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Lithium

From hot stock to bust, will Nemaska Lithium rise again? – by Martin Patriquin (Financial Post – May 26, 2021)

https://financialpost.com/

MONTREAL • About 1,000 kilometres from Montreal, in the Precambrian expanse of Quebec’s north, is the world’s second-largest deposit of one of its most sought-after minerals.

In 2009, Nemaska Lithium announced its intention to harvest its namesake mineral with all the gut-busting blarney usually reserved for gold rushes and oil strikes.

To investors, the company touted itself as “your next Canadian lithium supplier,” promising to deliver 300 jobs and $4.1 billion in revenues over its minimum 18-year lifespan.

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Canada has “right ingredients” to be EV battery leader – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – May 19, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Canada has a “once-in-generation” opportunity to establish itself as a major player in the global battery sector, but it needs to act fast to seize the opportunity, a new report reflecting the views of stakeholders across the electric vehicle (EV) supply chain shows.

Clean Energy Canada’s study, compiling opinions of major actors in the sector, such as General Motors Canada, Lion Electric, the Mining Association of Canada (MAC), the Automotive Parts Manufacturers’ Association and Unifor, concludes the country has the right ingredients for a successful battery sector.

Canada is rich in lithium, graphite, nickel, cobalt, aluminum and manganese, key ingredients for advanced battery manufacturing and storage technology.

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Biggest Lithium Miner Gears Up to Tap Major Lode From Old Cars – by Yvonne Yue Li (Bloomberg News – May 12, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — The world’s biggest lithium miner wants to extract more of the battery metal from old cars as demand surges and aging electric vehicles are traded in.

Albemarle Corp. is making investments and partnering with automotive equipment manufacturers on the recycling effort, which it calls “critical” to its future growth.

The miner is part of a growing list of companies looking to grab a share of the market for recovered battery materials as lithium supplies show signs of tightening.

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America’s electric cars need lithium so badly it may wipe out this species – by Matt McFarland (CNN Business – May 10, 2021)

https://www.cnn.com/

Washington, DC (CNN)Fewer than 40 years after humans discovered Tiehm’s buckwheat, a Nevada plant with yellow flowers, they may drive it to extinction in pursuit of electric vehicles, a technology widely hailed as being environmentally friendly.

Environmentalists say the benefits of Tiehm’s buckwheat could be vast, but its full significance is unknown. What’s certain, they say, is that guarding Tiehm’s buckwheat is important for preserving biodiversity on Earth.

The flower is so newly discovered that it hasn’t been studied thoroughly, they say. But botanists say they’re impressed with Tiehm’s buckwheat’s ability to thrive where few species can — poor soil that’s full of boron and lithium.

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A new lithium player surveys northwestern Ontario – by Staff (Northern Ontario Business – May 6, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Ardiden options battery metal properties to Great Northern Lithium for possible sale

Perth-based gold explorer Ardiden is optioning its northwestern Ontario lithium assets to a new junior mining entity, also from Australia.

Ardiden has signed an option agreement with Great Northern Lithium, to acquire 80 per cent of Ardiden’s lithium portfolio. The total consideration could be up to A$8.7 million if a sale goes through.

Great Northern Lithium is described in an Ardiden news release as being led by an experienced team, well-schooled in lithium exploration and in bringing deposits into production around the world.

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The Lithium Gold Rush: Inside the Race to Power Electric Vehicles – by Ivan Penn and Eric Lipton (New York Times – May 6, 2021)

https://www.nytimes.com/

A race is on to produce lithium in the United States, but competing projects are taking very different approaches to extracting the vital raw material. Some might not be very green.

Atop a long-dormant volcano in northern Nevada, workers are preparing to start blasting and digging out a giant pit that will serve as the first new large-scale lithium mine in the United States in more than a decade — a new domestic supply of an essential ingredient in electric car batteries and renewable energy.

The mine, constructed on leased federal lands, could help address the near total reliance by the United States on foreign sources of lithium.

But the project, known as Lithium Americas, has drawn protests from members of a Native American tribe, ranchers and environmental groups because it is expected to use billions of gallons of precious ground water, potentially contaminating some of it for 300 years, while leaving behind a giant mound of waste.

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New lithium giant emerges to feed surging battery demand – by James Thornhill (Bloomberg News – April 19, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

A planned US$3.1 billion merger of two Australian miners is set to create one of the world’s biggest producers of lithium products key to meeting fast-growing global demand for electric vehicle batteries.

The deal between Orocobre Ltd. and Galaxy Resources Ltd. is the biggest mining sector deal of the year so far, according to Bloomberg data, with shares of both companies closing at the highest in three years in Sydney.

The merger would create the world’s fifth-biggest producer of lithium chemicals, the refined form of the raw materials that are used to make electric vehicle batteries.

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Skyrocketing metal prices threaten to hinder EV affordability – by Annie Lee (Bloomberg News – April 14, 2021)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

A surge in demand for electric vehicles is sending the price of raw materials soaring, threatening to slow the push toward making cheaper batteries that are key to more widespread adoption.

