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Lithium prices in China plunged on Tuesday as weaker sales from major electric vehicle manufacturers and escalating Middle East tensions dampened demand prospects.The most-active lithium carbonate contract on the Guangzhou Futures Exchange fell 12.99% to close daytime trading at 150,860 yuan a metric ton, hovering near its 13% daily limit.The decline followed reports of softer February sales from several Chinese EV manufacturers, including industry leader BYD, whose EV sales plunged more than 40% year-on-year during the month.The Middle East conflict is expected to curb demand in the region, one of the fastest-growing markets for China’s battery energy storage system.Demand for lithium remains steady, though temporarily clouded over the weekend. A surge in battery storage adoption has strengthened the outlook for lithium, with lithium carbonate prices soaring 130% in 2025 from last year’s lows.Lithium has been rallying recently, supported by Zimbabwe’s suspension of lithium concentrate and raw mineral exports, before the recent price plunge in China.(By Lewis Jackson and Dylan Duan; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)

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US President Donald Trump’s rollback of electric vehicle targets may temporarily slow demand for lithium and other critical minerals, but is unlikely to hamper the mining industry amid surging global EV demand, analysts and industry leaders said.Trump on Tuesday revoked predecessor Joe Biden’s 2021 executive order that sought to ensure half of all new vehicles sold in the US by 2030 are electric. Automakers had been positioning for a jump in EV demand due largely to that Biden move.Trump’s order caused shares of Japanese automakers, South Korean battery makers and Australian, US and Chinese lithium miners to slip. But even if EV demand cools in the world’s second-biggest auto market, analysts and industry experts expect traction elsewhere to more than compensate.Trump has planned other regulatory changes to cut off support for EVs and charging stations. He also aims to strengthen measures blocking imports of automobiles and battery materials from China.“Every time people take away subsidies or benefits … it’s a dent to the demand scenario,” said analyst Glyn Lawcock at Barrenjoey, an Australian investment bank. “(But) ultimately demand will still grow even if the US is a bit slower under Trump.”Australian lithium producer Liontown Resources said the global transition to EVs was underway, with or without the United States.“Longer term, I just don’t think it will be an issue on demand,” Antonino Ottaviano, Liontown’s CEO, said on a Tuesday analyst call.Much of the EV industry’s growth happens in China, accounting for 11 million sales or 65% of the market, compared with North America, which accounts for 20% of the market, Liontown executives said on the call.Meanwhile, the rest of the world already accounts for 1.3 million EV sales and is growing at 27% year on year, a trajectory that will see it become more meaningful than the entire North American market in less than two years, the Liontown executives added.That growth potential is something Chinese EV manufacturers are chasing given they are locked out of the US market due to 100% EV tariffs imposed by Biden.Grid-scale batteries that store days’ worth of electricity are rising in popularity across the world, for example. Critical metals are also used to build many consumer electronics as well as computer servers needed to power the artificial intelligence industry.Albemarle, the world’s largest lithium company, declined to comment on Trump’s order.Arcadium, a lithium producer about to be bought by Rio Tinto and the International Lithium Association trade group, was not immediately available for comment.Rio Tinto also declined to comment on Trump’s order, but its CEO Jakob Stausholm told the World Economic Forum on Tuesday that he is bullish on the white metal.“Lithium demand will probably go up another five times over the next 15 years, so a lot more lithium projects will have to be built,” Stausholm told the forum in Davos, Switzerland, adding that he has owned an EV for more than nine years.“It’s just a better car” than an internal combustion engine, Stausholm added.David Klanecky, CEO of privately held battery recycler Cirba Solutions, expects US demand for critical minerals to jump by 2030 due to the demand not just for EVs, but for myriad electronics.Beyond any target rollbacks, miners said they believe measures to wean Western manufacturers off Chinese supplies will underpin support for their metals.“We expect measures taken to build supply chain independence from China … to have a much greater impact than the rollback of a formal target for EV sales,” said Darryl Cuzzubbo, CEO of Australian rare earths developer Arafura.“There is a tipping point looming for electric vehicles at which targets and incentives won’t be required to encourage take-up.”(By Melanie Burton, Ernest Scheyder, Alexander Smith, Violet Li and Stefanno Sulaiman; Editing by Veronica Brown and Marguerita Choy)

Trump’s EV rollback not expected to suppress appetite for critical minerals

Lithium Americas said on Monday it has closed its joint venture with US automaker General Motors to develop the Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada.The miner’s CEO, Jonathan Evans said that the company is expected to make a final investment decision on the project in early 2025.Under the JV agreement, first announced in October, GM would contribute $625 million to the project to gain a 38% stake in Thacker Pass in the form of cash and a credit facility.The deal’s closing provides another boost for the giant lithium mine, months after the US finalized a $2.26 billion loan for the Nevada project.Though the loan was granted under the Biden Administration, the US President-elect Donald Trump had approved the mine during his previous term.Thacker Pass, slated to open later this decade, is expected to produce 40,000 metric tons of battery-quality lithium carbonate per year in its first phase, enough for up to 800,000 electric vehicles.(By Vallari Srivastava; Editing by Tasim Zahid)&nbsp;

Lithium Americas and GM close joint venture for Thacker Pass mine

Saudi Arabia has successfully extracted lithium from brine samples from national giant Aramco’s oilfields and plans to launch a commercial pilot program for direct extraction soon, the Saudi vice minister of mining affairs said on Tuesday.Lithium Infinity, also known as Lihytech, a start-up launched out of King Abdullah University for Science and Technology, will lead the extraction project with cooperation from Saudi mining company Ma’aden and Aramco, Khalid al-Mudaifer told Reuters.“They are extracting lithium through their new technology they have developed in King Abdullah University for Science and Technology and they are in accelerated development in this regard,” he said.“They’re building a commercial pilot at the oil fields. So the brines that come out of the field will feed into this commercial pilot on a continuous basis,” added Al-Mudaifer.Lithium is a key component in the batteries of electric cars, laptops, and smartphones. Reuters previously revealed that Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates’ national oil companies planned to extract the mineral from oil runoffs.Other oil companies, including Exxon Mobil and Occidental Petroleum, plan to take advantage of emerging technologies to filter lithium from brine, as the world seeks to move away from fossil fuels.The vice minister said that while the cost of extracting lithium from the brine runoffs from oil fields remained higher than the traditional method of extraction from salt flats, but added he expected that if lithium prices grew the project would soon be commercially viable.Aramco, KAUST, and Ma’aden did not immediately reply to Reuters requests for comments. Ma’aden is majority owned by the kingdom’s sovereign wealth fund.Saudi Arabia, whose economy for decades has relied on oil, has spent billions on trying to turn itself into a hub for EVs as part of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s attempts to find alternative sources of wealth.(By Pesha Magid; Editing by Jan Harvey)

