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Lithium

Lithium Argentina picks Switzerland as another China-backed junior flees Canada – by Blair McBride (Northern Miner – November 29, 2024)

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.

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Bolivia says China’s CBC to invest $1 billion in lithium plants – by Daniel Ramos and Daina Beth Solomon (Reuters – November 26, 2024)

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.

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Opinion: Arkansas just found a large lithium deposit. But lithium ain’t what it used to be – by Gus Carlson (Globe and Mail – November 23, 2024)

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.

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Mountain View County selected for Alberta’s first commercial lithium facility – by Dan Singleton (The Albertan – November 21, 2024)

https://www.thealbertan.com/

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.”

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Lithium in Nascent Rebound, But Long-Term Outlook Is Bleak – by Annie Lee (Bloomberg News – November 14, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(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.

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Troubled Mineral Resources Halts Lithium Mine as Woes Mount – by Paul-Alain Hunt (Bloomberg News – November 12, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(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.

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Lithium explorer forges bond with Indigenous development corporation – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – November 6, 2024)

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.

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Global Lithium raises alarm over potential foreign takeover – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – November 8, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

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.

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Lithium-ion batteries causing fires, dangers on California freeways, sparking calls for safety improvements – by Clara Harter (Los Angeles Times – October 28, 2024)

https://www.latimes.com/

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?

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Nevada lithium mine wins final approval despite potential harm to endangered wildflower – by Scott Sonner (Associated Press – October 24, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

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.”

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Massive lithium deposit found across southeastern US could end reliance on imports – by Shane Galvin (New York Post – October 23, 2024)

https://nypost.com/

A new geological survey has discovered enough lithium to meet global demand for the next six years. The study, led by the United States Geological Survey, discovered between 5 million and 19 million tons of lithium reserves in a rock formation in the southern part of the continental US, Fox Business reported.

Scientists derived samples from the Arkansas portion of the Smackover Formation – which spans six states from Florida’s Gulf Coast, through parts of Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi, and stretching across Texas.

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Lithium Americas revamps Thacker Pass deal with GM in new US$625M JV – by Blair McBride (Northern Miner – October 16, 2024)

Global mining news

Shares in Lithium Americas (TSX: LAC; NYSE: LAC) jumped by 20.2% on Wednesday after it announced anew, US$625-million joint venture agreement with General Motors for its Thacker Pass project in northern Nevada.

Under the deal that the developer calls the largest ever by a U.S. original equipment manufacturer in a lithium project, GM is to acquire a 38% stake in Thacker Pass for US$625 million in cash and letters of credit. The JV deal replaces the US$330 million in second tranche equity investment from GM announced in January 2023, and is in addition to the US$2.3 billion loan from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE).

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Lithium stocks ‘one deal away’ from going on a tear: E&P – by Alex Gluyas (Australian Financial Review – October 15, 2024)

https://www.afr.com/

Australian lithium stocks are just one deal away from a resurgence as investors face a shrinking pool of miners to invest in after Rio Tinto’s $9.9 billion takeover of Arcadium, according to E&P Financial.

The broker said Rio’s landmark deal, which capitalised on the collapse in lithium prices, could trigger a wave of institutional money into the stocks as investors speculate on the next takeover target. “Rio’s acquisition of Arcadium feels like bottom of the cycle M&A,” wrote E&P analyst Adam Martin in a report to clients.

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Rio Tinto’s real prize: Arcadium’s lithium extraction technology – by Ernest Scheyder and Clara Denina (Reuters – October 11 2024)

https://www.reuters.com/

Rio Tinto’s $6.7 billion buyout of Arcadium will give it a suite of lithium filtration technologies that are poised to revolutionize how the metal is produced for the electronics and electric vehicle industries.

Arcadium’s expertise in so-called direct lithium extraction (DLE) is the real prize for Rio, analysts said, and vaults it into contention with Eramet, Sunresin, Exxon Mobil and others aiming to make the technology commonplace in coming years.

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Will the Ottawa fund one Northern Ontario lithium refinery or four? Wilkinson plays coy – by Lindsay Kelly (Sudbury.com – October 11, 2024)

https://www.sudbury.com/

Federal minister says Canada must pick up the pace of critical minerals development, without cutting environmental corners

Canada needs to speed up the pace of mining-related development if it wants to be a critical minerals leader on the global stage. That was the message from federal Energy and Natural Resources Minister Jonathan Wilkinson during an Oct. 9 appearance in Sudbury.

Speaking at the 2024 Conference of Mining Regions and Cities, hosted by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), Wilkinson noted Canada’s global ranking in the top five producing countries for 13 major minerals and metals, including palladium, gold, platinum and nickel.

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