Categories: Energy / General Market Commentary
Topics: General Energy / General Market Commentary

Lithium market small but complex Presented by: Market One Media Group

Lithium market small but complex

Presented by: Market One Media Group
Scott Simpson, Special to BNN.ca from Market One Media

Canadian junior and Chinese partner taking long view

Every junior commodity market has its share of pretenders to go along with the contenders as prices and demand move up.

In striking contrast to internationally traded bellwether metals such as copper and gold, the market for lithium is murky. Analysts have noted recent variances in spot prices in China ranging to $20,000 a tonne. There’s barely a handful of producers and buyers and a popular production method — extracting lithium from underground saline water deposits — is not scalable in the tradition of a conventional hard rock mining operation.

Lithium is the consensus ‘metal of the future.’ It is the core component in the rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power electric cars and the key to a global transition away from fossil fuels for transportation.
Roskill, an industrial minerals consultancy, says demand growth for lithium carbonate has grown more than 16 per cent per year since 2012.

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