This Week’s Top Lithium Stories From Around the Globe

Welcome to your Friday recap, where we give you the highlights of all things lithium that have occurred during the week.

We’ve scoured the googles and the majority of those in the know agree, this week’s been pretty special. 

Like this person:

 

Good morning!

China #lithium spot price continues to rise

Get daily updates via @LithiumPriceBot pic.twitter.com/6r6u8nSymB

— that stock chick (@ausstockchick) May 23, 2023

 

Monday

The big news to the start of the week was Citi analysts being quite confident that lithium prices would continue their bull run to recover by as much as 40% by the end of the year.

 

Tuesday

US lithium giant and long-time lover of Aussie spodumene, Albemarle, inked a deal with carmaker Ford to supply a cool 100,000t of lithium hydroxide (you know, the refined stuff) in a five-year deal.

That’s enough LiOH to become part of about 3 million Ford EV batteries.  

It is unknown if the refined lithium will come from Australia, however we do know the producer has committed to doubling capacity at its Kemerton refinery in WA.

 

Wednesday

We noted that Australia depends on China for 85% of its raw lithium exports, yet there are changes afoot.

Companies such as Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) are looking for ways to refine in-house before exporting to other countries, cutting China out as the middle-man. 

Further to that, a recent G7 summit highlighted bilateral cooperation on the critical minerals front with the US to secure supply chains of lithium and other rare earths.   

 

Thursday

Chinese battery maker Gotion High Tech unveiled a lithium-manganese-iron-phosphate (LMFP) L600 Astroinno battery that will enable EV’s a range of 1,000km on a single charge.

That’s double today’s standards. But wait, there’s more. Gotion said the potential lifespan of the battery cells was 4 million km.

We’re going to keep an eye on this one, as the batteries are due to be mass-produced sometime next year and could put a rocket under EV sales. Which will put a rocket under demand. Which will put a rocket under explorers, developers and producers alike.

 

Today

Chile’s state-owned miner Codelco is looking to fast-track an agreement with lithium major SQM to have a say in new lithium contracts.

Codelco is the world’s largest copper producer, and it seems the Chilean government is getting impatient with its mandate to nationalise the sector.

The president of Chile, Gabriel Boric, announced the plan to partly nationalise the country’s lithium sector in April and it seems now it’s strong-arming Codelco to expedite the process. 

This could have wider implications for foreign operators in the country such as Albermarle, Rio Tinto and BHP. 

Meanwhile, Hyundai and LG Energy Solution just announced that they will build a US$4.3 billion EV battery plant in the state of Georgia.

In a 50/50 JV, they’ll construct a 30 GWh plant to support the production of 300,000 EV’s per annum.

 

Here’s how Aussie lithium stocks are tracking:

38 lithium stocks leapt in price today, 66 broke even and 45 dipped.

 

WHO’S GOT NEWS OUT?

 

Blaze Minerals (ASX:BLZ)

Yet another ASX-listed explorer is off to Canada. BLZ has entered agreement to buy 340sqkm at the greenfields North Spirit lithium project in Ontario, near Patriot Lithium’s (ASX:PAT) tenements.

The acquisition will cost BLZ an initial $100,000 cash and $550,000 worth of shares (55m shares at 1c). The company will then pay an additional $2.65m cash and $5.95m shares in staged payments right up to the release of a mining feasibility study.

The vendor will also retain a 2% net smelter royalty (NSR) should the project enter production.

 

 

Sayona Mining (ASX:SYA)

Word is SYA has engaged its broker Petra Capital to raise $200m for work at its North American Lithium (NAL) project in Quebec where it produced first lithium concentrate back in March.

NAL has a nameplate capacity of up to 226,000t.

The funds are likely to be used towards further work at the NAL project, as well as other exploration work nearby. Stay tuned for more news on this one, because it’s likely to get a few ASX-listed explorers in a frenzy over the coming months. 

 

 

Equinox Resources (ASX:EQN)

EQN has found that early desktop studies on its  Dome and Larder Lake projects in Ontario indicate they’re highly prospective for Lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) bearing pegmatites.

Both areas are historically underexplored for lithium.

Dome Lake comprises of 783 claims covering an area of 160km2 and located within the prospective Wabigoon Subprovince on the Eastern Margin of the Onaman-Tashota Greenstone Belt within the Willet Assemblage.

Larder Lake consists of 585 claims covering 121km2 and is located within the Quetico subprovince near the Case Batholith region. 

The Case Batholith complex is an S-Type LCT granite with well documented Spodumene bearing pegmatites.

While in the early stages at the moment, the explorer seems very encouraged with what it’s looking at, as it’s currently fast-tracking further desktop studies to expedite early exploration work. 

This includes First Nations engagement, exploration permit approvals, target mapping, field reconnaissance for rock chip sampling, aerial surveys, lidar analysis and other associated exploration works.

 

 

The post Eye on Lithium: Here are this week’s top lithium stories from around the globe appeared first on Stockhead.

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