Saudi Arabia has extracted lithium from oilfield runoffs, vice minister says

Incoming US President Donald Trump’s transition team is recommending sweeping changes to cut off support for electric vehicles and charging stations and to strengthen measures blocking cars, components and battery materials from China, according to a document seen by Reuters.The recommendations, which have not been previously reported, come as the US electric-vehicle transition stalls and China’s heavily subsidized EV industry continues to surge, in part because of its superior battery supply chain. On the campaign trail, Trump vowed to ease regulations on fossil-fuel cars and roll back what he called President Joe Biden’s EV mandate.The transition team also recommends imposing tariffs on all battery materials globally, a bid to boost US production, and then negotiating individual exemptions with allies, the document shows.Taken together, the recommendations are a stark departure from Biden administration policy, which sought to balance encouraging a domestic battery supply chain, separate from China, with a rapid EV transition. The transition-team plan would redirect money now flowing to building charging stations and making EVs affordable into national-defense priorities, including securing China-free supplies of batteries and the critical minerals to build them.The proposals came from a Trump transition team charged with crafting a strategy for swift implementation of new automotive policies. The team also calls for eliminating the Biden administration’s $7,500 tax credit for consumer EV purchases, a plan that Reuters first reported last month.The policies could strike a blow to US EV sales and production at a time when many legacy automakers, including General Motors and Hyundai, have recently introduced a wider array of electric offerings to the US market.Cutting government EV support could also hurt sales of Elon Musk’s Tesla, the dominant US EV seller. But Musk, who spent more than a quarter-billion dollars helping to elect Trump, has said that losing subsidies would hurt rivals more than Tesla.The transition team calls for clawing back whatever funds remain from Biden’s $7.5 billion plan to build charging stations and shifting the money to battery-minerals processing and the “national defense supply chain and critical infrastructure.”While batteries, minerals and other EV components are “critical to defense production,” electric vehicles “and charging stations are not,” the document says.The Defense Department in recent years has highlighted US strategic vulnerabilities because of China’s dominance of the mining and refining of critical minerals, including graphite and lithium needed for batteries, and rare-earth metals used in both EV motors and military aircraft.A 2021 government report said the US military faces “escalating power requirements” for weapons and communication equipment, among other technologies. “Assured sources of critical minerals and materials” are “critical to US national security,” the report found.Trump transition spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said voters gave Trump a mandate to deliver on campaign promises, including stopping government attacks on gas-powered cars.“When he takes office, President Trump will support the auto industry, allowing space for both gas-powered cars and electric vehicles,” Leavitt said in a statement.Allowing more tailpipe pollution Automakers globally have been shifting toward electric vehicles in part to comply with stricter government limits on climate-damaging tailpipe pollution.But the transition team recommendations would allow automakers to produce more gas-powered vehicles by rolling back emissions and fuel-economy standards championed by the Biden administration. The transition team proposes shifting those regulations back to 2019 levels, which would allow an average of about 25% more emissions per vehicle mile than the current 2025 limits and average fuel economy to be about 15% lower.The proposal also recommends blocking California from setting its own, stricter vehicle-emissions standards, which more than a dozen other states have adopted. Trump barred California from setting tougher requirements during his first term, a policy that Biden reversed.California has asked the US Environmental Protection Agency for another waiver to incorporate a stronger set of requirements beginning in 2026, which would eventually require all vehicles to be electric, plug-in hybrid or hydrogen-powered by 2035. The Biden administration’s EPA has not approved California’s request.Many of the transition-team proposals appear aimed at encouraging domestic battery production, primarily for defense-related interests. Others appear aimed at protecting automakers, even those producing EVs, in the United States.The proposals include:– Instituting tariffs on “EV supply chain” imports including batteries, critical minerals and charging components. The proposal viewed by Reuters said the administration should use Section 232 tariffs, which target national security threats, to limit imports of such products.The Biden administration recently increased tariffs on Chinese imports of several mentioned in the Trump-transition document, including lithium-ion batteries, graphite and “permanent magnets” used in EV motors and military applications. Those tariffs were issued on economic rather than security grounds.– Waiving environmental reviews to speed up “federally funded EV infrastructure projects,” including battery recycling and production, charging stations and critical mineral manufacturing.– Expanding export restrictions on EV battery technology to adversarial nations.– Providing support for exports of US-made EV batteries through the Export-Import Bank of the United States.– Using tariffs as a “negotiating tool” to open foreign markets to US auto exports, including EVs.– Eliminating requirements that federal agencies purchase EVs. A Biden policy requires all federal acquisitions of cars and smaller trucks to be zero-emission vehicles by the end of 2027.– Ending DOD programs aimed at purchasing or developing electric military vehicles.

Trump transition team to roll back Biden EV, emissions policies

Europe could recycle enough battery materials to supply two million electric vehicles (EVs) in 2030, but energy costs and a lack of financial support mean it is unlikely to do so, a report published on Thursday found.To boost resilience and competitiveness, the 27-nation European Union is trying to reduce its reliance on China for materials, such as lithium and cobalt, it needs for its green and digital transition.The 2023 EU Battery Regulation requires industrial batteries to have minimum shares of recycled lithium and nickel, each of 6%, and cobalt of 16% from August 2031, with higher shares five years later.T&amp;E, a clean transport and energy advocacy group, said old batteries and gigafactory scrap in Europe could cover 14% of lithium, 16% of nickel and a quarter of cobalt demand by 2030, broadly in line with the 2036 targets.Locally recycled battery materials could then supply between 1.3 million and 2.4 million EVs and avoid the need to build 12 new mines globally by 2040. Recycled lithium could also save almost a fifth of the carbon emissions compared to extraction in Australia and refining in China, the report said.However, recycling capacity in the EU and Britain is only about a tenth of what is required in 2030. Over 30 recovery projects, enough to meet the targets, have been announced or are being built, but energy costs and a lack of technical expertise or financial support mean almost half are uncertain.Unless Europe recycles enough, much strategic material would likely go to China, returning to Europe in the form of finished EVs, the report’s author said.The report’s publication coincides with Raw Materials Week, a conference organized by the European Commission to discuss EU efforts to secure critical minerals.Stephane Sejourne, commissioner for industrial strategy, told attendees on Wednesday the EU needed to increase its capacity to retain and recycle waste products in the bloc.The Commission intends early in 2025 to present a list of mining, processing or recycling projects able to benefit from access to finance and shorter permitting time frames, after receiving 170 applications.(By Philip Blenkinsop; Editing by Barbara Lewis)

