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Lithium

American OEM automotive industry’s big problem with lithium … and why Elon Musk is wrong. – by Jack Lifton (Investor Intel – June 7, 2022)

https://investorintel.com/

There isn’t enough lithium mined, and there can never be enough lithium mined and processed into end-user forms economically, to replace the use of fossil-fueled internal combustion engines in the powertrain systems of the current one and one-half billion personal and mass transportation vehicles with electric motors powered by rechargeable lithium-ion type storage batteries.

I think that most of the managers of the global OEM automotive, aerospace, and shipbuilding industries know this, but they are powerless in the face of the demands of politicians who have given in to the greens who are unaware of the limitations of physical natural resource production and processing for non fuel minerals, and who rely on the advice of narrowly and poorly educated and just plain dumb “experts” who have credentials but no experience of business operations, real-world economics or even rudimentary geology.

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Lithium mining stocks plunge after Goldman sees “sharp correction” – by Frik Els (Mining.com – June 1, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

Goldman Sachs rattled lithium stocks after the investment bank declared the battery metals bull market “over for now”. Goldman calls today’s lithium levels a “fundamental mispricing [that] has in turn generated an outsized supply response well ahead of the demand trend in focus.”

In this context, Goldman sees prices on a downward trajectory over the course of the next two years, with a sharp correction in lithium from today’s levels to an average of just under $55,000 this year. For 2023, the forecast is for an average price of just $16,372.

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One-time tourist hotspot to supply key electric car battery ingredient for Stellantis – by Eric D. Lawrence (Detroit Free Press – June 2, 2022)

https://www.freep.com/

Chrysler parent Stellantis plans to get a substantial amount of the lithium needed for its electric vehicle batteries from a former tourist mecca in California. The automaker announced a deal Thursday with Controlled Thermal Resources, which has offices in California and Australia, to supply “battery grade lithium hydroxide” for use in EV production in North America.

That means Stellantis, which also controls the Jeep, Ram, Dodge, Fiat, Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands, will join General Motors, which announced a similar agreement last year, in tapping Controlled Thermal’s expected lithium production in the Salton Sea Basin, an area near the U.S. border with Mexico.

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Eramet plans more lithium plants in South America – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – May 31, 2022)

https://www.mining.com/

France’s Eramet said on Tuesday it aims to expand its lithium footprint in South America, where it is already developing a production plant, as part of the miner’s strategy to shift towards minerals used to power electric vehicles (EVs).

The company owns a large lithium deposit in the Centenario-Ratones salt flat located in north-west Argentina, which attracted last year Chinese steel group Tsingshan as a partner. This agreement covers the plant construction, with commissioning scheduled for early 2024.

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The Trouble With Lithium – by Annie Lee (Bloomberg News – May 25, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Elon Musk wants to mine it, China is scouring Tibet for it, battery makers are crying out for it. Lithium, the wonder metal at the heart of the global shift to electric cars, is in a full-blown crisis. Demand has outstripped supply, pushing prices up almost 500% in a year and hindering the world’s most successful effort yet to halt global warming.

The shortage of lithium is so acute that in China, which makes about 80% of the world’s lithium-ion batteries, the government corralled suppliers and manufacturers to demand “a rational return” to lower prices. Analysts at Macquarie Group Ltd. warned of a “a perpetual deficit,” while Citigroup Inc. nearly doubled its price forecast for 2022, saying an “extreme” rally could be coming.

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The Lithium War Next Door – by Alexander C. Kaufman (Huff Post – May 23, 2022)

https://www.huffpost.com/

A lithium mining startup promised to make a rural pocket of North Carolina a clean-energy boomtown. But perceived slights and concerns over water have turned neighbors against the project.

GASTON COUNTY, North Carolina — Brian Harper opened the door to his back porch, stepped outside, and inhaled the brisk air. Exhaling, he stretched his arms out wide as if to embrace the bucolic scene before him.

Moments like this were sacred — and, he feared, fleeting. On that late afternoon in early January, the sun cast a golden tint over the brown frost-nipped fields behind the Harper family’s stately brick home. Just a few hundred feet away was the red barn containing his workshop, where he makes precision gears for clients like Duracell, Dart Container Corp. and Nestlé.

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Legendary lithium riches from Bolivia’s salt flats may still just be a mirage – by Marcelo Rochabrun (Reuters – May 23, 2022)

https://www.reuters.com/

SALAR DE UYUNI, Bolivia, May 23 (Reuters) – On Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, a vast white salt flat that feels almost otherworldly, Karina Quispe is watching from the sidelines a global resource race for the world’s largest – and almost untapped – trove of battery metal lithium.

Her village on the edge of the salar – from where most of the men have migrated to Chile to find work – has so far seen few jobs or benefits from the mineral wealth beneath the plains.

