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Lithium

Frontier Lithium finds mine, refinery project partner in Mitsubishi – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – March 4, 2024)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

No news from Ottawa on critical infrastructure funding for key northern bridge and access road

Sudbury’s Frontier Lithium has attracted a heavyweight partner in Mitsubishi Corporation to develop its massive PAK lithium project in northwestern Ontario.

On the opening day of the PDAC mining show in Toronto, Frontier Lithium announced a definitive agreement with Mitsubishi to establish a joint venture partnership for both its proposed $US576-million fully integrated mine and a lithium chemicals conversion refinery.

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The Boom in Battery Metals for EVs Is Turning to Bust – by Rhiannon Hoyle (MSN.com/Wall Street Journal – February 19, 2024)

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/

When the world’s most valuable lithium company last year announced plans for a $1.3 billion plant in South Carolina, local officials hailed it as transformative for the Palmetto State.

The high-tech project from Charlotte, N.C.-based Albemarle was designed to process different sources of lithium, including from recycled batteries, and serve as a supplier of the critical mineral for South Carolina’s burgeoning electric-vehicle industry.

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Are Lithium Stocks at Rock Bottom? – by Stephen Wilmot (Wall Street Journal – February 19, 2024)

https://www.wsj.com/

The volatile metal has spawned a volatile market, and prices have fallen too far to cover the cost of supply needed for electric vehicles

If investing is about pouncing at the point of maximum pessimism, lithium stocks must be worth a fresh look.

The metal used to make electric-vehicle batteries has given investors whiplash. Prices rose rapidly in 2021 and 2022 before falling even faster in 2023. Seaborne spot supplies of the benchmark compounds, lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide, now cost roughly what they did in mid-2021, according to data from the price-reporting agency Fastmarkets.

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US wildlife service considering endangered status for tiny snail near Nevada lithium mine – by Scott Sonner (Associated Press – February 8, 2024)

https://apnews.com/

RENO, Nev. (AP) — Federal wildlife officials have agreed to conduct a full, year-long review to determine whether a tiny snail found only in high-desert springs near a huge lithium mine being built along the Nevada-Oregon line should be listed as a threatened or endangered species.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said in a finding published Thursday in the Federal Register that enough scientific exists to warrant the review sought by environmentalists who say that groundwater pumping required for the operation of the Thacker Pass mine could push the Kings River pyrg to the brink of extinction.

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The Great Salt Lake Is Full of Lithium. A Startup Wants to Harvest It. – by Scott Patterson (Wall Street Journal – February 12, 2024)

https://www.wsj.com/

Lilac has raised $145 million from Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures, other investors

America’s biggest saltwater lake may hold a key to the country’s energy future. This summer, a California startup plans to start construction on a project to suck up water from the Great Salt Lake to extract one of its many valuable minerals: lithium, a critical ingredient in the rechargeable batteries used in electric vehicles.

The water will then be reinjected back into the lake, which Lilac Solutions says addresses concerns about the damaging effects of mineral extraction. At its peak, Lilac says it will use a series of pipes to suck up 80,000 gallons of water a minute to harvest the mineral. The company plans to eventually produce up to 20,000 tons of battery-grade lithium a year at its site in northern Utah, located among fields of cattle and pickleweed.

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‘The wind just died down’: Lithium miners try to hold on as prices slump – by Naimul Karim (Financial Post – February 6, 2024)

https://financialpost.com/

Falling prices hurting investor appetite and threaten to crush exploration

Miner Paul Cowley decided two years ago to shift his focus to lithium from gold when his company acquired the mineral rights for multiple small claims containing the light metal in central Alberta.

Given lithium’s skyrocketing prices and investors pouring money into companies associated with the metal needed to power electric-vehicle batteries, the chief executive of TSX Venture-listed Indigo Exploration Inc. thought it was the perfect time to make the move.

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Activists, Hollywood take down top 50 mining company – by Frik Els (Mining.com – January 31, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

The ranks of the most valuable mining companies in the world were throughly scrambled in 2023 as governments intervened, lithium and nickel prices tumbled, gold hit records and a new listing went ballistic.

At the end of 2023, the MINING.COM TOP 50* ranking of the world’s most valuable miners reached a combined $1.42 trillion, up a healthy, if far from spectacular $48.7 billion over the course of 2023. Mining’s top tier is also worth $330 billion less than in March 2022.

Metal and mineral markets are volatile at the best of times – the nickel, cobalt and lithium price collapse in 2023 was extreme but not entirely unprecedented. Rare earth producers, platinum group metal watchers, iron ore followers, and gold and silver bugs for that matter, have been through worse.

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Opinion: Critical minerals boom goes bust – by Jennifer Hewett (Australian Financial Review – February 1, 2024)

https://www.afr.com/

The collapse of lithium and nickel prices is a rude awakening for Australia’s miners, but also reveals the challenges in the Albanese government’s ambition for greater domestic manufacturing.

The West Australian government’s budget is still flush with mining royalties thanks to iron ore. But although iron ore will continue to sustain the state’s finances, last year’s excited rhetoric about Australia instantly becoming home to a rich new resources boom in critical minerals is now looking distinctly threadbare.