Europe set to miss potential for battery material recycling

Bolivia’s government and Chinese consortium CBC, which includes battery manufacturer CATL, have signed an agreement for CBC to build two direct lithium extraction plants for at least $1 billion, government authorities said on Tuesday.The government will take a 51% stake in the project, to be located in the Uyuni salt flat in southwest Bolivia, within the so-called lithium triangle shared with Chile and Argentina.The two plants together are intended to produce 35,000 metric tons of lithium a year, said Omar Alarcon, head of state-run lithium company YLB.“This service contract will develop a final design for engineering, construction, operation and maintenance of a plant that will produce 10,000 tons of lithium carbonate per year and another plant producing 25,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate per year,” he told a press conference.“CBC will build plants based on its technology at its own cost and risk,” he added, saying the expected $1 billion investment represented initial construction.Despite holding the world’s largest resources of lithium, which is used to make electric-vehicle batteries, Bolivia has not managed any significant production and many investors are wary of its volatile political climate. The country is expected to hold a presidential election next year.CATL supplies batteries for more than a third of electric or hybrid vehicles globally.Direct lithium extraction is an innovative method to extract lithium more quickly than traditional methods that use massive evaporation pools.Bolivia also signed a contract in September with Russia’s Uranium One Group for construction of a $970-million plant to produce 14,000 tons of lithium carbonate annually. However, the deal needs approval from Congress, where the ruling party is fractured and President Luis Arce lacks a congressional majority.The agreement with CBC also requires lawmaker approval.Arce said the government is scouting out more companies to invest in lithium, and has received interest from various countries.“It’s not just Russian and Chinese companies that are interested in investing in Bolivia,” he said. “Our country isn’t closed off to any company.”(By Daniel Ramos and Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Rod Nickel)

Bolivia says China’s CBC to invest $1 billion in lithium plants

Australia-listed Vulcan Energy is in talks with lithium companies to license its filtration technology, tapping a new revenue source as the firm commercializes its renewable energy project in Germany, the CEO said on Tuesday.Vulcan began producing lithium hydroxide earlier this month from its Rhine Valley operations using adsorption direct lithium extraction (A-DLE) – harnessing geothermal heat to extract lithium from brine deposits.DLE is expected to reshape the lithium market by speeding the production process of the metal used in EV batteries and electronics to hours or days, compared with months or longer.Vulcan has joined the ranks of companies like Eramet and Exxon Mobil aiming to make the technology commonplace.“We are talking to all sorts, including developers and producers. If you have a four-to-five-year window to get into production, you need to act now,” CEO Cris Moreno told Reuters.“There’s also producers out there that are trying to get an extra 1-2% of efficiency.”Moreno said such efficiency gains represent a lot of money for large producers.Vulcan is in the final stage of finalizing a 1.4 billion euro ($1.47 billion) funding package to build a commercial facility in Landau that is set to start production in 2027. Its lithium hydroxide is going to customers like Stellantis for quality testing in the meantime.The lithium and energy producer expects to finalize commitment letters on the 40% debt portion of its funding by Christmas and secure strategic equity by the first quarter of next year.It was awarded 100 million euros in funding from Germany this month for the project, whose geothermal heat will help decarbonize the Landau district.($1 = 0.9554 euros)(By Melanie Burton; Editing by Saad Sayeed)

Vulcan in talks with producers to license lithium technology

A lithium technology startup backed by Rio Tinto expects to finalize a funding round in the next week to raise A$27.5 million ($17.9 million), even as the global lithium market struggles, its Melbourne-based CEO told Reuters.ElectraLith is developing a filtration technology that can extract lithium from brine deposits without using water or chemicals, which would be key in arid areas like Chile’s Atacama desert, and needs only small amounts of energy.“The lithium market is not great, venture capital markets aren’t great, (so) the fact we are about to close this round with an oversubscribed investor base … for us that’s fantastic,” CEO Charlie McGill told Reuters.Several companies, including Exxon Mobil, are competing to commercialize their own direct lithium extraction (DLE) technologies in an industry that is expected to grow to more than $10 billion in annual revenue within the next decade.DLE is expected to reshape the lithium market by speeding the production process of the metal used in EV batteries and electronics to hours or days, compared with months or longer with large evaporation ponds and open pit mines.ElectraLith’s DLE-R process, for which the company holds commercialization rights, filters brine through two membranes that extract lithium and turn it into lithium hydroxide, before injecting the remaining brine back into the aquifer.The group is working on how to scale the membrane for large projects while maintaining its properties, McGill said, and retains all commercial rights.ElectraLith plans to use funds raised to build its first pilot plant at Rio Tinto’s Rincon operations in Argentina, he said, adding the project is about a year from being ready to pilot.Two more pilot plants are set to follow. The firm is currently owned by venture capital firm IP Group, Rio Tinto and Monash University, where its membrane technology was developed under Professor Huanting Wang.By producing lithium hydroxide without water or chemicals, ElectraLith says it can compete at around half the cost of rivals, McGill said.“The availability of water in the regions where there are lithium mines is a major problem,” he said.In Utah, where it is working on a project with Australia-listed Mandrake Resources, water from the Colorado River basin has to flow to Las Vegas and Los Angeles.“You can’t get a water permit,” McGill said.“So we show up and we are like, ‘We don’t need water.'”(By Melanie Burton; Editing by Sonali Paul)

Rio Tinto-backed lithium tech startup set to raise second round of funds

STOCKHOLM/GDANSK, Nov 22 (Reuters) - Northvolt's financial collapse deals a blow to Europe's plan to set up its own battery industry to power electric cars, stirring a debate about whether it needs to do more to attract investment as startups struggle to catch up with Chinese rivals.Europe's biggest hope for an electric vehicle battery champion filed for U.S. Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday after talks with investors and creditors including Volkswagen and Goldman Sachs for funding failed.The Swedish company, whose motto is "make oil history", has received more than $10 billion in equity, debt and public financing since its 2016 start-up. Volkswagen and Goldman Sachs each own about one fifth of its shares.Northvolt said on Friday it needed $1.0-$1.2 billion in new funds under the restructuring process, which it hopes will end by the end of March.In recent months, it has shrunk the business and cut jobs in a bid to shore up its finances. But it has struggled to produce sufficient volumes of high-quality batteries, and lost a 2 billion euro ($2.1 billion) contract from BMW (BMWG.DE), in June.That has left Europe's ambitions to build its own battery industry looking a distant dream.In recent years, Northvolt led a wave of European startups investing tens of billions of dollars to serve the continent's automakers as they switch from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles.But growth in EV demand is moving at a slower pace than many in the industry projected, and China has taken a huge lead in powering EVs, controlling 85% of global battery cell production, International Energy Agency data shows.Making batteries and cells, the units that store and convert chemical energy into electricity, is a delicate process and doing so at scale is a challenge for any battery maker.Northvolt has missed some in-house targets and curtailed production at its battery cells plant in northern Sweden, underscoring the difficulties, Reuters reported on Monday."The biggest issue is that batteries are not easy to make and Northvolt haven’t satisfied the supply demands of their customers - that is a management issue," said Andy Palmer, founder of consultancy Palmer Automotive said.“The Chinese are technologically 10 years ahead of the West in batteries. That’s a fact," he said.At least eight companies have postponed or abandoned EV battery projects in Europe this year, including China's Svolt and joint venture ACC, led by Stellantis (STLAM.MI), and Mercedes-Benz (MBGn.DE).In 2024, Europe's battery pipeline capacity out to 2030 has fallen by 176 gigawatt-hours, according to data firm Benchmark Minerals. That's equivalent to almost all the current installed capacity in Europe, according to Reuters calculations.RETHINKSome executives say Europe should do more to attract and support home-grown projects so they can compete with Chinese rivals such as CATL (300750.SZ), and BYD (002594.SZ), opens new tab."Europe needs to rethink how it supports a nascent sector before China eats up the entire value chain, which is due to smart planning," said James Frith, European head of Volta Energy Technologies, which specialises in battery and energy storage technology.Among its $5.8 billion in debts, Northvolt owes the European Investment Bank (EIB) some $313 million.EIB vice president Thomas Östros said it had been a constructive partner to Northvolt, but it needed to safeguard the EIB and EU's interests."It remains the case that Europe has a strategic interest in a European battery industry for electric cars and we will follow developments very closely. But it is much to early to say what the outcome will be," he said.The Swedish government has repeatedly said it does not plan to take a stake in Northvolt. On Friday, Northvolt's outgoing CEO and co-founder Peter Carlsson said he was a "little worried" Europe is giving up on its dream of competing with China.He said Europe would regret it in 20 years time if it retreated."It's not a straight journey and right now, we're all in a bit of a down in that journey where there's more hesitations, there's more questions on the speed of the transition from the carmakers, from policymakers, from the investor community," he told reporters in a call.Reporting by Marie Mannes in Stockholm, Stine Jacobsen in Copenhagen and Alessandro Parodi in Gdansk. Additional reporting by Simon Johnson in Stockholm. Writing by Josephine Mason. Editing by Mark Potter

