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Lithium

Lithium supply chain threatened by East-West geopolitical tensions – report – by Staff (Mining.com – July 6, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Geopolitical risks and the US-China tensions pose threats to the global lithium supply chain, a new report by Fitch Solutions Country Risk & Industry Research states.

Based on questions asked by the participants in the webinar “Global Lithium Outlook – Key Themes For A Fast-Growing, Fast-Evolving Sector,” the report presents the viewpoint of Fitch’s experts on what the future of the lithium market may look like.

According to the analyst, increasingly tense relationships between the West – a rising battery manufacturer and key EV end market and China – a dominant lithium-processing player and current leading battery manufacturer – are the main issues raising risks over the resilience of supply chains.

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Chile royalty regime changes may jeopardise future investments – Woodmac (Mining Weekly.com – July 5, 2021)

https://www.miningweekly.com/

Although proposed changes to Chile’s mining royalty regime are not expected to have a drastic impact on the copper-producing nation’s production landscape in the near term, amendments do risk compromising continued appetite for large-scale, long-term investments.

This is according to resources consultancy Wood Mackenzie analyst William Tankard, who stresses that Chile has to careful consider the implementation of its royalty regime reform.

“It is unhelpfully alarmist to place primary focus on the proposed amendments [impact] on producers’ value loss under current spot prices, which are at record highs,” he cautions.

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Pallinghurst makes billion-dollar bet on Quebec as global battery hub – by Nicolas Van Praet (Globe and Mail – July 5, 2021)

https://www.theglobeandmail.com/

European private equity investor Pallinghurst Group is making a billion-dollar bet that Quebec will recover from its early blunders in battery materials and become a dependable pillar for supply in North America, as the global shift to electric transportation accelerates in the years ahead.

London-based Pallinghurst has invested more than US$500-million to date in two key battery-mining and material-processing projects in the province, with plans for more.

The company scooped up mining company Nemaska Lithium Inc. out of bankruptcy protection in a partnership with the Quebec government’s investment arm and built up a 15-per-cent position in another supplier, Nouveau Monde Graphite.

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CHART: Study predicts over 400% increase in copper, lithium, nickel battery demand – by Editor (Mining.com – June 30, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

BloombergNEF has upped its predictions for annual demand for lithium-ion batteries by more than a third from its previous forecast on the back of expectations for rapid growth in the passenger vehicle segment.

BNEF predicts annual demand for lithium-ion batteries will pass 2.7 terawatt-hours per year by 2030 – a 35% increase from the analytics company’s forecast made last year. Passenger vehicles will represent 72% of the overall market as sales race to 14 million by 2025 from just over 3 million last year.

BNEF expects China to extend its lead in the battery supply chain — particularly processing and refining. The country accounts for almost half of new lithium hydroxide projects coming online this year and has 55% of the world’s nickel sulfate market and 80% of the global market for cobalt sulfate, according to the report.

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Lithium nationalism taking root in region with most resources – by Jonathan Gilbert and Daniela Sirtori-Cortina (Bloomberg News – June 29, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

Politicians in Latin America, a region that accounts for more than half the world’s lithium resources, are looking to increase the role of the state in an industry that’s crucial for weaning the world off fossil fuels.

In Argentina, state energy companies are entering the lithium business as authorities make a bid to develop downstream industries. In Chile, a leading presidential candidate wants to do something similar just as the nation drafts a new constitution that may lead to tougher rules for miners.

To be sure, no one in power is talking about expropriating assets in production and much of the anti-investor rhetoric in Chile is coming from opposition groups.

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China Giant Ganfeng Says Lithium Could Return to Boom-Time Highs – by Annie Lee (Bloomberg News – June 24, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — Ganfeng Lithium Co., the lithium supplier that’s extending an acquisition spree, says there’s a chance that a tightening market for the battery metal could push prices back toward a record high.

The world’s third-largest producer of lithium chemicals, used in batteries for electric vehicles to grid-scale energy storage, is positioning to capitalize as the market extends a rebound from a more than two year slump that ended in September.

“The industry is rapidly growing and we have a very upbeat forecast on lithium consumption,” Vice Chairman Wang Xiaoshen said in an interview. “I can’t rule out the possibility for lithium prices to bounce back to the 2018 level.”

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Amid plans to mine lithium in rural Nevada, Indigenous, rural communities at center of the energy transition – by Daniel Rothberg (Northern Nevada Business Weekly – June 22, 2021)

https://www.nnbw.com/

Maxine Redstar’s office on the Fort McDermitt Indian Reservation sits in a valley surrounded by mineral-rich mountain ranges that stretch past the Oregon border, only a few miles to the north.

It’s May, and after a short spurt of precipitation in an otherwise record dry year for Nevada, the valley has turned pastel-green with sagebrush dotting the land. Near the administration building and Redstar’s office, a sign is planted in the ground. It reads: “Keep Your Aboriginal Rights!!”

Redstar, as chairwoman of the Fort McDermitt Paiute Shoshone Tribe, is at the center of a fight over a planned lithium mine in Thacker Pass, “Peehee mu’huh” in Paiute. Part-administrator and part-spokesperson, her phone rings often, and documents are scattered across her desk.

