Lithium – Page 12 – Republic of Mining

Lithium producers stay bullish on EVs despite growing headwinds – by Ernest Scheyder and Melanie Burton (Reuters – November 2, 2023)

November 3, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

Nov 2 (Reuters) – The world’s largest lithium producers say they remain bullish on long-term demand for the battery material in the midst of recent price drops fueled by growing worries that the global pace of electric vehicle adoption is slowing.

LG Energy Solution (373220.KS), General Motors (GM.N), Honda (7267.T) and other auto and battery makers have trimmed EV expansion plans in recent weeks, partly due to rising interest rates, which in turn has stoked concerns of a supply glut for the battery metal. A basket of prices for lithium – which vary by region and by type – tracked by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence has dropped more than 60% this year.

History repeats? Lithium deals fervour in the Pilbara has all the hallmarks of another bubble – by Adrian Rauso (The West Australian – October 27, 2023)

October 27, 2023

https://thewest.com.au/

The iron ore boom in the 2000s ushered in a new class of mining millionaires and billionaires. While vast iron ore fortunes were amassed in the Pilbara, a graveyard of broken hopes and dreams also littered the region’s harsh landscape.

And there’s danger of history potentially repeating itself via the latest Pilbara-focused lithium frenzy. The lithium industry is no stranger to a bubble. The first bubble well and truly burst by 2020, with Alita Resources and Altura Mining two notable victims.

Gina Rinehart takes second strategic stake in Australian lithium sector – by Harry Dempsey (Financial Times – October 27, 2023)

October 27, 2023

https://www.ft.com/

Billionaire acquires 18% of Azure Minerals after Chile’s SQM announces planned buyout

Billionaire Gina Rinehart has built up a strategic stake in Australian lithium developer Azure Minerals, threatening to scupper a second takeover involving the battery metal in a matter of weeks.

Chilean miner SQM said this week it had agreed to buy out Azure at an equity valuation of about $1bn. SQM, the world’s second-largest lithium producer, had bought a stake of almost 20 per cent in Azure in January to diversify beyond its home market.

Red-dirt billionaires in race for ‘white gold’ – by Colin Kruger and Simon Johanson (Sydney Morning Herald – October 27, 2023)

October 27, 2023

https://www.smh.com.au/

Gina Rinehart might be known as a climate sceptic, but Australia’s richest person knows when there is “green” dollars to be made from digging things out of the ground. She is just one of the West Australian mining billionaires who are in a mad scramble for the state’s vast deposits of lithium – the metal dubbed “white gold” due to its market value and silver colour.

Its value lies not in its scarcity, but in the booming demand for the lightest of metals. It is essential for powering the batteries, which are the driving force behind the global electric vehicle wave. Batteries are also the most expensive component of these cars.

Latin America eyes the lithium boom, but opposition endures – by Rocío Lloret Céspedes and Javier Lewkowicz (Dialogo Chino.net – October 26, 2023)

October 27, 2023

Dialogo Chino.net

The region could define the global lithium market and is making moves to boost its industries. But lithium extraction’s impacts and water use remain sensitive

Andrea Calcina has lived all of her 58 years in the community of Calcha K, a group of adobe houses at 3,800 metres above sea level in the Bolivian Andes. Though everything seems to be drying up quickly here, Calcina points to a water well that is still providing for residents, if not like it used to.

“There used to be more. With this water we wash, we sow, we water vegetables and quinoa,” says Andrea, who lives in a community of 100 families, where recurring complaints that “it doesn’t rain like it used to” are heard. Calcha K, in the southwestern department of Potosí, is one of 46 communities settled around the Uyuni and Pastos Grandes salt flats, two of the country’s three major lithium reserves. The third, Salar de Coipasa, is found in Oruro, in the west of the country.

Lithium Rush Heats Up With SQM’s $1 Billion Australia Buy – by Sybilla Gross (Bloomberg News – October 26, 2023)

October 26, 2023

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Lithium mining giant SQM has won over Perth-based Azure Minerals Ltd. with a sweetened A$1.6 billion ($1 billion) cash offer, the latest deal as large battery-metal producers race to secure supply in Australia, home to some of the world’s richest deposits.

Azure’s board will back the new binding bid from SQM, which increased its cash offer by 52% to A$3.52 per share, the Australian producer said Thursday. That’s a 44% premium over Azure’s closing price on Oct. 20, and follows a previously rejected non-binding offer of A$2.31 made in August. The company’s shares jumped as much as 44% on Thursday to A$3.52, their highest price since June 2008.

The China-West Lithium Tango in South America – by Ali Rahman and Leland Lazarus (The Diplomat – October 23, 2023)

October 24, 2023

https://thediplomat.com/

Despite the push toward decoupling, China-West collaboration persists in South America’s Lithium Triangle. But in the age of strategic competition, how long will this last?

In the vast, almost haunting expanse of the high Argentine desert, beneath layers of brine and time, lies an element that could easily be mistaken for table salt. Yet, this mineral holds the key to power electric vehicles, cell phones, and the whole green energy revolution. They call it “white gold” – lithium.

The Cauchari-Olaroz mine, located in Argentina’s Jujuy province, promises to churn out 40,000 tons of lithium over the next 40 years. But more riveting than the mineral is the strange corporate partnership extracting it. The mine is jointly owned by Canada’s Lithium Americas and China’s Ganfeng Lithium.