Northvolt crisis may be make or break for Europe's EV battery ambitions

Batteries and minerals driving global electrification

Santiago – SQM, the world’s second-largest lithium producer, reported a 73% drop in third-quarter net profit on Wednesday, as higher sales volumes failed to offset a sharp decline in prices due to a supply glut.Lithium miners around the world have been impacted by a sustained drop in lithium prices in the past few months due to weaker-than-expected demand for electric vehicles. Lithium is a major component of batteries for electric cars.SQM reported net profit of $131 million for the quarter, below analyst estimates of $162 million, based on LSEG data.Revenue fell 41% year-on-year to $1.07 billion, in line with analyst forecasts.Lithium sales volumes rose almost a fifth compared with the same period last year, but average prices plunged 67%, the mining group said. Between the second and third quarters, prices dropped 24% for the metal.Prices are expected to fall further in the final months of the year, SQM said, tracking with the company’s prior forecasts of weak pricing throughout 2024.“Although demand continues to grow at a strong pace, mainly driven by strong EV sales growth in China, we continue to see the prices pressured by an oversupply,” CEO Ricardo Ramos said in a statement.The company said its third-quarter lithium sales included, for the first time, the SQM International division, which it launched in the prior quarter to focus on developing the company’s lithium business outside Chile.SQM, which also produces fertilizers and industrial chemicals, extracts lithium from the Atacama salt flat in northern Chile, a region with some of the world’s highest lithium concentrations.The company maintained its target for lithium sales volumes this year of 190,000 to 195,000 metric tons. Lithium made up 42% of its gross profit contribution this year.(Reporting by Daina Beth Solomon and Natalia Siniawski; Editing by Alexander Villegas and Jane Merriman)

SQM’s net profit slips on lower lithium prices

Houston – Exxon Mobil said on Wednesday it has signed a non-binding lithium supply deal with battery parts maker LG Chem, the oil giant’s second agreement to supply the electric vehicle battery metal from its proposed Arkansas project.Exxon last year announced plans to extract lithium from the Smackover Formation, an underground deposit of salty water known as brine that stretches from Florida through Arkansas and into Texas, using at least one type of direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology.Exxon and other oil companies such as Occidental Petroleum and Equinor are increasingly investing in lithium projects, partly due to their belief that extracting the metal from brine involves similar processes as petroleum extraction.The LG Chem agreement, which would require Arkansas officials to set a state lithium royalty rate to be finalized, is for up to 100,000 metric tons of the ultralight metal over several years.The move allows Exxon – which plans to self-fund its Arkansas project – to incorporate LG Chem’s lithium quality specifications into its design plans. South Korea-based LG Chem plans to use the lithium at its Tennessee cathode facility, slated to open next year.“This is about building a relationship with a company that has the same ambitions as building out the North American (battery) supply chain as us,” Patrick Howarth, head of Exxon’s lithium business, told Reuters.Exxon expects lithium demand to rise despite US President-elect Donald Trump’s campaign vow to end the “EV mandate,” Howarth said.“We know that the world’s going to need a lot more lithium than it’s producing today,” he said.Financial terms of the deal – including the price per metric ton of lithium that LG Chem would pay Exxon – would be negotiated as part of any final contract. SK On, a unit of SK Innovation, signed a non-binding lithium supply deal with Exxon in June.Despite recent lithium market turbulence, Howarth said Exxon has “seen really strong support from our potential customer base.”Arkansas officials earlier this month rejected a proposed lithium royalty rate of 1.82% from Exxon and others.Officials have been debating a lithium royalty since at least 2018, with tension centering on how the metal should be valued given the cost for equipment to filter it from brine, which unlike oil typically has no intrinsic market value.Landowners want a higher rate, noting that most U.S. oil royalties pay between 8% and 12%.“It’s one of the key regulatory issues that we need to resolve to bring these projects to market,” Howarth said, adding that Exxon could leave Arkansas – where it has invested more than $100 million – if the rate was too high.Officials hinted a 2.5% rate could be acceptable, which Howarth said would be “in the range that we would be able to move forward.” Exxon would need to formally propose a new rate, which is likely in the near future, he added.Exxon declined to say how much lithium it expects to produce annually in Arkansas, although the amount would depend on which DLE technology it chooses.“We’re definitely narrowing down the selection,” Howarth said. “But we’re still keeping multiple providers in play.”(Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Jamie Freed)

