Raw Materials

Raw Materials

Lithium 101 | Lithium Carbonate Equivalent

Lithium 101 | Lithium Carbonate Equivalent (LCE)

With a wide variety of lithium compounds, it is commonplace to refer to the lithium content in terms of lithium carbonate equivalent (“LCE”). Lithium carbonate for technical use generally requires a grade of 99.0% and battery grade at least 99.5%.

Lithium Hydroxide: used for high-nickel batteries would require 1.544 LCE

Lithium Carbonate: used for LFP and low-nickel batteries would require 1 LCE

Lithium Metal: used for Li Metal batteries would require 5.323 LCE

As more companies look to implement variable contracts to maximize margins, these multiples act as a multiplier based on cost changes to a given chemistry.

Conversion factors for lithium compounds and minerals Convert from

Convert to Li

Convert to Li2O

Convert to Li2CO3

Convert to LiOH

Lithium

Li

Lithium Oxide

Li2O

Lithium Carbonate

Li2CO3

Lithium Hydroxide

LiOH

Source: Battery Talk: Lithium in Batteries Part 1, Battery Talk: Lithium in Batteries Part 2,,Battery Talk: Lithium in Batteries Part 3

Extracted from the PDF; charts and images may read imperfectly.