This paper focuses on the research progress of extracting lithium from spodumene, lepidolite, petalite and zinnwaldite by acid, alkali, salt roasting and chlorination methods, and analyzes the resource intensity, environmental impact and production cost of industrial lithium extraction from spodumene and lepidolite. It is found that sulfuric acid method has high lithium recovery rate, but with complicated process and high energy consumption; Alkali and chlorination methods can directly react with lithium ores, reducing energy consumption, but need to optimize reaction conditions and safety of equipment and operation; Salt roasting method has large material flux and high energy consumption, so require adjustment of sulfate ratio to increase the lithium yield and reduce production cost. Compared with extracting lithium from brine, extracting lithium from ores, calcination, roasting, purity and other processes consume more resources and energy; and its environmental impact mainly comes from the pollutants discharged by fossil energy, 9.3~60.4 times that of lithium extracted from brine. The processing cost of lithium extraction from lepidolite by sulfate roasting method is higher than that from spodumene by sulfuric acid due to the consumption of high value sulfate.

Global competition and storage for indium resources are increasing. This paper uses substance flow analysis to quantify the flow of indium in China from 2000 to 2019 and discusses the problems facing China’s indium industry chain. Over the past 20 years, China has mined more than 21,000 tons of indium from the lithosphere, and the accumulated indium content in imported ore is about 3600 tons. In the upper reaches of the industrial chain, the loss of indium exceeded 19,000 tons; in the middle reaches, due to technical barriers, China exported a large amount of indium at low prices and imported a large amount of ITO targets at high prices. The amount of indium in the imported targets exceeded 2100 tons; in the downstream, approximately 60% of the final products were exported abroad. China’s cumulative output of recycled indium was about 630 tons, primary indium output was 5912 tons, and the cumulative inventory of indium reached 3200 tons. Therefore, increasing the recovery rate in the primary production stage, overcoming the technical barriers in the middle of the industry chain, and establishing an efficient recovery system are necessary measures to promote the sustainable development of indium resources and its industry chain.

Based on global cobalt technology patents, this paper uses patent data mining and co-occurrence methods to identify technology application trends, key technology areas, key technology layouts, and technology roadmap. According to the development trend, the development of co-cobalt technology is divided into slow and rapid development stages. The conclusion are: 1) In terms of key technologies, E35-V (Cobalt compound) is the long-term R&D focus in the field of cobalt, and X16-B01F1 (Lithium-based) is the most important key technology area at present. 2) China, Japan, the United States, and South Korea are the main contributors to key cobalt technologies, mainly focusing on the R&D layout of L03-E01B5B (Lithium electrode) technology in the field of X16-B01F1 (Lithium-based). 3) Regarding the cooperation relationship between patent applicants, cooperation between groups is relatively close, cooperation between different countries is less, and transnational cooperation is mainly concentrated in developed countries, among which the United States has the most transnational partners. 4) In the field of cobalt’s most important electrode material technology LG Chemical Co., Ltd. (Korea) and Sumitomo Metal Mining Corporation (Japan) are the two companies with clear technology lines, while Univ Cent South (China) has a late technology development. Finally, we make suggestions for the development of cobalt technology: focus on core technology for R&D and innovation, actively study the technology status and innovation mode of leading companies, and strengthen the cooperation among different R&D institutions.