Exxon Mobil signs non-binding lithium supply deal with LG Chem

At more than 3,700m above sea level, the “karachi” swims happily in dense salt flat waters, but locals worry a future lithium project will endanger this extreme-environment fish.The Orestias ascotanensis is a small ray-finned fish that grows to just 7.5 cm, but has adapted to the Ascotan salt flat’s high concentrations of heavy metals and variable salinity.The salt flat also sees high solar radiation and temperature variations that reach 26 Celsius (79 Fahrenheit) during the day and below freezing at night, according to Marco Mendez, a professor at the University of Chile who studies evolutionary biology.Scientists at the Millennium Institute’s genome center have been studying the fish and found genes that allow it to resist each element of its hostile environment, from solar radiation to heavy metals to low oxygen levels.The fish has also evolved to do it quickly.“We’ve seen how they’ve done this in a short evolutionary time because there are other variants of this fish in less hostile environments,” said Miguel Allende, director of the institute.“They’ve taken these genes and exacerbated them.”While the fish can survive extreme environments, it still needs an environment to live in and residents say copper mining has reduced the fish population due to water extraction.“That’s what’s hurting them, when they take the water, the fish die,” said Mauricio Anza, a local resident, who said people in the area are working to preserve the areas flora and fauna.But Ascotan is also one of the salt flats where the government plans to launch a private lithium mining project, something locals and experts say must come with guarantees to safeguard the ecosystem.“Mining activity, while important from an economic point of view, must be carried out with the aim of ensuring that this very particular environment is not lost forever,” Allende said.&nbsp;

Chile’s rare salt flat fish faces threat from lithium mining project

President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team is planning to kill the $7,500 consumer tax credit for electric-vehicle purchases as part of broader tax-reform legislation, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter told Reuters.Ending the tax credit could have grave implications for an already stalling US EV transition. And yet representatives of Tesla – by far the nation’s biggest EV maker – have told a Trump-transition committee they support ending the subsidy, said the two sources, speaking on condition of anonymity.Tesla CEO Elon Musk, one of Trump’s biggest backers and the world’s richest person, said in July that killing the subsidy might slightly hurt Tesla sales but would be “devastating” to its US EV competitors, which include legacy automakers such as General Motors.Shares of Tesla ended nearly 6% lower at $311.18, while shares of smaller EV rival Rivian closed down 14% at $10.31. Lucid, another EV maker, tumbled 5% to $2.08.Repealing the subsidy, a signature measure of Democratic President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), is being discussed in meetings by an energy-policy transition team led by billionaire oilman Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources, and Republican North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum, the two sources said.The group has met several times since Trump’s Nov. 5 election victory, including at his Florida Mar-a-Lago club, where Musk has also spent considerable time since the election.Representatives of Tesla and Ford did not respond to requests for comment. GM and Stellantis declined to comment.The Alliance for Automotive Innovation urged Congress in an Oct. 15 letter to retain the EV tax credits, calling them “critical to cementing the US as a global leader” in future auto manufacturing.US Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Friday that cancelling the credits would make the US less competitive.“It would be so counterproductive,” she told reporters at the COP29 climate conference in Baku when asked about the Reuters report. “You eliminate these credits, and what do you do? You end up ceding the territory to other countries, particularly China.”The Trump transition team did not comment on the fate of the EV tax credit but said in a statement that the president-elect would deliver on “promises he made on the campaign trail.”Trump campaigned on ending Biden’s “EV mandate,” without spelling out specific targeted policies. The energy-focused transition team has determined some of Biden’s clean-energy policies will be tough to end because they are popular and already funneling money to Republican-dominated states, the sources said.The team views the consumer EV credit as an easy target, believing that eliminating it would get broad consensus in a Republican-controlled Congress.Trump could use the cost savings from killing the credit to help pay for the extension of trillions of dollars in tax cuts from his first term that are set to expire soon, the two sources said. Congressional Republicans plan to take up the broader tax bill as one of their first actions.Energy transition team members expect the Republican Congress will deploy a legislative measure known as reconciliation to avoid relying on Democratic votes. Biden used the same tactic to pass the IRA.Killing EV tax credits is strongly supported by Hamm, a long-time Trump supporter, along with the broader oil-and-gas industry.Trump promised while campaigning to boost US oil production, even as it has hit record highs, and to roll back Biden’s clean-energy initiatives, which also include subsidies for wind and solar power and the mass production of hydrogen.Shares of South Korean battery makers tanked on Friday after the Reuters report. LG Energy Solution, a supplier for Tesla, General Motors and other automakers, fell as much as 10%, while Samsung SDI lost 9.6%Why Tesla could benefit Tesla has historically been the biggest beneficiary of consumer EV subsidies passed by Biden and previous administrations. It now may stand to gain from killing the incentive because that could hurt rising EV competitors more than Tesla.Musk himself pointed out as much in a July earnings call, saying losing the subsidy under Trump would “probably benefit Tesla” in the long term.Tesla sold just under half of all US EVs in the third quarter, according to data from Cox Automotive. Other automakers with notable EV sales such as GM, Ford and Hyundai, individually trail far behind. But Tesla’s US EV rivals collectively have steadily eroded its market share, which exceeded 80% in the first quarter of 2020.Nicholas Mersch, portfolio manager at Purpose Investments, a Tesla investor, said Tesla can withstand a potential sales hit from losing subsidies because the automaker’s “engineering and manufacturing prowess” lowers its costs.“Getting rid of the subsidy means that competitors can’t catch up and won’t be able to compete on a cost basis,” Mersch said.Musk and Tesla also stand to gain hugely from Biden policies that Trump will likely leave in place or strengthen – like steep trade barriers blocking imports of Chinese EVs, including a 100% tariff.Chinese EV makers led by Tesla rival BYD have rocketed past the rest of the industry, with the help of generous government subsidies. Electric vehicles and hybrids have accounted for more than half of all cars sold in recent months in China, the world’s largest auto market.Tesla is a major player in China but, like all foreign automakers, has been recently losing market share to homegrown players that sell EVs for as little as $10,000.Tesla “can’t beat Chinese EVs,” Mersch said, but with Trump’s help may be able to keep them out of the US market.Mike Murphy, a longtime Republican strategist who runs the EV Politics Project – an advocacy group seeking bipartisan EV support – described ending the subsidy as a “Tesla first, everybody else second” policy.He described the move as “really bad for American automakers” trying to catch up to highly subsidized Chinese EV industry.“The Trump administration is proving they have absolutely no interest in helping the US auto industry survive the coming Chinese invasion,” he said.Why Detroit needs EV subsidiesAutomakers in the US market have been bracing for automotive-policy changes under Trump. Some could provide greater flexibility to build more gas-powered SUVs and trucks that generate big profits for the Detroit Three – General Motors, Ford and Jeep parent Stellantis.But other changes, like losing the EV tax credit, could cripple their nascent efforts to transition to electric vehicles.Losing EV subsidies would make it tougher for Tesla’s struggling rivals to achieve profitability on those vehicles. GM, Ford, Hyundai and others are still ramping up EV production and scrambling to cut manufacturing costs.Ford, which expects to record a $5 billion loss on its EV and software operations this year, has previously relied on EV tax credits to boost demand from price-conscious consumers.Yet even with the credits, demand for Ford’s F-150 Lightning electric pickup has faltered, leading Ford to idle the truck’s production through the year-end.The United Auto Workers labor union, which represents workers at the Detroit Three – but not Tesla – has supported Biden’s pro-EV policies, including the $7,500 incentive. Last month, UAW president Shawn Fain slammed Trump’s threats to repeal the policies, saying “hundreds of thousands” of auto-industry jobs were at stake.GM, which touts plans to boost EV production, previously said it had received $800 million in separate EV manufacturing credits this year – also enacted in Biden’s IRA legislation – and expected that figure to grow.GM recently said it planned to slash its annual EV losses next year by between $2 billion and $4 billion, which would be more difficult without the tax credit.In a push to further cut costs around EVs, GM and Hyundai in September announced a non-binding memorandum of understanding to work together.(By Jarrett Renshaw, Chris Kirkham, Nora Eckert, David Shepardson, Hyunjoo Jin and Valerie Volcovici; Editing by Brian Thevenot, Anna Driver and Lincoln Feast)

