The Central Siberian Platform is a vast region of central Russia extending from the Arctic Ocean to Mongolia. An underground brine reservoir containing lithium extends under the whole platform. Exploitation of this resource is getting under way at the Kovytka Gas Field near Lake Baikal, the largest natural gas field in Russia.

Of the major economies, Russia has been the slowest to adopt EVs except for public transport buses, where Moscow is a world leader. That is now changing with a recent government strategy to develop electric transport and build battery and EV factories in Kaliningrad and Moscow.

To provide the lithium for this, the Russian Government decided in 2023 to accelerate development of lithium mining projects to meet the domestic demand for lithium, particularly as trade sanctions have largely cut off foreign sources of supply.

Polar Lithium will start mining spodumene in the next few years at Kolmozerskoye in the Kola Peninsula. Four other projects have also been prioritised for development by the authorities. Two of these are spodumene mines and two are “hydromineral” oilfield brines in Siberia.

What has not been appreciated outside Russia is the potentially huge lithium resource in Siberia. A vast underground brine reservoir exists under the Central Siberian Platform that probably contains 2 billion tonnes or more of lithium metal. The reservoir extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to Lake Baikal in the south. Near Lake Baikal, Gazprom have been developing natural gas fields since the 1980s and the huge Kovytka Gas Field is now entering production to supply China with gas under the Power of Siberia project. Kovytka will be producing gas until well into the 22^nd century. Wherever oil and gas wells are drilled in Siberia, the brine sea is encountered. In the Kovytka gas field, the lithium concentration ranges up to 500 mg/l or more and the brine is propelled to the surface at up to 37 times atmospheric pressure. Russian geologists have been studying the brines since the 1980s and estimate that the high concentration regions alone contain hundreds of millions of tonnes of lithium metal. Numerous papers have been published by Russian researchers on the country’s industrial brines and hydromineral resource potential.