Elon Musk – Battery Production is Set to Pass 1TWh. We Need 300 Times to be ‘Fully Sustainable’

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI) says global battery production is on track to pass 1TWh in 2023.

Although the supply of lithium-ion batteries is increasingly going to new markets such as energy storage, the electric vehicle market remains the biggest market with Rho Motion forecasting EV sales to rise by more than 14 million units this year, from 10.2 million in 2022.

By 2030, battery supply is expected to hit almost 4TWh, a drop in the ocean to Elon Musk’s predictions that the world will need 300TWh of battery capacity to be fully sustainable.

“That would require annual battery production rising to 6.7TWh by 2030 and 11.8TWh in 2040 – a thirty-fold increase from today’s levels by mid-century,” BMI explains.

“That would require a twenty-fold increase in lithium supply to 12 million tonnes of lithium LCE and a similar increase in nickel sulphate to 8 million tonnes.

“Cobalt supply would have to increase by five times to 1 million tonnes of cobalt sulphate, and manganese by over twenty-fold to 2.5 million tonnes of manganese sulphate.”

Where will the battery production come from?

China is set to lead the charge with an estimated 78% of production this year, followed by 11% from the rest of Asia, 6% from Europe and 5% from North America.

However, the growing battery sector continues to be threatened by expectations that global lithium supply will enter deficit relative to demand by 2025.

New-York based FitchGroup says Chinese manufacturers are more likely to seek foreign supply to meet future needs than rely on an accelerated expansion of domestic production given the environmental scrutiny facing new projects and intensive use of water for lithium extraction.

Here’s how ASX lithium stocks are tracking:

A total of 36 companies closed in the green, 47 fell flat and 54 tumbled into the red.

Who’s got news out?

ZENITH MINERALS (ASX:ZNC)

A major new lithium geochemical target has been identified at the Split Rocks lithium project in Western Australia, named ‘Cielo’.

The anomaly, which hasn’t been previously drill tested, is >9km long by 2km wide and returned a peak auger soil value of 117ppm Li.

Planning is underway for an air core drill program to test the new Cielo lithium geochemical target whilst RC drilling of Anomaly A3 is planned for early 2023.

LIGHTNING MINERALS (ASX:L1M)

Initial findings from a geophysical review has identified 28 targets across Lightning Minerals’ Dundas Project, supporting its exploration strategy for critical minerals and lithium.

The company says these geophysical targets and geochemical data will be used as the basis for drill program planning with Lightning Minerals’ geologists on site this week.

“These early results continue to build the company’s confidence in the Dundas region as a significant lithium district,” L1M CEO Alex Biggs says.

“With geophysical targets occurring along similar interpreted structures and lithologies as known lithium mineralisation to the north, the results are very promising.”

L1M is also investigating the geophysical target identified by Southern Geoscience Consultants on tenement E63/2001 as well as other Dundas tenements where soil sampling is continuing.

CRITICAL RESOURCES (ASX:CRR)

Exceptional grade, low-impurity, coarse spodumene concentrate has been produced from CRR’s Mavis Lake lithium project in Ontario, Canada.

The first tranche of metallurgical test work, utilising simple heavy liquid and magnetic separation processes have delivered concentrate results up to 6.42% Li2O.

These high lithium grades, couples with ‘extremely low’ impurities demonstrates excellent potential for Mavis Lake to produce premium quality concentrate, the company says.

“Metallurgical test work is a key step in advancing Mavis Lake along the development pathway,” CRR MD Alex Cheeseman says.

“Concentrate with this type of specification, commands a premium in the market.”

Results will form the basis of scoping study work into the Mavis Lake project, due for completion mid-CY2023.

The post Eye on Lithium: Battery production is set to pass 1TWh. We need 300TWh all up to be ‘fully sustainable’, Elon Musk says appeared first on Stockhead.

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