Is there enough lithium for electric cars? A global scramble for lithium mines

At present, in the lithium battery industry, an obvious trend is that global enterprises are deepening the global lithium mine layout.

Among them, The layout speed and scale performance of Chinese lithium ion battery company is the most outstanding, and is expected to occupy a dominant position in the lithium ore supply market in the future.

Global scramble for Lithium

A global scramble for lithium is at stake, and the trend is becoming more and more intense. Including lithium ion car battery, materials, automotive, industrial and other industry giants and financial capital are accelerating the entry.

Recently, three Chinese companies won the right to develop three lithium mines in Argentina at a total cost of 8.7 billion yuan.

CATL has agreed to acquire Millennial to hold Pastos Grandes for $377 million (1.92 billion RMB). Zijin won the Tres Quebradas project for a total consideration of about $960 million (4.96 billion RMB).

Ganfeng Lithium will own 100% of Mariana project after completing the acquisition of 8.58% equity of the project with 13.178 million US dollars (about 84 million RMB), with a total transaction of 1.83 billion RMB.

This year, there are 16 projects to compete for and develop lithium mines in global, involving more than 44 billion RMB. Among them, there are 7 projects related to overseas mineral resources and 9 projects related to Chinese lithium resources.

The scramble for lithium mines is on the verge of breaking out, and Chinese companies are the most outstanding in terms of speed and scale, so they are likely to dominate the lithium supply market in the future.

The tension of lithium resource supply

The rhythm and actions of a number of enterprises to layout the lithium resources even with increased price further confirm that lithium supply is in a serious situation of shortage, through equity, acquisition, lock long order and other ways to deploy lithium resources is still the main melody of the future market.

According to the data, the price of lithium metal has risen from 485,000 yuan/ton on January 4 to 870,000 yuan/ton on October 9, a cumulative increase of nearly 80%.

Battery grade lithium carbonate rose from 53,000 yuan/ton at the beginning of the year to 182,500 yuan/ton at present, a cumulative increase of 244%; Lithium hexafluorophosphate rose from 112,500 yuan/ton to 475,000 yuan/ton, a cumulative increase of 322%.

Ganfeng Lithium has also issued a price adjustment notice, starting from October 10, the price of its whole series of lithium metal products (industrial grade lithium metal, battery grade lithium metal, lithium material lithium strip products) increased 100,000 yuan/ton;

Butyl lithium product unit price increased by 10%. Ganfeng lithium said the price adjustment is mainly due to the continued rise in the price of raw materials and power supply, lithium metal production costs significantly increased.

Why companies are scrambling for lithium

The urgency of lithium mine competition lies in that, on the one hand, facing the TWh era, the effective supply chain will face a huge gap, battery enterprises need to prevent the risk of resource supply interruption in advance;

On the other hand, the price of lithium electric materials is “soaring”. Lithium-ion battery manufacturers need to suppress the price fluctuation of supply chain and realize the cost control of core raw materials.

From a global perspective, China, Europe and the United States have proposed long-term carbon neutrality targets this year, and given a new energy vehicle penetration target.

Among them, China proposes to achieve 20% penetration rate of new energy vehicles by 2025; Europe requires the realization of all-electric new energy vehicles by 2035, that is, 100% penetration; The United States also proposed to achieve 50% penetration of new energy vehicles by 2030.

As the data shows, global shipments of power and energy storage batteries will reach 1516GWh in 2025. According to the estimation that the processing capacity of 10,000 tons of lithium carbonate can meet the demand of 15GWh battery, the production capacity of 1.01 million tons of lithium carbonate will be derived.

The current record lithium price may be just the beginning. In the medium term, the high-speed growth of demand driven by new energy vehicles and the slow release of supply will intensify the supply gap, and the rising trend of lithium price will not change;

In the long run, the rapid growth of new energy vehicle sales in China is certain in the future, the demand for lithium, nickel, cobalt, copper foil and other high growth can be expected, and the lithium mine is limited by resources or there is a continuous gap.

In contrast to the huge market prospect, due to the decline of lithium prices in the past few years, many major mines suffered operating pressure last year, or production reduction, resulting in the supply of global lithium resources are limited.

The whole lithium resource industry is in a state of imbalance between supply and demand, and the price continues to rise.

In the future, with the widening gap between supply and demand, the market supply and price evolution situation will be more severe, which is also the reason why enterprises are competing for lithium resources.

What should be done in the future

Controlling mineral resources means that enterprises can hold the “throat” of stable supply and cost control of lithium resources. From the perspective of current enterprise dynamics, the main trends are as follows:

Chinese enterprises actively attack the overseas lithium market

As a big demand country, from the perspective of stable supply and cost control, It is very important for Chinese enterprises to go out and grab the right to speak on the cost of lithium mines.

At present, including CATL, Ganfeng Lithium, Tianhua Super Clean, Zijin Mining, Xizang Zhufeng and other Chinese enterprises have taken the step of acquisition, and there will be more enterprises to participate in the global mineral resources battle in the future.

Strategically improve the status of lithium extraction from salt lake

At present, the global supply of lithium ore is dominated by spodumene lithium, and the supply representative country is Australia.

However, as Australian lithium concentrates are sold by auction, it becomes more difficult for Chinese lithium salt enterprises to cooperate with them, and the cost management of lithium is out of control.

Among the proven lithium resources in the world, 58% are salt lake brine. The global representative lithium resources are distributed in the Lithium Triangle of South America (Bolivia, Chile and Argentina), the western United States and Qinghai and Tibet of China. Salt lake lithium is high on hopes.

Since the beginning of this year, CATL, Zijin Mining, Xizang Everest, Ganfeng Lithium (Mariana) participated in the overseas lithium mine acquisition are all salt Lake minerals.

Salt Lake lithium extraction is expected to become an important cornerstone of global lithium supply due to its advantages in resource scale, cash cost and increasing breakthroughs in lithium extraction technology.

Promote the development and utilization of local lithium resources

Facing the global carbon neutrality goal and the TWh era, the importance of strategic of lithium resources has become a global consensus, and the competition is bound to become increasingly fierce in the future.

China’s efforts to develop lithium resources are of strategic significance to ensure the supply security of lithium resources.

In terms of lithium extraction from salt lake, EVE, Fulin Precision Industry, Ganfeng Lithium, Xizang Mining and Zangge Lithium have already extended their tentpoles to domestic salt lake resources, participating in mineral development and resource lock.

In terms of lithium extraction from mica, CATL and Guoxuan High-tech have entered Yichun to further break through the technology of lithium extraction from mica, reduce costs and solve problems such as waste residue treatment from industrial chain connection to capital support, so that lithium mica will become an important supplement of lithium resource supply in the future.

China’s lithium extraction technology and mass production scale have reached the inflection point of qualitative change and will play an important role in the global lithium resource stage in the future.