With international sales of electric vehicles and mobile phones booming – especially in China and the USA – Australia is now well placed to profit from soaring sales of lithium, a  Diggers and Dealers mining industry conference here has been told.

Lithium is a major ingredient in batteries used in electric cars and mobile devices.

“This whole [lithium mining] scene will become really important for Australia,” Pilbara Minerals CEO Ken Brinsden told the conference. Pilbara Minerals is developing the Pilgangoora project in the Pilbara region of WA and plans to start mining there next year.

Already the the US- and Chinese-owned Greenbushes lithium mine, pictured,  in south WA is the world’s biggest lithium mine, according to an AAP report.

Briden said investors are banking on around five million new-energy vehicles being built in China by 2020 and along with that the conversion of millions of Chinese electric bikes to use lithium ion batteries.