Lithium, the mainstay for rechargeable power packs used in EVs, is roaring back after a three-year slump in prices, while cobalt surged about 57% last quarter.

Nickel jumped to a more-than six-year high earlier this year on optimism about the clean energy transition, though fell in March on plans by a top Chinese producer to beef up its battery business.

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Macquarie joins peers on bullish lithium price outlook – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – April 14, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Lithium shares are on a roll after investment bank Macquarie (ASX: MQG) joined peers in predicting a further increase in prices for the key battery metal driven by increasing demand from the electric vehicles (EVs) sector, which is expected to push the market into undersupply.

Analysts at the bank are now forecasting prices to rise by between 30% and 100% over the next four years.

“Our bullish EV demand outlook sees the lithium market move to deficit in 2022 with material shortages emerging from 2025,” Macquarie said in the report.

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Rio Tinto produces battery grade lithium in the US – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – April 7, 2021)

https://www.mining.com/

Rio Tinto (ASX, LON, NYSE: RIO) has kicked off lithium production from waste rock at a plant located at a borates mine it controls in California.

The demonstration facility is the next step in scaling up a breakthrough lithium production process developed at the Boron mine. The method allows Rio Tinto to recover the critical mineral and extract additional value out of waste piles from over 90 years of mining at the operation.

An initial small-scale trial in 2019 successfully proved the process of roasting and leaching waste rock to recover high grades of the metal, vital in the production of batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs) and most high tech electronics.

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Battery and ‘green’ metals brighten outlook for mining sector – by Trish Saywell (Northern Miner – April 6, 2021)

https://www.northernminer.com/

The transition to electric vehicles could take a decade or two but demand for the key metals in batteries and energy storage systems will only continue to grow as the shift to a greener future gains traction.

China currently leads the world in EV and battery production. The latest statistics from China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, according to BMO Capital Markets, show that sales of new energy vehicles (NEVs) in February were 585% higher than the same month in 2020, and the country’s production of lithium-ion batteries jumped 108% year-on-year to 18.25 billion units annually in the months of January and February.

The U.S. wants to catch up. Under U.S. President Joe Biden’s US$2.3 trillion infrastructure renewal and job creation plan announced last week, US$174 billion has been earmarked for EVs.

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Mining executives warn Ottawa about dependence on China for strategic minerals amid deteriorating relations – by Jesse Snyder (National Post – April 5, 2021)

https://nationalpost.com/

It’s estimated that China will control 67 per cent of global capacity to build lithium-ion batteries by 2030

OTTAWA — Mining executives and national security experts are warning the federal government about China’s domination of strategic mineral supplies, saying Ottawa needs to better protect supply chains for modern technology that relies on them like electric vehicles and smart phones.

In testimony before the House of Commons natural resources committee this month, experts described China’s decades-long efforts to control the market for critical minerals — including the 17 rare earth elements — by rapidly expanding its processing capacity or by acquiring foreign assets to dominate supply chains.

The minerals, which include magnesium, lithium and scandium, are used to develop such strategic products as solar panels, wind turbines, electric car batteries, mobile phone components and guided missiles.

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Fort William First Nation ready to be the host community of a lithium processing plant – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – March 31, 2021)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Avalon Advanced Material signs letter of intent with northwestern Ontario community on brownfield site search

A potential developer of a lithium chemical plant in northwestern Ontario has inked an agreement with Fort William First Nation (FWFN), next to Thunder Bay, to identify a suitable refinery site on reserve land.

Toronto’s Avalon Advanced Materials has signed a letter of intent with the community to collaborate on the possible construction of a lithium processing plant on Fort William’s spacious heavy industrial lands.

The reserve has more than 1,100 acres of brownfield property available, formerly known as the Grand Trunk Pacific Lands, that is being marketed as a development-ready industrial business park.

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Rising U.S. Lithium Industry: A Potential Quandary For Environmental Activists – by David Blackmon (Forbes Magazine – March 16, 2021)

https://www.forbes.com/

Lithium mining has been present in America for decades, although in a minimal way. The Wall Street Journal reported last week that, although the U.S. is very rich in underground lithium resources, it currently mines and processes only about 1% of annual global lithium production.

According to that report, “China, with a huge chemical industry and low costs, unearths about 10% and processes about two-thirds of what’s dug up.”

Lithium mining and production appears likely to become a much bigger enterprise in the United States as the Biden/Harris administration implements policies designed to encourage and stimulate it.

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Canada Used To Provide A Lot Of World’s Lithium, But Can It Revive That? – by Michael Barnard (Clean Technica – February 24, 2021)

https://cleantechnica.com/

Lithium used to be used to treat mania and mood swings, and now its availability or lack thereof is making market swings. In the 1950s, Canada was actually a player in the international lithium market, with a mine in Quebec providing tons of the salt, then failing as the market failed.

Fast forward to 2021, and lithium is a core component of the electrification of transportation, in all of our electronic gadgets and a lesser component for grid storage.

Canada actually has massive lithium reserves underground. Can it return to being, if not the king of lithium, at least a well-positioned pawn?

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