Thailand has discovered a lithium reserve of around 15 million tonnes, which would make the country one of the world's largest ore holders, crucial to the energy transition, a government official announced on Friday.
The deposit, estimated at 14.8 million tonnes, is located in Phang Nga (South) province, not far from the tourist island of Phuket, Rudklao Intawong Suwankiri, deputy government spokesman, told a local television station.
“That's good news. This is an opportunity for Thailand to become self-sufficient in the production of batteries for electric vehicles,” she said.
“We’re trying to figure out how much can be exploited. It takes time,” she continued.
With this deposit, Thailand is behind Bolivia (23 million tons) and Argentina (20 million tons), which concentrate almost half of the world's reserves of this sought-after white gold.
Lithium was classified as a “critical” metal by the European Commission in 2020 and is an essential component of electric car batteries.
Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, in office since August, wants to speed up the transition of Thailand, a major automobile production center, to electric power.
Chinese giant BYD plans to produce its first electric vehicles this year at a new factory in Rayong, East, the first of its kind in Southeast Asia.