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Federal government needs to protect critical minerals industry as China tightens grasp, report says – by Jesse Snyder (National Post – June 21, 2021)

https://nationalpost.com/

Full Report: https://bit.ly/3qkvGSt

The study by the Commons natural resources committee details how Ottawa has failed to secure supply chains for the strategic minerals, which could have major consequences

OTTAWA — The federal government is due for a “wake-up call” on the need to protect Canada’s critical minerals industry, as China tightens its grip on supplies of rare earths and other crucial materials, a new Parliamentary report says.

The minerals, which include magnesium, lithium and cobalt, are used to make electric car batteries, mobile phone components, solar panels and guided missiles.

A study by the House of Commons natural resources committee, tabled last week, details how Ottawa has failed to secure supply chains for the strategic minerals — a shortcoming that could have major consequences as next-generation technologies take up a growing share of the global economy.

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Crowdfunding helps Cornish to establish a battery metals hub for the UK – by Vladimir Basov (Kitco News – June 21, 2021)

https://www.kitco.com/

(Kitco News) – Cornish Lithium, the innovative mineral exploration and development company based in Cornwall, UK, today announced that it has successfully completed a crowdfunding campaign on Crowdcube raising £6 million (~$8.4 million) to progress its geothermal and hard rock projects in Cornwall and to create additional value for shareholders.

The company said it opened up the opportunity to pre-registered investors today at 9:00am and had raised it’s £6 million target within 20 minutes.

CEO & Founder Jeremy Wrathall said, “We are delighted with the support we have received to date for our latest crowdfunding round. The additional funding will be used to continue the progress towards our goal of creating a battery metals hub for the UK.

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ENERGY TRANSITION: US battery strategy aims to eliminate nickel, cobalt – by Andrea Hotter (Metal Bulletin – June 17, 2021)

https://www.metalbulletin.com/

Full Report: https://bit.ly/3cPTRCP

The United States has published a strategy for lithium-ion battery manufacturing which calls for the elimination of cobalt and nickel from the cathode by the end of the current decade.

It intends to achieve this through research and development into new technologies, with the goal of establishing a domestic battery supply chain that meets the demands of the growing electric vehicle (EV) and electrical grid storage markets, the government said in the strategy document.

The blueprint has been developed by the Federal Consortium for Advanced Batteries, which is led by the government’s departments of Energy, Defense, Commerce and State, and includes many other organizations across the US government.

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The U.S. has grand ambitions to conquer the global EV market — it can’t win without Canada – – by Ryan Castilloux (Financial Post – June 16, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

Ryan Castilloux is managing director of Adamas Intelligence, which provides research on strategic materials and minerals.

A US$174-billion U.S. plan to spur domestic production and sales of U.S.-made electric vehicles while bolstering domestic supply chains, from raw materials to parts, dovetails with allies Canada and Australia’s ambitions to become leading suppliers of raw materials to parts.

The plan is part of the massive US$2-trillion spending plan unveiled by U.S. President Joe Biden in March, that aims at creating millions of “good jobs,” rebuilding the nation’s infrastructure, and positioning the U.S. to “out-compete China.”

From a raw materials perspective, there are four main facets of interest for the Canadian auto sector in the U.S.’s grand ambition to win the EV market.

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Ganfeng Lithium to buy 50% of Mali mine for $130 million – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – June 14, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

China’s Ganfeng Lithium, one of the world’s top producers of the commodity used in electric vehicle batteries, is acquiring a 50% stake in a special purpose vehicle that owns the Goulamina hard-rock mine in Mali for $130 million.

Ganfeng, which counts automakers Tesla and BMW among its customers, said the move will grant it at least half of Goulamina’s first-phase annual output, estimated in 455,000 tonnes of spodumene.

Mali’s government can take 10% of the equity free of charge and pay in cash for up to 10% more, the company said.

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Serbia may decide fate of Rio Tinto’s lithium project in referendum – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – June 7, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Serbia’s President, Aleksandar Vucic, may seek voter approval for Rio Tinto’s Jadar lithium project near the city of Loznica, in western Serbia, as community opposition grows.

Speaking on local TV on Monday, Vucic said the government fully supports the project, which could become Serbia’s second largest export earner once developed. He also said his administration won’t let it happen if it doesn’t get the people’s approval first.

Jadar has been facing local opposition due to heritage issues. Its footprint covers the area around Paulje, a Bronze Age archaeological site, as well as several classified natural monuments.

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Mining Companies Call Themselves Green in Push for Investor Cash – by Scott Patterson (Wall Street Journal – June 8, 2021)

https://www.wsj.com/

Mining companies are trying to tap into the flood of cash targeting green investments by touting their production of materials that go into wind turbines, power lines and batteries.

They are playing down the environmental impact of their operations and, for many of them, their big businesses mining coal.

The International Energy Agency said in a May report that while coal mining will decrease dramatically in the coming years, “the mining of minerals needed for clean energy transitions increases very rapidly” in a global economy focused on bringing down carbon emissions.

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EDITORIAL: Green groups against renewable energy (Las Vegas Review-Journal – June 8, 2021)

https://www.reviewjournal.com/

It’s become apparent that radical environmentalists aren’t just waging war on fossil fuels, they’re against virtually any energy development at all. This deserves more attention, particularly given the rush by Democrats in Nevada and other states to impose renewable mandates.

Last week, the Biden administration announced it would seek to protect Tiehm’s buckwheat, a wildflower found only in a remote area of western Nevada, under the Endangered Species Act.

The decision came after the Center for Biological Diversity threatened the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management with legal action.

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