Trump’s transition team aims to kill Biden EV tax credit

Australia’s Liontown Resources trimmed its production plans for the flagship Kathleen Valley lithium project on Monday and flagged cost cuts to adapt to low metal prices, months after producing its first spodumene concentrate.Shares of the Perth-based lithium producer fell as much as 4.2% to A$0.800, before recovering some losses to trade 0.6% lower at 2340 GMT.Liontown now plans a production rate of 2.8 million metric tons per annum from the end of fiscal year 2027, down from its earlier target of 3 million tons by the end of the first quarter of 2025.The lithium producer also flagged up to A$100 million ($65.83 million) in cost reduction and deferrals expected to be captured during its business optimization program, with a possibility of further expansion of the project when market conditions improve.“We are adjusting our volumes to meet the current market. We will revisit what we need to do should the market conditions improve,” chief executive officer Tony Ottaviano said in an investor call.Global lithium markets are reeling from rapid supply growth, which has surpassed demand for the battery metal at a time when the sales growth of electric vehicles has slowed.Earlier this year, Liontown posted an annual net loss after tax of A$64.9 million.The company said it expected unit operating costs of A$775-A$855 per dry metric ton for the second half of the fiscal year.($1 = 1.5191 Australian dollars)(By Archishma Iyer and Melanie Burton; Editing by Lisa Shumaker, David Gregorio and Subhranshu Sahu)

Liontown Resources trims output plans for Kathleen Valley, flags cost cuts

Local mining officials in northwest Argentina have approved a two-year permit for Argentina Lithium &amp; Energy Corp to kick off exploration efforts in the Paso de Sico concession, the company said on Thursday.Argentina is pushing to accelerate investments in lithium, the key battery metal, which is seen as a bright spot for the battered South American economy that could power export growth and boost much-needed foreign currency reserves.Under the permit approval from the mining and energy secretariat in Argentina’s northwestern Salta province, the company will launch a drilling program to evaluate lithium concentrations in area salt flats, part of the Rincon Oeste project.It lies next to major miner Rio Tinto’s similar lithium development Proyecto Rincon.Argentina Lithium &amp; Energy Corp will now be able to better evaluate Rincon Oeste’s potential, its CEO Nikolaos Cacos, said in a statement.(By Lucila Sigal; Editing by Jan Harvey)

Argentina Lithium wins local authority approval to kick off exploration push

Environmental and Indigenous groups on Thursday filed a lawsuit challenging the US Interior Department’s approval of ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine in Nevada, the first domestic source of the battery metal to be permitted by Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration.In a lawsuit filed in federal court in Las Vegas, groups including the Center for Biological Diversity argued the project posed an existential risk to the rare wildflower Tiehm’s buckwheat and could drive it to extinction.They said the mine would also adversely impact groundwater, springs, wetlands, air quality, cultural resources and wildlife habitats, and would transform a remote part of rural Nevada into an industrial complex.The groups said the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) approved the mine without ensuring that it would not jeopardize the wildflower or unduly impact the environment in violation of the National Environmental Policy Act, the Federal Lands Policy and Management Act, and the Endangered Species Act.The Interior Department declined to comment.Australia-based ioneer said it does not expect the lawsuit to “meaningfully affect our proposed development timeline” and that it believes the project can be developed sustainably.“We are confident that the BLM will prevail against this lawsuit,” said Chad Yeftich, ioneer’s vice president of corporate development and external affairs. “We intend to intervene and vigorously defend the BLM’s decision, which was based on its careful and thorough permitting process.”The critical minerals miner received approval for the mine last week following a more-than six-year review process during which regulators, ioneer and conservationists tussled over the fate of Tiehm’s buckwheat.The permit cleared the way for development of a mine that will become a key supplier to Ford Motor and other electric-vehicle manufacturers. It was issued amid a flurry of recent moves by Biden administration officials to support critical minerals production and offset China’s market dominance.The permit also unlocked a $700 million loan from the US Department of Energy, as well as a $490 million equity investment from Sibanye Stillwater to fund the project.The Interior Department said when it approved the mine that it had taken numerous steps to protect the ecosystem near the mine site, roughly 225 miles (362 km) north of Las Vegas.The project contains enough lithium to power roughly 370,000 EVs each year. Construction is slated to begin next year, with production commencing by 2028.(By Nate Raymond and Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Matthew Lewis)

Environmentalists sue over US approval of ioneer’s Nevada lithium mine

The US Department of Energy finalized a $2.26 billion loan for Lithium Americas on Monday to build Nevada’s Thacker Pass lithium mine, one of Washington’s largest mining industry investments and part of a broader push to boost critical minerals production.The loan, provisionally approved in March, is a key part of US President Joe Biden’s efforts to reduce dependence on lithium supplies from China, the world’s largest processor of the electric vehicle battery metal. Biden officials permitted a similar lithium project under development by ioneer last week.The Thacker Pass project is slated to open later this decade and be a key supplier to General Motors, which earlier this month boosted its investment in the mine to nearly $1 billion.“The Biden-Harris Administration recognizes mineral security is essential to winning the global clean energy race,” said Ali Zaidi, the White House national climate advisor.Former President Donald Trump had permitted the mine just before leaving office. Initial construction at the site, just south of Nevada’s border with Oregon, started last year after the company won a long-running and complex court case brought by conservationists, ranchers and Indigenous communities.With the loan now closed, Vancouver-based Lithium Americas plans to start major construction, a process that could take three years or longer. The mine’s first phase is expected to produce 40,000 metric tons of battery-quality lithium carbonate per year, enough for up to 800,000 EVs.The project is expected to employ about 1,800 people during construction, and provide 360 full-time jobs once the mine is operational. The loan will have a 24-year term, with interest rates based on the US Treasury rate as each tranche is drawn.“This essential loan helps us reduce dependence on foreign suppliers and secure America’s energy future,” said Lithium Americas CEO Jon Evans.The mine’s cost had been increased from a previous estimate of $2.27 billion to nearly $2.93 billion due to higher engineering costs, an agreement to use union labor, and the company’s decision to build a housing facility for workers and their families in the remote region.(By Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Richard Chang)

