Tesla Gigafactory "Grand Opening" this week on July 29th has brought Lithium back into headlines. CNBC is pushing the story out after UBS and Goldman Sachs have endorsed Electric Cars and Lithium respectively. I will not be very cynical here, but you can get the drift. In my very personal opinion, there is NO Lithium underneath the Tesla Gigafactory floor. The Lithium Launch 2.0 will separate hype and daydreams from people with dreams and solid lithium projects advanced with strong major lithium end-users as strategic partners. Just always make your very own DD and otherwise the story is right: all cars will be electric very soon and powered by Lithium Technology.
I was very impressed during Benchmark Minerals Intelligence Battery Supply Conference hosted by UBS this June in London when UBS basically killed any hydrogen dreams left and pronounce that battery powered electric cars are the future for transportation. According to UBS just in a few years time, we will reach the cost ownership parity between electric cars and ICE ones powered by diesel and gasoline. It will be the major tipping point and China is leading the way. Lithium X gained my respect after its presentation when they have stated that very substantial claims in Nevada are on hold and no investment is planned to advance them before the new lithium extraction technology for that region can be developed. There are enough known lithium resources to make all our transportation electric, lithium is even in the sea water - the trick is to extract it economically and in time to meet the rising demand. My very personal estimations are for 100% increase in the next 5 years and Goldman Sachs is talking now about lithium demand tripling by 2025. Now add here all the rumors about Electric Cars from Apple, Foxconn; and Jaguar Land Rover, BMW and Ford being in talks about building their own lithium batteries "Gigafactory" to compete with Tesla.
International Lithium goes with its strategic partners to the places where Lithium is and not just Tesla and its Gigafactory. Ganfeng Lithium is $4.5 Billion market cap giant from China with 19 patents and the only company able to produce lithium from both hard rock and brine sources. Ganfeng invests heavily in International Lithium and finances our two J/V s in Ireland and Argentina. And the real lithium race is happening in China already where 25 companies are making 51 models of electric cars.
International Lithium And Ganfeng Drill 4.62 M Of 2.33% And 10.65 M Of 1.07% Of Li2O At Avalonia, Ireland.
Race For Renewable Energy Technologies Charges Lithium Market. Chinese Lithium Leader Secures Supply Sources.
"Ganfeng has a strong commitment to supply Lithium product to various industries worldwide,” stated Ganfeng’s Director, Wang Xiaoshen, “so we clearly have a vested interest in these projects and have been very hands-on in the evaluation of ILC’s properties. Our company is the only one in the world that has commercial production capacities to extract Lithium from both brine and spodumene, and we continually implement cutting-edge technologies to our processes. I feel confident that this is a fit for our operations and the potential these projects hold."
Electric Cars rEVolution: Lithium Is The New Gasoline - Goldman Sachs' Bob Koort.
"When UBS talks about coming parity for the cost of ownership of Electric Cars and ICE vehicles, people are listening. When Goldman Sachs talks about Lithium investors will listen carefully as well. Here we have been talking about both subjects for years and, hopefully, you are ready for what is coming now. I will talk today only about a few numbers and the rest you can find below. The cost of lithium in the lithium battery is below 3% of the finished product. Goldman Sachs is talking about the tripling of lithium demand by 2025. All lithium market was around $1 billion dollars in sales in summer of 2015 with LCE prices at $6,000 per ton. Even after reports of some prices reaching as high as above $20,000 per LCE T in China this year we are talking here about the lithium market with total sales below $5 billion dollars. Now let's put it into the perspective of the funds under management by the people who are following Goldman Sachs and $12 trillion industries of Energy and Transportation being disrupted by the lithium technology. Watch the video."
Lithium 2.0 Launch: Security Of Supply - Galaxy Resources To Buy General Mining In Lithium Takeover.
"This chart of lithium price in China is keeping awake at night very many people now in our very small industry. Quite a lot of them have totally missed the launch of Lithium 2.0 and now the security of supply is the major geopolitical issue. Tesla is still relying on Panasonic to supply lithium cells and a lot of people are relying on the "Lithium Found in Nevada" under Tesla's Gigafactory floor.
Ganfeng Lithium: $4.5 billion giant from China is the strategic partner of International Lithium and now financing two of our J/V operations in Ireland and in Argentina. We are going where Lithium is and not just the hype around it. As we have discussed before, Lithium 2.0 is now for real as we have the real electric cars finally on the road and GM Bolt and Tesla Model 3 bring us mass market for electric cars. Cheap lithium batteries change everything. Exponential growth in EVs sales is following by deployment of Energy Storage now.
This Lithium M&A is pointing out another very important quality of Lithium 2.0 Launch: separation of dreams from the real people with the real projects, capital and technology to put them forward. There are only very limited number of quality lithium projects and even less capable teams with access to the capital and technology, like in the case of International Lithium and Ganfeng. Read more."
Real Money:
As Lithium Demand Grows, China 'Charged Up and Ready to Grow'.
By ANDERS KEITZ
As electric cars become increasingly popular, the race to produce lithium is heating up.
CNBC's Phil LeBeau reported there is a 15% annual growth in lithium worldwide.
"One of the key drivers is the fact that lithium is essential to the batteries in electric vehicles," LeBeau said. A battery with lithium-ion is rechargeable.
Goldman Sachs analysts said they see lithium-ion batteries as the mainstream technology over the next five years -- and China is one market that is "charged up and ready to grow."
The analyst team with GS said in a June 8 research note that energy storage demand is surging in China as renewable use grows, energy efficiency requirements evolve and electric vehicles sales ramp up.
China is dominating the lithium market as 97% of electric buses and 75% of their batteries are produced in the country, according to IDTechEx.
IDTechEx Research also sees the market growing to $30 billion in 2026, and expects electric bus batteries will overtake the consumer electronic battery sector by 2019-20.
Four companies lead the production of lithium: Australia-based Talison Lithium (31%), U.S.-based Albemarle (ALB) (20%), Chile-based SQM (SQM) (22%) and U.S.-based FMC(FMC) (13%).
But LeBeau pointed out as he reported from Central Valley, Nev., that investors are noticing the increase in demand for lithium and are exploring new areas where the mineral may be mined.
These companies are not alone in the race for lithium.
Tesla Motors (TSLA) is racing to finish its own Gigafactory. The company says that with a planned production rate of 500,000 cars per year in the latter half of this decade, "Tesla alone will require today's entire worldwide production of lithium-ion batteries."
The Gigafactory is expected to begin cell production in 2017, and will reach full capacity by 2020.
The Gigafactory "will produce more lithium-ion batteries annually than were produced worldwide in 2013," the company said.
According to the Goldman Sachs analysts, "even modest [electric vehicle] penetration for electric vehicles could triple lithium demand by 2025."
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