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Lithium

Rio Tinto bets lithium will retain its battery metal crown – by Andy Home (Reuters – June 3, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – It’s a tough time to be a lithium producer as the light metal sinks under the weight of excess supply. Lithium hydroxide prices have collapsed by 90% from their 2022 peak and show no signs of recovery.

Multiple producers are now operating at zero or negative margins, according to consultancy Wood Mackenzie. Even giants like Albemarle, the world’s largest producer of the battery metal, have been cutting costs and deferring new projects to weather the supply storm. Rio Tinto, however, is undaunted. The global mining house remains “consistent in its belief in the long-term outlook for lithium”.

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Bolivian court pauses Chinese, Russian lithium deals – by Staff (Northern Miner – June 2, 2025)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Bolivia’s plans to emerge as a major lithium producer have hit an impasse after a local court ordered the suspension of two major extraction deals signed last year valued at more than $2 billion, according to media reports.

The contracts were signed in 2023 and 2024 respectively with China’s CBC consortium, which includes battery manufacturer CATL, and Russia’s Uranium One Group, a subsidiary of state nuclear firm Rosatom, as revealed by various publications including Bolivia-based El Deber.

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Frontier feasibility lifts PAK lithium reserves by 37%  (Northern Miner – May 29, 2025)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Frontier Lithium said a definitive feasibility study for the $943-million capex PAK project in northern Ontario boosted reserves by 37%.

The study, which calculates a net present value of $932 million based on a discount rate of 8%, provides a “robust basis” for Frontier to target a final investment decision within two years, according to a statement issued Thursday.

Frontier is making progress on project financing and has started the permitting process, which should also be completed by mid-2027.

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Aus stockpile to tackle ‘distorted’ rare earths market – by Kristie Batten (Northern Miner – May 26, 2025)

https://www.northernminer.com/

Rare earth and lithium producers are cautiously backing the Australian government’s proposed critical minerals strategic reserve, amid fresh details and ongoing concerns over its design. The federal Labor government, re-elected in May, first announced the A$1.2-billion (US$780-million) initiative in April during the closing days of its campaign.

The plan aims to establish a stockpile of critical minerals to bolster national and allied supply chains. Initially offered with limited detail and met with scepticism, the policy has started to take shape.

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Hopes of lithium revival dashed as prices crater to four-year lows – by Alex Gluyas (Australian Financial Review – May 21, 2025)

https://www.afr.com/

Just last week investors betting on a resurgence in lithium were cheering some much-needed positive news after Core Lithium unveiled a plan to revive its mothballed operations near Darwin.

On the surface, it was a momentous decision. Core was the first miner in Australia to consider reopening an idled operation since the downturn began, signalling that sentiment may finally be turning. The news sent the stock surging more than 40 per cent last week.

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NEWS RELEASE: Diversification is the cornerstone of energy security, yet critical minerals are moving in the opposite direction (Internationsl Energy Agency Global Critical Minerals Outlook 2025 – May 21, 2025)

For the report: https://shorturl.at/aM8Qa

Emphasising major energy and economic implications, new IEA report identifies vulnerabilities over next decade, notably for copper and other strategic minerals

While today’s critical mineral markets may appear well supplied, with prices well down from the highs seen in 2021 and 2022, a new IEA report finds that a combination of increasing supply concentration in a handful of countries and the spread of export restrictions is raising the risk of painful disruptions.

The 2025 edition of the IEA’s annual Global Critical Minerals Outlook, out today, presents the latest data and analysis on supply, demand, investment and more for key energy-related minerals, including copper, lithium, nickel, cobalt, graphite and rare earth elements. It is accompanied by an updated Critical Minerals Data Explorer, an interactive online tool that allows users to explore the latest IEA projections.

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Lithium Triangle region remains strategic amid uncertainties and trade disputes – by Anne Barbosa (S&P Global – May 20, 2025)

https://www.spglobal.com/

Despite the recent tariff agreement between China and the United States, the ongoing trade dispute continues to create global uncertainties and may affect tax revenue and employment in the Lithium Triangle of Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. However, it also presents opportunities, specialists told Platts, part of S&P Global Commodity Insights.

Manuel Viera Flores, president of the Chilean Mining Chamber, said in a recent interview that although some minerals are currently tariff-free, “We must be cautious about what may come and be prepared for it, as any tax increase is negative for the development of various economic activities.”

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Saskatchewan’s first lithium brine project receives initial approval – by Drew Postey (CTV News Regina – May 21, 2025)

https://www.ctvnews.ca/

Saskatchewan has granted initial approval for the province’s first lithium brine project. The project will be run by Arizona Lithium in Saskatchewan’s southeast. Known as the Prairie Lithium Brine Project, the company says a “vast untapped lithium brine resource” is located in the Duperow Formation of Saskatchewan’s Williston Basin.

According to the company, the project will utilize conventional oil and gas drilling methods to access lithium-rich brine more than two kilometres underground.

