BEIJING/MELBOURNE, Feb 28 (Reuters) – Rare discounts offered by Chinese battery giant CATL (300750.SZ) to automakers have accelerated a plunge in lithium prices, and the market is set to drop a further 25% with supply growth outpacing demand, analysts and traders say.
After a frenzied rush by electric vehicle makers to secure raw materials over the past two years, which drove prices for lithium carbonate up more than six-fold and spodumene up nearly ten-fold, the bubble has burst.
There’s an old adage for commodities that says, “the cure for high prices is high prices.” The inverse is true as well. In fact, I often heard this phrase when I worked in the oil industry.
At the same time, I often heard people say “But this time is different. This time there is no easy cure.” I heard that in 2008 when oil prices first topped $100 a barrel. Many people were predicting $200 a barrel. But a funny thing happened. Those high oil prices caused a recession, which reduced demand, which reduced prices.
https://www.winnipegfreepress.com/
THE owners of the only producing lithium mine in the country are preparing to invest $176 million to build a new concentrator in Manitoba, which may be a precursor to an even larger investment in the province.
Tantalum Mining Corp. of Canada Ltd., which owns the lithium Tanco Mine near Lac du Bonnet, has already begun preliminary work on the site and is in discussions with neighbouring Sagkeeng First Nation. Consultants are preparing the information needed to apply for permits.
Signs that China is re-focusing its attention on environmental regulation have injected fresh volatility into commodity markets, as traders position for the potential return of intermittent crackdowns amid the economy’s reopening.
Ore-processing operations in China’s top lithium production hub, Yichun, were ordered to halt output as investigators probed alleged environmental infringements at lithium mines, Bloomberg reported.
Production has resumed in China’s Yichun, “Asia’s lithium capital”, after a government investigation into illegal mining activity last week temporarily halted production in the local lithium industry.
Some lepidolite mines restarted mining activity on Monday, according to Chinese media outlet Cailian. Soon after news of the production resumption emerged, the shares of leading lithium producers with mines in Yichun rose slightly on Tuesday. Shenzhen-listed Anshan Heavy Duty Mining Machinery, for instance, rose 2.25 per cent.
Singapore | China’s lithium industry is reeling as its top production hub – responsible for about a 10th of the world’s supply – faces sweeping closures amid a government probe of environmental infringements.
The crackdown in Yichun, Jiangxi province, follows a local lithium frenzy over the past year as miners raced to feed rampant demand for the battery material – and to benefit from record global prices. Now, they grapple with a close-up inspection by environment officials from Beijing.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
The U.S. Department of Energy is providing Li-Cycle Holdings Corp. with a US$375-million loan to help it complete North America’s first major refinery for recycling battery-grade lithium, a major step in the Toronto-based company’s growth plans, it said on Monday.
Li-Cycle plans to start operations at its US$485-million Rochester processing hub in Western New York late this year. The project, located in Greece, N.Y., a suburb of Rochester, will include a plant that will use the company’s hydrometallurgical system to process up to 35,000 tonnes of black mass – e-waste from crushed and shredded battery cells – per year, for use in new lithium-ion batteries. That is equivalent to about 18 gigawatt-hours of battery capacity.
https://www.northernminer.com/
The growing demand for clean energy technologies is driving exploration and development of critical mineral deposits around the world. Here’s a look at eight companies on the hunt for everything from cobalt and copper to graphite, lithium and nickel.
ACME Lithium
ACME Lithium Inc. (CSE: ACME; US-OTC: ACLHF) is focused on battery metal projects and its flagship asset is the Clayton Valley lithium project in Esmeralda County, Nev., 145 km northwest of Las Vegas. ACME Lithium has the option to earn 100% of 122 claims of the 9.9-sq.-km project, which sits contiguous to the northwest of Albemarle’s (NYSE: ALB) Silver Peak lithium mine, and borders Pure Energy Metals’ Clayton Valley lithium brine project, a joint-venture with Schlumberger Technology Corp.
China’s lithium industry is reeling as its top production hub — responsible for around a 10th of the world’s supply — faces sweeping closures amid a government probe of environmental infringements.
The crackdown in Yichun, Jiangxi province, follows a local lithium frenzy over the past year as miners raced to feed rampant demand for the battery material — and to benefit from record global prices. Now, they’re grappling with a close-up inspection by environment officials sent from Beijing.
https://www.cbc.ca/radio/whatonearth/
Reducing reliance on personal vehicles, more public transit can cut emissions faster: author
The growing need for lithium — a mined metal used in batteries to power electric vehicles (EVs) — could have significant international environmental and social impacts if the U.S. doesn’t reimagine its transportation policy, according to a recent report.
Lithium, listed as a “critical mineral” by several governments and agencies, is an integral part of the transition away from fossil fuels. While demand is exploding because of EVs, it’s also used in batteries for energy storage systems, and smaller products like smartphone and e-bike batteries.
As demand soars for electric vehicles and clean energy storage, Australia is rising to meet much of the world’s demand for lithium. While this helps reduce the need for fossil fuels, it raises another question – how can we source lithium sustainably?
Roughly a three-hour drive south of Perth, Western Australia, off the South Western Highway and behind the historic mining town of Greenbushes, the land beyond the town’s primary school falls away to reveal a deep, grey scar.
This is the site of an old tin mine known as the Cornwall Pit. At roughly 265m (870ft) deep, the terraced wall of the pit represents a century’s worth of work that began in 1888 when a pound of tin was lifted out of a nearby creek. When the surface-metal was scoured from the landscape, methods changed eventually giving way to open-cut mining in the host pegmatite vein – an igneous rock with a coarse texture similar to granite.
Lithium investors are hoping a retreat in lithium carbonate prices in China has passed after a torrid February for the ASX’s green energy darlings. The sector leaders, including Pilbara Minerals, Mineral Resources, Allkem and IGO Ltd, all firmed on Thursday as investors monitor the collateral damage to lithium demand from China’s decision to end electric vehicle subsidies for consumers from the start of this year.
Lithium carbonate prices in China fell 7500 yuan ($1595) to a one-year low of 410,000 yuan a tonne on Wednesday and have shed around 30 per cent from highs in November 2021.
https://smallcaps.com.au/
The call of Canada is being heard clearly by Australian lithium hopefuls, with some of the best-known names from the Aussie mining boom heading north to ride a wave driven by the US Government’s trade protection policies.
Ken Brinsden, the key man in growing Pilbara Minerals (ASX: PLS) from penny dreadful to $13 billion member of the ASX’s top 50, is the leading Australian lithium export as chairman of the Quebec-focussed Patriot Battery Metals.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Five-year-old Lithium Royalty Corp. is going public with a planned $150-million-plus stock sale, raising money to fund the mines that feed a rapidly growing battery industry.
Lithium Royalty filed the paperwork on Wednesday for an initial public offering on the Toronto Stock Exchange, after tapping institutional investors for approximately $130-million and profitably investing in 27 projects.
(Bloomberg Businessweek) — General Motors is trying to speed ahead in the race for metals underpinning the industry’s shift to electric cars. The US automaker is competing for a stake in Vale’s base metals unit, people familiar with the matter said this month. A deal may give GM access to the Brazilian mining giant’s copper and nickel resources that are key to making EV batteries.
GM has made several such wagers recently, buying equity while rivals mostly sign supply deals. Last month, it bought a $650 million stake in Lithium Americas to help develop Nevada’s Thacker Pass mine, which may support output of as many as 1 million EVs a year.
