column-cornish lithium dreams may die in south america's salt lakes: andy home - lithium battery manufacturers

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The opinion expressed here is the opinion of the columnist of Reuters. )* tmsnrt.
Rs/2k2 bs * tmtnt.
Andy house rs/2kzg3j, London, January 3 (Reuters)-
There's lithium in Cornwall!
A start message
Cornwall Lithium will explore "future metals" in Britain's historic tin mine"
The mining area has been cheered by the foreseeable national cheer.
"Cornwall's mining industry has started a £ 50 revolution," a headline in The Sun claimed . ".
It may just be a little too early.
The company, led by Jeremy Wrathall, who graduated from Cornwall's famous Camborne mining school and is now a banker at Investec and is currently trying to raise £ 5 million to launch exploration projects.
Any production of lithium will take at least five years.
It is not too difficult to find lithium batteries.
As early as the 19 th century, Cornish tin miners knew about lithium
Thanks to the popular TV series, there is a rich spring water underneath, which is now known as "Poldark Country ".
This is the case with lithium.
There's a lot of this around, not just in Cornwall, where lithium explorers are tearing down abandoned mines and looking for a mineral that had little mainstream commercial use before the invention of lithiumion battery.
On the contrary, the real challenge is to be able to extract lithium in a form that would be useful to anyone and at a competitive price.
Lithium must be refined extensively until it becomes a form suitable for use in battery manufacturing, whether lithium carbonate or hydroxide.
Cornwall Lithium believes in new technology to make tin miners products that used to be called "lithia" into products that meet the strict specifications required by battery manufacturers.
It will compete with existing wells.
A supply chain has been established, controlled by a small number of participants who are not interested in relaxing market controls.
This oligopolistic Enterprise's ability to meet the expected growth in demand for lithium batteries for electric vehicles and grid storage will be a real determinant of whether the Cornwall mining dream becomes a reality.
China lithium carbonate spot price diagram
Chart of Rs/2k2 Graphic bs on the price of lithium carbonateS. : tmsnrt.
Rs/2kZjg3J established producers, most of them operating in the "Lithium Triangle" of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia salt lake, have been slow to respond to the surge in battery demand.
That's why spot prices became supernova at the end of 2015 and early 2016.
According to the metal announcement group's "industrial minerals", the spot price of lithium carbonate in China soared from an average of $7. 7 per kilogram (kg)
It reached $26 in June 2015.
April 2016 6 per kilogram.
This is also the time for the world to focus on the small lithium market.
Most lithium is not traded in the spot market, but through quarterly or annual contract transactions between producers and customers.
Pricing for these existing supplier networks is only now beginning to work.
With spot prices soaring in China.
Annual Contract for lithium carbonate settled at $10
According to the "battery price report" of industrial ore in December, this year 16 kilograms per kilogram, about twice the price of 2016 deliveries.
The price of lithium hydroxide has also doubled to $14.
This year's annual contract is 20 kilograms per kilogram.
In China, however, a large amount of heat has disappeared from the market, and the spot price of carbon carbonate is now back to $18-21 range.
Part of the reason is that the Chinese government has tightened subsidies for electric vehicles.
But this is also partly due to an increase in the supply of new lithium in the first wave.
In Argentina, Orocobre is increasing production of its Olaroz salt water business and is already considering a second time
Phase Expansion and battery construction-
Hydrogen oxide plant.
In Australia, Galaxy Resources has just announced the first shipment of spodumene.
The rock of its Mt Cattlin mine replaces lithium salt water.
Another Australian mine, Marion Mountain, owned by new metal, has just been put into production.
Spodumene also needs professional treatment to translate into something that battery manufacturers can use, and this part of the supply chain is controlled by Chinese entities such as Tianqi Lithium, the company holds a stake in Australia's existing Greenbush coal mine and Jiangxi Ganfeng, the indirect owner of Mount Marion.
Both Chinese companies are investing aggressively to prepare for the next wave of lithium demand.
Tianqi announced the establishment of a hydrogen oxide plant in Australia, which means that Greenbush's production will increase and bought a small stake in the Chilean salt water producer SQM.
Similarly, there is no waste of time in Ganfeng to ensure that it remains at the heart of the existing supply chain.
It will buy a 19. 9-
In return for the $174 mln investment, the investment will fund the development of the new salt water business in Argentina, Villar-Olaroz.
SQM also has a stake in the project, and now Thailand's Bangchak Petroleum also has a stake, the company announced a similar deal with Ganfeng a few days after the Chinese company moved.
This is the second wave of investment in lithium production, bringing together existing salt water operators (SQM)
Existing Lithium processors (Ganfeng)and two off-take partners (
Ganfeng and bangak).
The first production plan for asiar is 2019, the first time
In the second phase, the capacity of the phase of 25,000 tons of lithium carbonate has doubled.
By the way, lithium America also sits on the former king's Valley lithium outlook in Nevada, another potential lithium hotspot that is already home to the salt water facility operated by Albemarle
Albemarle itself is a core member of the lithium industry.
It just had a sign.
As the Chilean government is also prepared to maintain control over rapid production, a production quota of 80,000 tons per year has been canceled
Promote the lithium market.
The price shock of 2015 caught lithium off guard, but it showed every sign of learning from the collective lesson.
Yabao, square meters, Tian Qi and Feng are already planning the development of this market in the next stage.
In the oligopolistic market, only the FMC company has not yet sold.
It is worth repeating that these companies have a broad understanding of how to mine and process lithium, and from the existing long-term
Establish long-term business relationships with battery manufacturers.
If there is a chance for Cornwall Lithium and others who want lithium, they will do so.
Finding lithium is the easiest part.