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Rio Tinto bets big on Lithium Triangle’s brine riches – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – May 13, 2025)

https://www.mining.com/

Rio Tinto (ASX, LON: RIO) is doubling down on lithium, with chief executive Jakob Stausholm declaring that South America’s Lithium Triangle is the ideal region to secure the metal critical to the energy transition.

Speaking at the Bank of America Global Metals, Mining and Steel Conference on Tuesday, Stausholm said that brine resources in Argentina, Chile and Bolivia offer the best chance for the world to access low-cost, high-quality lithium.

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Bezos-Backed Firm Signs Deal to Advance Congo Lithium Mine – by Michael J. Kavanagh, James Attwood and William Clowes (Bloomberg News – May 7, 2025)

https://www.bloomberg.com/

KoBold Metals Co. has reached a preliminary agreement to move forward with the development of one of the world’s biggest hard rock lithium deposits in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

(Bloomberg) — KoBold Metals Co. has reached a preliminary agreement to move forward with the development of one of the world’s biggest hard rock lithium deposits in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

The firm, backed by billionaires Bill Gates and Jeff Bezos, reached a framework agreement with Australia’s AVZ Minerals Ltd. to buy the latter’s stake in project on the Manono deposit, according to a letter signed by KoBold Chief Executive Officer Kurt House and his AVZ counterpart Nigel Ferguson.

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Brazil low-cost lithium production: A potential global reference, but internal challenges may delay progress – by Leticia Simionato (Fastmarkets.com – May 2, 2025)

https://www.fastmarkets.com/

“Brazil can be seen as a low-cost reference compared with other global spodumene producers. We compete very well with several geographies: better costs due to geological issues, cheaper labor and electricity… There’s a list of factors that makes us competitive, ” Vinicius Alvarenga, chief executive officer of Companhia Brasileira de Lítio (CBL), told Fastmarkets in an interview.

CBL currently produces 45,000 tonnes per year of spodumene concentrate, of which 30,000 tonnes is exported – mainly to China – while 15,000 tonnes are used in the company’s own refinery, which produces around 2,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE). Half of the produced LCE is exported and half is used domestically. Additionally, CBL is currently working on a project to increase mining production to 100,000 tpy of spodumene and expand its chemicals production to 6,000 tpy of LCE.

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Ukraine: What’s up with Europe’s largest lithium deposits – by Maryna Barba (DW.com – April 12, 2025)

https://www.dw.com/en/

Washington and Kyiv are still negotiating their rare earths agreement. But what do Ukrainians who live near potential mines think of it all?

In Polokhivske it’s as if time has stood still. Only a handful of people live here, its houses are abandoned and decrepit, stubbled fields as far as the eye can see. Things are no different in neighboring Kopanki, where nearly every house has been abandoned. The few people who live here tell DW that only one child was born in the village in 2024.

“I started working here in 1976,” says Volodymyr, a Kopanki retiree. “I was the four-hundredth worker in the collective and now there probably aren’t 100 people living here in the village. We only have funerals anymore, never any weddings, things aren’t like they used to be.”

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Unlocking lithium: Pairing technology and expertise to increase project value – by Victoria Martinez (Canadian Mining Journal – April 7, 2025)

https://www.canadianminingjournal.com/

The number of batteries used in energy storage is rising as the world adopts more advanced technologies, particularly green energy and electric vehicles (EVs), thus increasing the demand for critical minerals such as lithium.

Lithium extraction, like many resources, can be a complicated and expensive proposition for mining companies. Typically found in low concentrations, lithium deposits vary from rock to clays to brines with unique impurities from location to location. Lithium supply chains also require high degrees of purity.

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Lithium company exploring N.W.T. hopes to refine material in Canada, not China – by Jocelyn Shepel (CBC News North – April 04, 2025)

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Canada can’t refine the mineral from hard rock right now but companies are looking to change that

A lithium exploration company working in the N.W.T. says getting a mine ready for production could be anywhere from six to eight years away – but already, it’s evaluating how it would get the material refined and battery ready without relying on China.

“It’s likely that Edmonton will be an obvious place for an energy hub for lithium processing in future,” said David Smithson, Li-FT’s senior vice president of geology. According to the International Energy Agency, worldwide demand for critical minerals – like lithium – is expected to double by 2040. Keeping the supply chain within Canada is one of the major tasks ahead.

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As Chile revs up lithium plans, Indigenous groups demand more control – by Daina Beth Solomon (Reuters – April 7, 2025)

https://www.reuters.com/

Chile’s Indigenous communities in the lithium-rich Atacama Desert are in talks with two of the nation’s biggest miners to gain more influence over plans to increase extraction of the battery metal, according to the companies and community sources.

The negotiations with Chile’s State-run Codelco, the world’s biggest copper producer, and Chilean lithium producer SQM, come as the companies are close to finalizing a partnership that will mark the state’s entry into production of the metal that is crucial for electric vehicle batteries.

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