Last month’s report of the tin sector by tin industry group ITRI gave its members hope that tin could in fact be the new lithium.

“British start-up Faradion has teamed up with Sharp, Japan to launch a new tin-containing sodium-ion battery that claims to be much safer and a third of the cost of lithium-ion batteries,” ITRI reported.

“Sodium-ion technology is set to provide the next generation of batteries for energy storage.

“Faradion has already held a press demonstration with an e-bike using the new battery and has strong interest from the automotive sector.

“They believe, however, the biggest potential is storing energy from solar cells in homes and businesses.”

Reports on the sodium-ion battery last year in The Guardian said Faradion’s principals started looking for an alternative to lithium back in 2010 given the scarcity/cost of the chemical element.

They reportedly settled on sodium on account of it having a similar chemistry to lithium, and being easier to source.

London-to-a-brick the lithium sect considers such claims ‘old hat’ and ‘bunkum’.