(Bloomberg) — Rio Tinto Group plans to invest $2.5 billion in a new lithium mine in Argentina in a win for President Javier Milei’s efforts to deregulate the country’s economy and lure foreign investment.
The UK company plans to build a processing plant at the Rincon mine with an annual capacity of 60,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate, it said Thursday in a statement. Work on the facility, subject to permitting, will start in the middle of next year.
Children as young as five-years-old were found to be working in one illegal mine.
Electric vehicles, laptops, battery packs, smartphones…it’s a long list of items we rely on every day that rely on a key material: lithium. But have you stopped to think who mines for this precious metal? In northern Nigeria, it has been found to be children. Lithium mining is dangerous and exhausting work.
Miners descend several feet into dark pits then wield axes to hack through rocks. In some old but viable mines, they crawl through yards of snaky, narrow passages, wedging themselves between unstable mud walls before starting to dig. Abdullahi Sabiu has spent years in these pits after he started working the mines at 20.
Edward Bartell is an Orovada rancher. His family ranch neighbors the Thacker Pass project in Humboldt County.
I am writing in response to the recent hype in numerous newspapers about the alleged benefits the Thacker Pass Lithium Mine will contribute to Nevada’s economy. Lithium Americas Corporation (LAC), which is developing Thacker Pass, is aggressively hyping a study pointing to these alleged benefits.
What LAC fails to mention is this study was conducted last year before the complete price collapse and assumes lithium prices to be more than double what they actually are. The touted study assumes lithium prices to be $24,000 per metric ton.
Brazil’s legislative overhaul in lithium export regulations has transformed the country into a burgeoning hub for lithium production, unlocking vast economic potential and attracting global investments.
“Thanks to a legislative change made four years ago regarding lithium exports, we can now transform this mineral asset into an economic resource,” Fernando Passalio, secretary of state for economic development of Minas Gerais, told S&P Global Commodity Insights.
LONDON, Dec 10 (Reuters) – Many lithium mines, led by Chinese operators, are maintaining production of the raw material needed for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, in defiance of prices weak enough to trigger mass output cuts – providing a boon for battery makers.
The continued production raises the prospect of years of oversupply and of weak prices. Some battery makers own mines or have injected cash into operations to keep them operational, company reports show.
https://www.northernminer.com/
Lithium Argentina is seeking to redomicile to Switzerland and change its name to Lithium Argentina AG following a corporate review and a new agreement with investor Ganfeng Lithium, the company said Friday.
The company decided Switzerland was the best jurisdiction on strategic, commercial and legal grounds, would provide expanded financing flexibility, and support its long-term growth plans. It also aims to move the Lithium Argentina group of companies’ operational headquarters to Buenos Aires.
https://www.reuters.com/markets/
Bolivia’s government and Chinese consortium CBC, which includes battery manufacturer CATL, have signed an agreement for CBC to build two direct lithium extraction plants for at least $1 billion, government authorities said on Tuesday.
The government will take a 51% stake in the project, to be located in the Uyuni salt flat in southwest Bolivia, within the so-called lithium triangle shared with Chile and Argentina. The two plants together are intended to produce 35,000 metric tons of lithium a year, said Omar Alarcon, head of state-run lithium company YLB.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/
Gus Carlson is a U.S.-based columnist for The Globe and Mail.
Just weeks after a discovery that could transform humble Arkansas into an unexpected global powerhouse in a green-tech future, the state is learning the hard way that, as in life and love, when it comes to lithium, timing is everything.
A study released last month by the U.S. Geological Survey and the Arkansas Department of Energy and Environment revealed a huge deposit of lithium – the essential element in batteries for electric vehicles – in a limestone aquifer known as the Smackover Formation in the southwestern section of the state.
MOUNTAIN VIEW COUNTY – Mountain View County has approved a request by Calgary-based E3 Lithium Ltd. for an option to purchase the land at the former Dyck Gravel Pit east of Highway 2.
In a news release issued Thursday, E3 Lithium Ltd. said the site southeast of Olds will be used for the company’s Clearwater Project’s Central Processing Facility. The property is “well situated for infrastructure, including accessible utilities and roadways, to support E3 Lithium’s development of the first commercial lithium facility in Western Canada.”
(Bloomberg) — Lithium is enjoying a mini-revival on an uptick in Chinese electric vehicle demand and supply cuts, although analysts caution there’s still likely to be a surplus of the battery metal in 2025.
Chinese lithium carbonate spot prices have rallied around 8% since late October and are now at a three-month high, while futures on the Guangzhou exchange have jumped 13% so far this week. An expansion in Chinese subsidies encouraging people to trade in older cars has aided the nascent rebound in the metal that’s crucial to the energy transition.
(Bloomberg) — Embattled Australian miner Mineral Resources Ltd. will immediately shut its Bald Hill lithium project, citing the crash in prices of the key battery material.
The Western Australia mine, capable of producing 150,000 tons of spodumene concentrate a year, was acquired by Mineral Resources last year. The announcement of its closure comes after the company said earlier this month that founder billionaire Chris Ellison will step down as managing director after an internal probe into undeclared payments found he had engaged in “profoundly disappointing” conduct.
https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/
Power Metals hands contract to Black Diamond Drilling to probe for high grade cesium
A Vancouver cesium and lithium exploration outfit has hired an Indigenous-owned drilling company for its latest campaign near the Quebec border. Power Metals announced it’s engaged Black Diamond Drilling Services to complete a third round of drilling at its Case Lake property, 80 kilometres east of Cochrane.
Black Diamond Drilling is a First Nation company-owned by the community of Apitipi Anicinapek Nation (ANN), formerly Wahgoshig First Nation, located near Matheson.
Australia’s Global Lithium Resources (ASX: GL1) is seeking to postpone its upcoming annual shareholder meeting until March next year due to concerns over a potential breach of foreign ownership rules.
The West Perth-based developer fears that Chinese national and minority shareholder Liaoliang “Leon” Zhu is attempting to gain control of the firm and its assets located near Kalgoorlie by joining the board and reducing the number of directors.
For more than two days, a vital shipping passageway in the Port of L.A. was shut down, and the cause was surprising to some. A big rig overturned, sparking a fierce lithium-ion battery blaze that spewed toxic gases, snarled port traffic and resulted in what one official said was massive economic losses from delayed shipments.
The incident focused new attention, and fears, on the fuel cells helping drive the state’s clean energy transition. But how dangerous are these batteries really? And should you be scared of your e-bike, vape pen or electric car?
RENO, Nev. (AP) — For the first time under President Joe Biden, a federal permit for a new lithium-boron mine has been approved for a Nevada project essential to his clean energy agenda, despite conservationists’ vows to sue over the plan they insist will drive an endangered wildflower to extinction.
Ioneer Ltd.’s mine will help expedite production of a key mineral in the manufacture of batteries for electric vehicles at the center of Biden’s push to cut greenhouse gas emissions, administration officials said Thursday in Reno. Acting Deputy Interior Secretary Laura Daniel-Davis said bolstering domestic lithium supplies is “essential to advancing the clean energy transition and powering the economy of the future.”
