"White oil" lithium, the potential of the Korean Peninsula has been confirmed for the first time

◀ Report ▶

Geologists are inspecting rocks inside a closed mine.

The aim is to find lithium, which has recently been used as a core material for batteries and is also known as "white oil."

The purple glittering part is lithium-containing brucite. This is the first time that the existence of lithium has been clearly confirmed in Korea. It is low compared to overseas deposits where rock-type lithium is being commercially developed. [Lee Pyeong-gu/Director of the Korea Geoscience and Mineral Resources Institute] "We hope to transfer the mineral processing technology, smelting technology, and material technology we developed to domestic companies so that the domestic related industries will prosper as a whole" ... "Drilling is needed to confirm how much reserves there are and whether it is economically feasible? However, a foreign private company has applied for the prospecting rights for these deposits, and the Uljin deposit is located within the Geumgang Pine Conservation Area, so it is difficult for the government to lead the drilling.

The Korea Geoscience and Mineral Resources Institute has conducted field surveys of 12 promising mineral deposit areas in South Korea over the past four years, and the results confirmed that this type of red mica exists in large quantities in the Boam deposit in Uljin County, Gyeongsangbuk-do and the deposit in Danyang City, Chungcheongbuk-do.

In the case of Uljin and Danyang, the average lithium content percentage of the rock is 0.21% and 0.15%, respectively.

However, technology has recently advanced to the point where rock-type lithium with 0.2% has been commercially developed in China.

The Korea Geoscience and Mineral Resources Institute announced that it will continue resource exploration, including the development of new deposits, using artificial intelligence prediction technology and 3D resource detection technology currently under development