicles, resource weaponization is possible.”
Accordingly, POSCO Chemical, which produces secondary battery materials, is directly developing a lithium salt lake in Argentina, and LG Chem has secured lithium concentrate from North America.
The government has also stepped in to help.
First of all, 33 types of core minerals were selected, and 10 of them, which are crucial for the production of secondary batteries and semiconductors, were designated and managed as strategic core minerals.
If there is a problem with supply and demand, the ripple effect on the domestic industry and the economy as a whole is great, so it will be managed separately from the economic security perspective.
In addition, by 2030, for minerals that depend more than 80% on a single country, the dependence will be reduced to the 50% level.
[이창양/산업자원통상부 장관]
″The global geopolitical crisis and supply chain disruptions such as export controls by supplier countries are increasing uncertainty in the supply and demand of key minerals.″
In order to encourage companies to develop overseas mineral resources, we will increase financial and tax support while preparing measures to create a foundation for recycling waste batteries.
This is MBC News Ko Jae-min.
Video coverage: Choi In-gyu / Video editing: Min Kyung-tae