In early 2023, WA politicians were marvelling that lithium royalties had suddenly grown to be worth $1 billion a year, for example, albeit a distant second to iron ore. Then minister for state development and now premier Roger Cook boasted of WA’s ambitions in critical minerals processing, extending from lithium hydroxide to nickel sulphate to battery manufacturing.

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Europe’s thirst for lithium threatens livelihoods, biodiversity in Portugal – by Marta Vidal (Al Jazeera – January 30, 2024)

https://www.aljazeera.com/

Open-pit mines are planned for Portugal’s northern region, worrying locals who say their livelihoods are at risk.

Covas do Barroso, Portugal – Paulo Pires walked up the hill with his flock of sheep and dogs on a warm day in August, as a stream of water gushed down an ancient irrigation channel that has been maintained by local communities over many generations. “There is a lot of wealth here,” said Pires, now resting in the shade of an oak tree by the flowing water.

For centuries, Covas do Barroso’s water, pastures and forests have been managed collectively to integrate farming, livestock and forestry in a sustainable manner. But Pires is worried. Savannah Resources, a company based in the United Kingdom, aims to develop Western Europe’s largest open-pit lithium mine in Barroso, bordering the Peneda-Geres National Park in northeastern Portugal.

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Albemarle lays off 300 employees on weak lithium prices – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – January 29, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Albemarle (NYSE: ALB), the world’s largest lithium producer, is said to have laid off more than 300 employees, or 4% of its total workforce, across its US and global operations.

The move, reported by The Information, comes as an oversupply of the ultra-light metal used in electric-vehicle (EV) batteries has caused prices to collapse. Lithium has plunged more than 80% from a late-2022 record high, with experts predicting that lithium carbonate prices in top consumer and producer China could fall by more than 30% this year from December 2023 levels.

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The rise of lithium mining threatens the Andean flamingo in Argentina – by Diego Jemio (El Pais – January 28, 2024)

https://english.elpais.com/

The mining boom — which is concentrated in the provinces of Salta, Jujuy and Catamarca — is affecting this species’ nesting places. There are less than 80,000 of these beautiful flamingos left

The Andean flamingo has an elegant stride, with a grace that hypnotizes you. Its plumage is impressive: a mix of hot pink, white and black. Reaching more than three feet in height, these creatures nest in colonies during the summer, in the shallow wetlands of Puna — the Atacama Plateau — and the Andes of Chile, Bolivia and Argentina. This area is also known as the “lithium triangle.”

In Argentina, the rarest of all flamingo species is found mostly in the northern provinces — Salta, Catamarca and Jujuy — during the warmer months. These birds can also be found in the center of the country, mainly in Córdoba and Santa Fe. According to the National Mining Secretariat, there are 38 lithium projects in the country, of which 17 are in the large salt flats of the province of Salta.

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Bolivia Uyuni plant to yield first lithium by 2025-end – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – January 22, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Bolivian state-owned lithium company YLB has inked a new deal with a Chinese consortium to install a pilot plant at the vast Uyuni salt flat, which would use Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology.

The project will see the construction of a 2,500 tonnes-per-year lithium carbonate facility that will be operated by the CBC consortium, formed by CATL, BRUNP and CMOC.

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BHP’s warning on battery minerals is striking – by James Thomson (Australian Financial Review – January 2024)

https://www.afr.com/

Demand from the energy transition was supposed to underpin strong prices for nickel and lithium. But the battery minerals slump appears to be entering a new phase.

The most interesting word in BHP’s December quarter operations update can be found on page 14 – “structural”. That’s how the mining giant describes the changes ripping through the nickel sector, and threatening the viability of its Nickel West project in Western Australia.

“The nickel industry is undergoing a number of structural changes and is at a cyclical low in realised pricing,” BHP said. “Nickel West is not immune to these challenges. Operations are being actively optimised, and options are being evaluated to mitigate the impacts of the sharp fall in nickel prices.” BHP also said it would consider whether it needed to take a writedown on the value of the Nickel West asset.

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Albemarle to cut jobs, halt expansions and sell stake in Liontown – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – January 17, 2024)

https://www.mining.com/

Albemarle (NYSE: ALB) said on Wednesday it would cut jobs and defer spending on projects, including a massive refinery project in South Carolina, as part of a wide-ranging plan to slash costs in light of falling lithium prices. The world’s top producer of the battery metal said it plans to spend $1.6 billion to $1.8  billion in 2024, down from about $2.1 billion it invested last year.

“The actions we are taking allow us to advance near-term growth and preserve future opportunities as we navigate the dynamics of our key end-markets,” chief executive Kent Masters said in the statement. “The long-term fundamentals for our business are strong and we remain committed to operating in a safe and sustainable manner.” 

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Lithium Venture in Chile in Talks with EV Firms to Invest in Mine Project – by James Attwood (Bloomberg News – January 17, 2024)

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/

(Bloomberg) — A joint venture valued at $1.5 billion to $2 billion that wants to become Chile’s third lithium producer is in talks with investors to bankroll its project.

Simco Lithium, owned by a Singaporean investment fund and a Chilean business group, is exploring the sale of a non-controlling stake, said Sebastian Yang, a board member representing the Simbalik fund. While the around $600 million project is too small to appeal to major mining firms, there is interest from battery and electric-vehicle makers.

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