How The U.S. Is Losing The Lithium Industry To China – by Robert Rapier (Forbes Magazine – January 11, 2022)

https://www.forbes.com/

In the early days of the oil industry, the U.S. quickly established dominance as the world’s most important producer and consumer of petroleum. But over time, depletion in the U.S. and discoveries abroad caused U.S. dominance of the petroleum industry to fade. Although the U.S. remained the world’s largest consumer of petroleum, it became increasingly dependent on foreign oil.

It became clear many years ago that U.S. dependence on other countries for petroleum was a national security issue. The issue came to a head in 1973, when various members of the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) initiated an oil embargo against the United States and certain U.S. allies.

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Beardmore-area mine developer cashes up to process Ontario lithium material in Europe – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – Janurary 6, 2022)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Rock Tech Lithium, owners of a lithium deposit in northwestern Ontario, are poised to start construction this year on a processing plant in Germany that will be fed by its mine project near Lake Nipigon.

The Vancouver-based junior miner, with strong European connections, announced Dec. 30 that it has raised U.S.$39.6 million (Cdn$50.7 million) of which a portion is earmarked to develop of its spodumene deposit, the Georgia Lake Project, in the Beardmore area. Spodumene is the most widely used lithium because of its high lithium content.

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Lithium: A year of progress and protests – by Timothy Burmeister (Elko Daily Free Press – January 1, 2022)

https://elkodaily.com/

With the anticipated need for a lot more lithium to put into batteries to help power a greener future, you might think environmentalists would give a pass to some of the negative effects of the proposed lithium mines that are being planned at sites around Nevada. That’s not the case. The opposition to some of the proposed mines has been strong and may even be ramping up.

Thacker PassLithium Americas’ Thacker Pass lithium mine may be the biggest project on the horizon, and it is facing lots of opposition. Lithium Americas has been working for years on plans for Thacker Pass, which is about 60 miles northwest of Winnemucca.

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U.S. faces tough choices in 2022 on mines for electric-vehicle metals – by Ernest Scheyder (Reuters – December 22, 2021)

https://www.reuters.com/

Dec 22 (Reuters) – The United States has enough reserves of lithium, copper and other metals to build millions of its own electric vehicles (EVs), but rising opposition to new mines may force the country to rely on imports and delay efforts to electrify the nation’s automobiles.

The tension underscores the dilemma facing the United States going into 2022, a year in which U.S. policymakers hope to see groundbreakings on a raft of EV manufacturing facilities from Ford Motor Co(F.N), General Motors Co(GM.N) and others.

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Sudbury junior miner raises $12 million for northwestern Ontario lithium project – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – December 17, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Frontier Lithium seeks to mine PAK project to supply electric vehicle sector

A Sudbury junior mining company has cashed up to do more exploration of its high-grade and open-ended lithium property in northwestern Ontario.

Frontier Lithium announced Dec. 15 that it’s raised $12 million in flow-through shares to boost the resource numbers at its PAK project, 175 kilometres north of Red Lake, near the Manitoba border.

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The World Wants More Lithium But Doesn’t Want More Mines – by Thomas Biesheuvel and Misha Savic (Finacial Post/Bloomberg News – December 18, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

(Bloomberg) — Prices for lithium, the building block of electric-vehicle batteries, shot to a record this year, amplifying concerns there won’t be enough of the metal to fuel the switch away from combustion engines. In that climate, now should be a prime time to build a mine.

Rio Tinto Group is finding out otherwise. Within months of unveiling plans for a $2.4 billion mine in western Serbia, local opponents organized a movement that’s rocked the government and brought cities to a standstill as thousands of protesters march in the streets. Authorities subsequently suspended a land-use plan for the proposed mine, though they didn’t reject the project completely.

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China is buying up the critical green-revolution minerals sector in Canada and elsewhere. Enough already – by Eric Reguly (Globe and Mail – December 18, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

A week ago, the shareholders of Canada’s Neo Lithium approved the sale of the TSX Venture Exchange-listed company to China’s Zijin Mining for about $960-million. The announcement received little coverage and appears to have bothered almost no one in the federal government. It should have.

While Neo Lithium is hardly a household name, and the company is relatively small, its purchase should have raised a stink not just in Ottawa but in Washington and among North America’s electric-car makers.

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Serbia suspends lithium mine plans after protests – by Dusan Stojanovic (Associated Press – December 16, 2021)

https://apnews.com/

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Local authorities in western Serbia on Thursday suspended a plan that would allow mining giant Rio Tinto to operate a lithium mine, following protests by environmentalists that shook the country’s populist leadership.