US energy dept finalizes $2.26bn loan for Lithium Americas’ Nevada mine

Portuguese energy company Galp is in no rush to make a final investment decision (FID) to build a battery-grade lithium refinery in Portugal amid challenging market conditions, CEO Filipe Silva said on Monday.A 50-50 joint venture between Galp – which earlier on Monday reported a 22% decline in third-quarter adjusted core profit – and Swedish battery maker Northvolt, dubbed Aurora and set up in November 2021, was previously expected to announce the FID by the end of 2024.However, the refinery, which was scheduled to start commercial operations in early 2026, is facing delays due to the complexity of the project and uncertainty about grant funding, while lithium prices have been low due to oversupply from China.“The market is very challenging as we speak. So, we are in no rush to take an FID until we see an appropriate return for the project. We don’t seem to be there,” Silva told an analysts call.He said Galp is “also concerned that this project could become orphaned in case there is no mining of lithium in Portugal”.With some 60,000 tonnes of known reserves, Portugal is already Europe’s biggest producer of lithium, traditionally mined for ceramics.Portugal’s center-right government, which took over in April, is finalizing a strategic plan to explore for raw materials critical to the green transition, where copper could take on a more important role than lithium.Portugal’s previous government planned to auction licenses for lithium prospecting in six areas in the north and center of the country, but concerns about the environmental and social impact have led to multiple delays to the auction, initially planned for 2018.The refinery, with estimated investments of more than 1 billion euros ($1.1 billion), aims to have an initial annual production capacity of up to 35,000 metric tons of lithium hydroxide, a key material for lithium-ion batteries.(By Sergio Goncalves; Editing by David Holmes)

Galp in no rush to invest in lithium refinery with Northvolt

The Argentine salt flats in South America’s “lithium triangle” have been one of the busiest sites for ventures racing to extract the battery metal needed to power the global shift to electric vehicles. Now firms are hitting the brakes.The global lithium sector from Chile to Zimbabwe is struggling due to prices that have slumped over 80% since the start of last year on oversupply and weaker-than-expected EV demand. That’s gummed up financing and hit profit margins at miners both large and small.Reuters interviews with nearly a dozen executives, officials and analysts show how severe the situation is in Argentina, and how that is likely to reduce lithium output in the years ahead.Firms have cut staff, slashed spending and halted exploration projects, and the plunging value of lithium assets has left some firms vulnerable to takeover.Globally, Argentina is the number four lithium producer. It has the second largest resources of the metal and has been a key spot for investors looking to lock up supply.“We were prepared for a rainy day and we found a storm,” said Juan Pablo Vargas de la Vega, managing director of Australia-based Galan Lithium, which is developing a project in the Hombre Muerto basin in Argentina’s northern province of Catamarca.Galan is aiming for first production in the second half of next year, but it has cut its phase one target by around a quarter from 5,400 tons to 4,000 tons of lithium a year.The lithium price squeeze is shaking up the global market, putting pressure on miners to cut costs and spurring more merger and acquisition (M&amp;A) interest as companies look for deeper-pocketed backers to ride out the downturn.This month mining giant Rio Tinto agreed to buy US-based Arcadium Lithium for $6.7 billion, a deal that will make it the world’s third largest miner of the metal.Five analysts consulted by Reuters expect more M&amp;A, particularly for early-stage projects.“For companies that aren’t producing and have resources in Argentina, it’s very probable that they’ll be receiving offers,” said Federico Gay, a lithium analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.Arcadium operates two of the main projects in Argentina. The wider region, including Chile and Bolivia, holds more than half of the world’s deposits of the metal, which despite the price drop remains a critical mineral for governments and carmakers worldwide.Western investors consider the region to be a geopolitical safe haven as the United States and Europe put tougher controls on auto parts from China, the world’s number three lithium producer.‘Stop spending money’ To be sure, Argentina is still likely to see a slate of more advanced projects coming online in the near-term. The hit will come further down the road, denting output estimates by around 2026-2028, analysts said.That could play into a supply shortfall that is expected to hit around the end of the decade as demand rises for lithium for EV batteries and energy storage.“We had to make the call to sort of stop spending money,” said Jerko Zuvela, managing director of Australia-based Argosy Minerals, which took a pilot plant in Argentina offline and laid off the site’s workers.Local media reported the plant closure cost 140 jobs.Asked about the reports, Zuvela said the company reduced its workforce given the stoppage at the demonstration facility, and changed its focus to construction on the commercial plant.“When the big guys are slowing down their expansion strategies and cutting back on staff and operations and so forth, it’s no different for us,” he said.UK-based mining consultancy CRU Group told Reuters it had lowered its Argentina production forecast for 2027 by about 10% and no longer sees the potential for Argentina to overtake Chile, the world’s number two producer, by that year, as it previously expected.Lake Resources is seeking permits for its Kachi project in Argentina, but meanwhile this year cut three-quarters of staff and put four Argentina lithium assets up for sale.CEO David Dickson told Reuters the company is looking for funding via equity investment and supply deals, and expects lithium demand to exceed supply by the end of the decade.Arcadium in August put some expansion plans in Canada and Argentina on hold, a move that it said would help save it $500 million in the next two years.“We must adapt to the realities of the market we find ourselves in today and the pace at which we can responsibly invest capital,” Arcadium CEO Paul Graves told analysts when announcing the cuts.Argentina stands out for its deep pipelines of projects driven by private capital – in contrast to neighbor Chile where two established players, SQM and Albemarle, dominate the sector.Argentina had 30 companies in the prospecting, initial exploration and advanced exploration phases across its lithium region as of July, government records show. But that pipeline could be slowed in coming years as earlier-stage exploration takes the hardest hit from the downturn.“Exploration is very impacted by the drop in lithium prices,” Flavia Royon, head of a government-sponsored lithium booster committee, told Reuters, adding the main hit to output would likely be from 2028.In the key lithium province of Salta, advanced projects from companies including Rio Tinto, Eramet, Posco and Ganfeng, are moving forward, but earlier-stage projects are getting stuck, according to Salta Mining Minister Romina Sassarini.“There are at least six others coming along that aren’t being developed today, that aren’t moving into construction and production because they don’t have the investment,” she told Reuters. She did not identify the projects she was referring to.Argentina, looking to boost a flagging economy, has lured investment from global firms in recent years with market-friendly regulations. The current government is also pushing investment incentives including tax breaks and targeted easing of capital controls for large projects to access dollars.“This in some ways counteracts the drop of lithium prices,” said Royon, citing Rio Tinto, Eramet, Posco and Ganfeng as projects that were advanced enough to potentially benefit from the incentives.‘No better time to buy’ The shakeout may be painful, but it has made projects more attractive to potential suitors looking to pick up bargains: valuations for lithium companies globally have dropped about 60% to 70% in the last year and a half.A half-dozen analysts and executives pointed to eight projects in Argentina that could potentially be targets, including Argosy Minerals, Galan Lithium and Lake Resources.“There is no better time to buy assets than today,” said Jose Hofer, a lithium adviser at consultancy SC Insights, without himself specifying who might be the top targets.In fact, Galan was approached by lithium technology startup EnergyX in August for a $150 million takeover, but rejected the offer. Galan declined to comment on potential M&amp;A, as did Argosy.Most executives were hopeful of prices rising again – even if not to peak levels – as EV demand picked up.Although the exact timing is hard to pin down, the price turnaround is not expected to be any sooner than mid-2025.The head of one early-stage lithium project in Argentina that has struggled with funding, who declined to be identified, said he expected prices to rise by the second or third quarter of next year, at least enough to start mobilizing the projects.However some analysts expect low pricing to persist through the first half of 2026.Argosy Minerals, which plans to build a 12,000-ton per year facility at the Rincon salt flat in Salta province expects its capital reserves to be enough to fund feasibility and engineering works, said Zuvela, the managing director.Once that is done, in about nine to 12 months, it would return to the market to see if funding was available for construction, he said.“That’s where higher lithium prices probably need to provide an incentive for financiers to come out and support companies like us to develop lithium projects,” Zuvela said.(By Daina Beth Solomon; Editing by Adam Jourdan and Claudia Parsons)

