All aboard Europe’s lithium bandwagon – by Hans van Leeuwen (Australian Financial Review – August 9, 2020)

https://www.afr.com/

London | A gang of Perth mining juniors is clambering aboard Europe’s lithium bandwagon, shrugging off the global price doldrums and betting that European governments and car makers will deliver an electric vehicle and battery bonanza.

The fundamentals for a European lithium boom seem in place. Coronavirus has put barely a dent in the European car makers’ sales of, and ambitions for, electric vehicles – and soon they will need more battery-ready lithium than the world can supply.

Meanwhile, the pandemic has steeled the Continent’s resolve to shuck off its dependence on China for lithium supplies. And that’s revved up the European Union’s drive to support mines and processing plants – the missing links in a fully domestic supply chain.

ASX-listed Perth-based players such as European Metals Holdings, Vulcan Energy Resources, European Lithium and Infinity Lithium are all hoping to get lithium mining and processing projects shovel-ready within the next few years – and EU taxpayer money is coming to the party.

“Europe is the place where lithium demand is going to grow the fastest of anywhere in the world, and it has no domestic supply whatsoever,” says EMH executive chairman Keith Coughlan. “The supply-demand equation is as simple as that.”

For the rest of this article: https://www.afr.com/companies/mining/all-aboard-europe-s-lithium-bandwagon-20200807-p55jg6