Battery metal prices driven down by slowing Chinese EV demand – by Harry Dempsey (Financial Post/Financial Times (October 18, 2023)

October 24, 2023

https://financialpost.com/

Lithium, cobalt and nickel prices tumble as ‘irrational exuberance’ wears off and surge in supply hits markets

Prices for key battery materials such as lithium, cobalt and nickel have sharply fallen this year as electric-vehicle sales in China cool off and a surge in supply hits the market.

Since the start of the year, lithium prices have fallen almost 70 per cent and nickel prices have dropped by 40 per cent, while the cobalt market is in a glut with prices hovering slightly above record lows, according to data from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Ltd., Refinitiv Ltd. and Argus Media Ltd.

Lithium company executive seeking federal backing was key figure in Alberta Energy Regulator spending scandal – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – October 21, 2023)

October 24, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Zeeshan Syed, a former Alberta Energy Regulator (AER) executive who was engulfed in a public sector spending scandal in Alberta only four years ago, welcomed two Liberal cabinet ministers to the Thunder Bay site of his junior mining company’s proposed lithium refinery last week, and is optimistic he can attract taxpayer funding for the venture.

The visit, which was widely publicized by Mr. Syed’s company to attract media and investor attention, saw both François-Philippe Champagne, the Federal Industry Minister, and Patty Hajdu, Indigenous Services Minister, heap praise on his struggling penny stock mining company, Avalon Advanced Materials Inc..

Sudbury, Thunder Bay, Nipissing area shortlisted for lithium processing site by German mining company – by Ian Ross (Sudbury.com – October 18, 2023)

October 20, 2023

https://www.sudbury.com/

Rock Tech Lithium looks to place its second lithium refinery in Northern, Eastern Ontario

Rock Tech Lithium, a German-Canadian company with a Lake Nipigon-area lithium deposit, is scoping out processing sites in Northern and Eastern Ontario. Sudbury, Thunder Bay, the Nipissing District covering the North Bay-Temiskaming area, and Leeds Grenville in the Brockville area are on Rock Tech’s shortlist, according to a company news release issued today.

The company, which recently opened an office in Toronto to oversee its Canadian operations, has ambitious goals to build “several lithium converters.” Its first lithium hydroxide processing site will be in Guben, Germany, and is targeted for production in 2026.

Codelco to buy Lithium Power for $244 million – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – October 18, 2023)

October 18, 2023

https://www.mining.com/

Chilean state-owned copper miner Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, has reached a deal with Lithium Power International (ASX: LPI) to buy the Australian producer of the battery metal for A$385 million ($244 million).

The deal reached by the parties, which have been involved in negotiations for weeks, involves a cash offer of 0.57 Australian dollars per LPI share.

CMS: Friedland mocks lithium but touts battery tech – by Colin McCelland (Northern Miner – October 13, 2023)

October 17, 2023

https://www.northernminer.com/

Robert Friedland, billionaire founder and executive co-chair of Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN), criticized lithium mining at a London conference, ridiculed the West’s green energy transition and urged prayer to end the Israel-Hamas war.

Researchers at Ivanhoe start-up Pure Lithium in Boston are going from lithium brine to lithium metal in a step that could radically transform the electric vehicle battery market valued at around US$50 billion a year, Friedland told The Northern Miner’s Canadian Mining Symposium on Friday.

China’s Tsingshan Gets Access to Chilean Lithium in Battery Metal Race – by James Attwood (Bloomberg News – October 16, 2023)

October 17, 2023October 17, 2023

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — China’s latest investments in South America’s lithium triangle show the challenges for US efforts to counter the dominance of the world’s second-largest economy in key parts of battery metal supply chains.

On Monday, Chile unveiled a deal that gives Tsingshan Holding Group preferential lithium prices for a project to make value-added products in the South American nation. It was announced as part of President Gabriel Boric’s trip to China, where he met with Xiang Guangda, the metal group’s billionaire owner.

Financial viability of proposed lithium processing plant feted by federal politicians in question – by Niall McGee (Globe and Mail – October 13, 2023)

October 13, 2023

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

Canadian junior mining company Avalon Advanced Materials Inc. hosted federal Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne at a proposed lithium processing site in Northern Ontario on Thursday, and it hopes to get funding from Ottawa, even as the company’s financial future hangs in the balance.

Toronto-based Avalon says it intends to build Ontario’s “first domestic supply chain” that will link lithium deposits in the north to the expanding electric battery manufacturing base in the south. But given the company’s financials, it’s not clear how it can raise the money to build its planned lithium refinery in Thunder Bay.

Lithium-hungry France strikes Mongolian exploration deal (Reuters – October 12, 2023)

October 13, 2023

https://www.reuters.com/

PARIS, Oct 12 (Reuters) – France signed a deal with Mongolia to search for lithium on Thursday and moved a step closer to mine uranium in the Asian country, as Paris steps up its hunt for critical metals needed for its clean energy shift.

The deals are one of the highlights of Mongolian President Ukhnaagiin Khurelsukh’s visit to Paris, which comes less than six months after President Emmanuel Macron stopped off in Ulaanbaatar on his way back from a G7 summit in Japan.