Mali has long been a gold mining hotspot, but two companies are looking to establish the country’s critical minerals credentials with the Goulamina lithium mine.
Leo Lithium and Ganfeng Lithium Group – China’s largest lithium chemicals producer – are joint venture (JV) partners in the Goulamina lithium project, which is set to begin spodumene concentrate production in the second quarter of 2024 ramping up to a Stage 1 production capacity of 506,000 tonnes per annum (tpa).
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Avalon Advanced Materials seeks to peddle petalite to the electric vehicle manufacturing masses
A lithium player’s aspirations in 2020 to fast-track a refinery project into production in Thunder Bay is being walked back by new management. After some front office reshuffling, Avalon Advanced Materials is now pushing out the start date of a lithium hydroxide processing plant by about four years.
With more pragmatic timelines in place, Avalon is now looking to start mining at its Separation Rapids project, north of Kenora, in late 2025 or early 2026, if government permits and approvals come through a timely fashion.
Here’s what you need to know about the move’s impact on miners, critical minerals and even the TSX
Last November, the federal government ordered three Chinese companies to divest from three junior Canadian lithium explorers. The step was taken amidst an increasing demand for critical minerals such as lithium and copper that are expected to play a key role in the world’s shift away from fossil fuels.
The move seemed to be a part of a larger step taken by Western nations to offset China’s dominance in the critical minerals sector and divert supply chains towards friendlier countries. It’s been about half a year since Ottawa’s surprise announcement, and the three Canadian miners who were impacted have now managed to fill the gaps left by the ban on Chinese capital.
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Quebec’s nascent lithium mining industry has won a vote of confidence from Ford Motor Co., with the automaker signing an 11-year contract with Nemaska Lithium for future production from two planned facilities in the province.
Ford announced long-term supply agreements with Nemaska and four other lithium miners Monday at an investor conference, part of a strategy to dramatically increase electric-vehicle production over the next three years.
MONTREAL — A Quebec company building a lithium mine and production plan has signed an 11 year deal to sell products to Ford for use in electric car batteries. The deal announced by the automotive giant and Nemaska Lithium on Monday will see the American automaker become the Quebec company’s first customer.
Ford will buy up to 13,000 tons a year of lithium hydroxide produced at Nemaska’s factory in Bécancour, Que., about 150 kilometres northeast of Montreal, the two companies said in a joint news release.
Half of the world’s supply of the critical battery ingredient is mined in Australia, which ships virtually all of it to China. The government and business are betting they can change that.
Deep in rural Western Australia, Pilbara Minerals’ vast processing plant looms above the red dirt, quivering as tons of a lithium ore slurry move through its pipes.
The plant turns the ore from a nearby quarry into spodumene, a greenish crystalline powder that is about 6 percent lithium and sells for about $5,700 a ton. From there, the spodumene is shipped to China, where it is further refined so it can be used in the batteries that power goods like cellphones and electric cars.
Transaction the latest example of how the West’s rivalry with China is reshaping business
Ultra Lithium Inc., one of three Canadian miners left to find new backers after Ottawa’s snap decision to block Chinese investment in the critical minerals industry, said it avoided a “crisis situation” by finding an alternative source of funding — six months after it was forced to cut ties with Qinghai-based Zangge Mining Co. Ltd.
Afzaal Pirzada, Ultra Lithium’s vice-president of exploration, called the China order a “setback.” After much deliberation, Vancouver-based Ultra decided to sell its Laguna Verde lithium brine project in Argentina’s Catamarca province to Australia’s Power Minerals Ltd. in exchange for a stake in the buyer.
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Green Technology Metals secures a customer in LG Energy Solutions as Lake Nipigon-area deposit advances toward mine production
An Australian lithium exploration company working ground in northwestern Ontario is doing a direct deal with one of the world’s biggest battery manufacturers.
Green Technology Metals (GT1) announced LG Energy Solutions has signed an offtake sheet to receive 25 per cent of the spodumene concentrate production over a five-year period from the start of mining at its flagship Seymour Project, a 9.9-million tonne lithium deposit.
LONDON, May 19 (Reuters) – High-flying lithium has come crashing back to earth. A super-charged two-year rally, which saw Chinese spot lithium carbonate prices rise by tenfold, went into brutal reverse over the first part of this year. The spot price slumped by 70% between November and its low point in April.
The battery metal was knocked off its heights by early-year weakness in China’s electric vehicle (EV) market, still by some margin the world’s largest. The temporary demand hit rippled back up through the Chinese battery chain, generating a collective destocking cycle and killing the spot market.
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The countryside city of Bécancour may have finally found its higher purpose: making battery materials for EVs in the global energy transition
Dreams of industrial glory are alive again in Bécancour, Que. On the tidy main streets and busy eateries in this countryside city of 15,000 people, a hopeful buzz is in the air over a wave of new cutting-edge factories set to push up from the ground that could cement the area’s future for decades. An electric vehicle battery boom is nigh.
This is a collection of six villages across the St. Lawrence River from Trois Rivières, grouped together into one municipality for administrative convenience. Each has its own church and local history, and if you’re in the area, Bécancour’s tourism board suggests a hunt for “gnome homes” scattered among historical sites and a circuit of poutine restaurants to satisfy your culinary cravings.
A decision by Chile, the world’s no. 2 lithium producer, to tighten control over the key battery metal sector has triggered speculation on what the announced state-led public-private model will look like and how it may affect the global industry.
To address market rumours and clarify aspects of the strategy described by some as “vague”, MINING.COM spoke with Chile’s mining minister Marcela Hernando, who noted the country had announced a strategy, rather than a policy.
(Bloomberg) — The European Union is working on deals with Argentina and Chile that will widen its access to critical minerals and metals such as lithium needed for electric-vehicle batteries as part of its goal of creating a less carbon-intensive economy.
Preliminary memorandums of understanding could be signed during the next four months, according to the European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, which added that further partnerships are possible in South America and beyond.
Lithium prices are set to extend their recovery from a brutal sell-off of 70 per cent as demand outstrips weaker-than-expected lithium supply growth, underpinned by the growing take-up of electric vehicles to meet carbon emission targets.
The recent rise in lithium prices follows a horror five-month period during which tumbled more than 70 per cent after China curbed electric vehicle (EV) subsidies in January, a move that led to faltering demand and rising inventories.
Indonesia importing a fraction of the lithium needed to crank up EV battery production with no clear new source in sight
JAKARTA – Delivering a speech on the sidelines of last year’s G20 Summit, President Joko Widodo pointed to lithium as the one crucial element Indonesia still needed to make electric vehicle (EV) batteries. Turning, he gestured towards Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese seated near him and observed: “That man has lithium.”
Nickel-rich Indonesia may be on the cusp of an EV battery revolution, but it still lacks a guaranteed supply of lithium for it to become a reality by 2025, the year Maritime Affairs and Investment Coordinating Minister Luhut Panjaitan has targeted for the first battery plant to go into operation.
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Two of the world’s largest lithium producers announced a US$10.6-billion merger on Wednesday that is expected to speed development of mines and a refinery in Quebec.
Brisbane, Australia’s Allkem Ltd. is joining forces with Philadelphia-based Livent Corp., LTHM-N uniting the owners of lithium mines in Canada, Argentina and Australia, and a global network of processing plants. The merger creates the world’s third-largest miner of a key raw material in electric vehicle batteries.