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Lithium Sector Needs $42 Billion as Pivot From China Adds Costs – by Annie Lee (Bloomberg News – May 16, 2022)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The global lithium industry needs as much as $42 billion of investment by the end of the decade in order to meet demand for the crucial battery-making material, with attempts to build supply chains outside of China subject to much higher costs, according to a data and market-intelligence provider.

The sector will require $7 billion of investment each year from now until 2028, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence said in a report. That would help it meet forecast demand of 2.4 million tons a year by 2030, which is four times higher than the 600,000 tons that’s estimated to be produced in 2022.

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The Next Frontiers In The Lithium Boom – by Felicity Bradstock (Oil Price.com – May 7, 2022)

https://oilprice.com/

Lithium is becoming an increasingly important topic in the oil and gas world as firms realize the importance of lithium-ion batteries in the future of global energy. It will be key to the energy transition, not only for use in batteries for electronic devices but also for electric vehicles (EVs) and to store renewable energy for steady release.

So, what are countries around the world doing to fuel lithium production? Automakers globally are driving up demand for lithium as they increase their EV output, with many car manufacturers planning the rollout of several new EV models by 2030.

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The Salton Sea could produce the world’s greenest lithium, if new extraction technologies work – by Katie Brigham (CNBC.com – May 4, 2022)

https://www.cnbc.com/

About 40 miles north of the California-Mexico border lies the shrinking, landlocked lake known as the Salton Sea. Once the epicenter of a thriving resort community, water contamination and decades of drought have contributed to a collapse of the lake’s once vibrant ecosystem, and given rise to ghost towns.

But amidst this environmental disaster, the California Energy Commission estimates that there’s enough lithium here to meet all of the United States’ projected future demand, and 40% of the entire world’s demand. That’s big news for the booming electric vehicle industry, as lithium is the common denominator across all types of EV batteries.

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The lithium stocks best placed to capture price boom – by Alex Gluyas (Australian Financial Review – May 4, 2022)

https://www.afr.com/

Fund managers favour established lithium producers, rather than explorers, given they’re more likely to capture soaring prices.

The powerful rally in lithium stocks is not sustainable for all companies in the sector, strategists warn, meaning investors will need to become more selective if they want exposure to one of the hottest pockets of the local sharemarket.

The price of lithium, a key ingredient in batteries, has exploded in the past year as tight supply has been met with booming demand fuelled by the transition to electric vehicles.

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Why Lithium Mining For EV Batteries Should Be Our ‘Absolute Last Resort’ – by Kea Wilson (Streets Blog USA – May 3, 2022)

https://usa.streetsblog.org/

Lithium mining is having a devastating impact on local and indigenous communities as well as ecosystems around the globe, and reducing dependence on automobiles must be a key part of our strategy to curb the damage, a new report says.

According to a new analysis from the Natural Resources Defense Council, the rapid expansion of the electric vehicle battery market is driving a boom in demand for lithium carbonate, a synthesized compound whose key component — lithium itself — is derived from just a tiny handful of natural deposits located throughout the world.

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Could there be another lithium processing plant coming to Thunder Bay? – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – May 2, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Australia’s Green Technology Metals has been scoping out the city for a processing plant site

Thunder Bay was once known as one of the forest products manufacturing capitals of Canada. These days, the city looks to be shaping up to become the North American centre of lithium processing for the electric vehicle revolution.

Australia’s Green Technology Metals is looking to fast-track one of its four lithium properties in the Armstrong area of northwestern Ontario into mine production. The company is further eyeballing Thunder Bay as a regional processing hub to convert lithium concentrate mined from its flagship Seymour Project into battery-grade material for the electric vehicle industry.

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Skyrocketing Lithium Prices Highlight Need For New Technologies – by David Blackmon (Forbes Magazine – May 2, 2022)

https://www.forbes.com/

Concerns over the ultimate availability of adequate supplies of lithium and other minerals that are critical to the energy transition have elevated recently. On April 8, Tesla and SpaceX CEO and founder Elon Musk tweeted that he was considering starting his own mining company in light of rising prices for lithium, which he said had reached “insane levels.”

“Tesla might actually have to get into the mining & refining directly at scale, unless costs improve,” Musk said in his tweet. “There is no shortage of the element itself, as lithium is almost everywhere on Earth, but pace of extraction/refinement is slow.”

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The Geopolitics of the Rare-Metals Race – by Guillaume Pitron (The Washington Quarterly – April 25, 2022)

The Washington Quarterly

The 20th century was the era of black gold; the 21st will
undoubtedly be the era of metals

In 2010, a team of Pentagon officials and American geologists uncovered Afghanistan’s best kept secret: a plethora of mining resources such as lithium, copper, cobalt—including 1.4 million metric tons of rare-earth elements, estimated to be worth more than $1 trillion, all of them essential to modern industry.

After this development, Afghanistan, according to The New York Times, rapidly became heralded as a country which could “be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world.” More than a decade later, however, US forces filing out of Afghanistan were leaving these resources untapped, attracting the interest of neighboring nations.

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