One of Toyota's key suppliers, Toyota Tsusho Corporation, is to jointly develop a new lithium mining project in north-west Argentina with Australian miner Orocobre Ltd. Company estimates put exploitation costs at Salar de Olaroz at between $80 million and $100 million. The development signals the growing role that lithium is likely to play in the auto industry as electric cars develop. The global lithium ion battery market is expected to surge to $21.8 billion by 2015 and to around $70 billion by 2020 from $32 million last year.