The mining had been expected to start in the near future, but a town council in Loznica voted to suspend a regional development plan that permitted the excavation of lithium. The vote followed the suspension last week of two key laws in Serbia’s parliament that ecologists said would help the multinational mining company start the project.

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Green-Energy Race Draws an American Underdog to Bolivia’s Lithium – by Clifford Krauss (New York Times – December 16, 2021)

https://www.nytimes.com/

SALAR DE UYUNI, Bolivia — The mission was quixotic for a small Texas energy start-up: Beat out Chinese and Russian industrial giants in unlocking mineral riches that could one day power tens of millions of electric vehicles.

A team traveled from Austin to Bolivia in late August to meet with local and national leaders at a government lithium complex and convince them that the company, EnergyX, had a technology that would fulfill Bolivia’s potential to be a global green-energy power. On arriving, they found that the conference they had planned to attend was canceled and that security guards blocked the location.

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Column: Europe’s green deal needs to get round anti-mining roadblock – by Andy Home (Reuters – December 16, 2021)

https://www.reuters.com/

LONDON, Dec 16 (Reuters) – Protesters took to the streets in Serbia again on Saturday. It was the third consecutive weekend of marches and road blockades against the government’s push to develop its mining sector.

Opposition groups have coalesced around one project in particular – Rio Tinto’s (RIO.L) proposed lithium mine in the Jadar Valley. In Portugal’s Serra d’Arga mountains lithium is also the target of environmental resistance, with five local mayors leading a demonstration in October to protest a mine project.

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Lithium Prices Soar, Turbocharged By Electric-Vehicle Demand and Scant Supply – by Amrith Ramkumar (Wall Street Journal – December 13, 2021)

https://www.wsj.com/

The lithium price surge is setting off a scramble for supply and fueling fears about long-term battery metals shortages

Lithium prices are rising at their fastest pace in years, setting off a race to secure supplies and fueling worries about long-term shortages of a vital ingredient in the rechargeable batteries that power everything from electric vehicles to smartphones.

An index of lithium prices from research firm and price provider Benchmark Mineral Intelligence doubled between May and November and is up some 240% for the year. The index is at its highest level in data going back five years.

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Geothermal brines in California’s Salton Sea could be future source of lithium in the US – by Valentina Ruiz Leotaud (Mining.com – December 12, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

A literature review prepared by Berkeley Lab scientists found that geothermal brines in the Salton Sea region of California are expected to be a major source of domestic lithium for the United States in the future but that significant technical challenges have to be overcome.

One of the main obstacles is that brine is extremely hot when it comes out of the subsurface, and it contains a rich stew of many dissolved minerals in addition to lithium.

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Thousands of Serbians block roads to protest lithium mine project (Al Jazeera.com – December 11, 2021)

https://www.aljazeera.com/

Protesters fear mining by multinational companies will cause huge damage to local environment.

Environmental protesters have blocked roads in Serbia for a third consecutive weekend to oppose plans for lithium mining, despite a bid by the country’s populist government to defuse the demonstrations by agreeing to the key demands of organisers.

Several thousand people braved rain and cold weather on Saturday to halt traffic in the capital, Belgrade, and in other cities and towns in the Balkan nation.

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Rio Tinto’s past casts a shadow over Serbia’s hopes of a lithium revolution – by Daniel Boffey (The Guardian – November 19, 2021)

https://www.theguardian.com/

A battery sign, flashing dangerously low, appears superimposed over a view of the globe as seen from space. “Green technologies, electric cars, clean air – all of these depend on one of the most significant lithium deposits in the world, which is located right here in Jadar, Serbia,” a gravel-voiced narrator announces.

“We completely understand your concerns about the environment. Rio Tinto is carrying out detailed analyses, so as to make all of us sure that we develop the Jadar project in line with the highest environmental, security and health standards.”

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The Scramble for EV Battery Metals Is Just Beginning – by Stephen Wilmot (Wall Street Journal – December 2, 2021)

https://www.wsj.com/

Making the global economy more environmentally sustainable will require a lot more natural resources. This is an irony the mining industry will need both to exploit and to defuse.

Electric vehicles highlight the problematic opportunity for miners. Although a Tesla or Porsche Taycan doesn’t have a tailpipe and usually generates much less carbon than a traditional car over a multiyear lifespan, its big lithium-ion battery requires more metal than an internal combustion engine.

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