Argentina’s lithium hunters scale back as EV shift slows

The US Interior Department on Thursday gave final approval to ioneer’s Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine in Nevada, the first domestic source of the battery metal to be permitted by President Joe Biden’s administration and one that will become a key supplier to Ford and other electric vehicle manufacturers.The approval ends a more-than six-year review process during which regulators, the Australian critical minerals miner and conservationists tussled over the fate of a rare flower found at the mine site, a tension that exposed the sometimes competing priorities between climate change mitigation efforts and biodiversity protection.The permit, which had been expected by the end of the year, comes amid a flurry of recent moves by Biden officials to support critical minerals production and offset China’s market dominance.It also unlocks a $700 million loan from the US Department of Energy, as well as a $490 million equity investment from Sibanye Stillwater to fund the project.“The Rhyolite Ridge lithium mine project is essential to advancing the clean energy transition and powering the economy of the future,” said Laura Daniel-Davis, the Interior Department’s acting deputy secretary.The US Bureau of Land Management, which is controlled by the Interior Department, on Thursday issued the Rhyolite Ridge project’s record of decision – essentially the mine’s permit – and said the project will “include significant protections for the local ecosystem” and help create hundreds of jobs in the rural region.The project, roughly 225 miles (362 km) north of Las Vegas, contains enough lithium to power roughly 370,000 EVs each year. Construction is slated to begin next year, with production commencing by 2028, a timeline that would make Rhyolite Ridge one of the largest US lithium producers alongside Albemarle and Lithium Americas.The US Geological Survey has labeled lithium a critical mineral vital for the US economy and national security.“We’re proud to be the first US lithium mine permitted by the Biden administration,” James Calaway, ioneer’s chairman, told Reuters.The project will extract lithium as well as boron – a chemical used to make ceramics and soaps – from a clay-like deposit. The lithium will be processed on site into two main derivatives used to make batteries, and the company said it plans to recycle half of all the water used at the site, higher than the industry average.Ford and a joint venture between Toyota and Panasonic have agreed to buy lithium from the mine.Endangered flower In addition to the lithium and boron deposits, Rhyolite Ridge is home to the Tiehm’s buckwheat flower, which is found nowhere else on the planet and was declared an endangered species in 2022.The Center for Biological Diversity and some other conservation groups thus oppose ioneer’s project, saying it would push the flower to the brink of extinction.The Interior Department said it crafted “significant protections” for the plant during the permit review process, including changing mine design plans and propagation efforts that included construction of a greenhouse.Department officials also released an opinion stating their belief that the mine would not harm the flower.“We’ve come up with a very thoughtful plan that does protect this plant and ensures a stable supply of lithium for America,” said Calaway.The death of more than 17,000 flowers near the mine site in 2020 sparked allegations of a “premeditated” attack. Ioneer denied harming the flowers. The government later blamed thirsty squirrels.(By Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

Biden administration approves ioneer’s Nevada lithium mine

Canadian firms can request a temporary remission of tariffs on the imports of Chinese electric vehicles, steel and aluminum products, the finance ministry said on Friday.The ministry said in a statement that relief would be granted under specific and exceptional circumstances. The measure is designed to help firms adjust their supply chains to cope with the new tariffs, it said in a statement.Canada announced the measures in late August, citing China’s intentional, state-directed policy of over-capacity. A 100% surtax on EVs was imposed on Oct. 1 while a 25% surtax on steel and aluminum products comes into effect on Oct. 22.“To ensure that Canadian industry has sufficient time to adjust supply chains, remission will provide relief … under specific and exceptional circumstances,” the ministry said.“The federal government will consider the appropriate duration of remission, with intent to provide it on a transitional basis only in most cases,” according to the ministry.Remission would be considered in the following cases:*Situations where goods used as inputs, or substitutes for those goods, cannot be sourced either domestically or reasonably from non-Chinese sources.*Where there are contractual requirements, existing prior to Aug. 26, 2024, requiring businesses to purchase Chinese inputs into their products or projects for a specified period of time.*Other exceptional circumstances, on a case-by-case basis, that could have significant adverse impacts on the economy.Remission will not be granted for goods intended for resale in the same condition to the United States.(Reporting by David Ljunggren; Editing by Mark Porter)

Canadian firms can request temporary relief from tariffs on China EVs, metals

The global nickel market is poised for a larger surplus next year, driven by continued production expansion in Indonesia, Japan’s largest nickel smelter Sumitomo Metal Mining said on Wednesday.The surplus will widen to 104,000 metric tons from 86,000 tons this year as Indonesia’s output of low-grade nickel pig iron is expected to rise by 11.3% to 1.67 million tons, SMM said during its half-year market outlook presentation.The country’s production of high-grade nickel is also forecast to grow, it added.Global demand for the metal in 2025 was seen increasing by 7.1% from this year to 3.55 million tons, while supply was likely to climb 7.4% to 3.65 million tons, SMM said.Supply and demand in a lower purity form of so-called Class 2 nickel is expected to be roughly balanced next year despite higher NPI supply from Indonesia, SMM executive officer Yusuke Niwa said.“But we expect a surplus in (the almost-pure) Class 1 nickel due to output expansion by Indonesia’s new smelters,” he said.Nickel is primarily used in the stainless steel sector, but is also a critical component in lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles, where demand is set to surge in the coming years.SMM, which supplies cathode materials for the Panasonic lithium-ion batteries used in Tesla EVs, predicts that global demand for nickel used in batteries will grow to around 520,000 tons in 2025 from about 470,000 tons this year.However, Niwa expressed caution about the outlook, noting: “The EV market environment looks quite difficult, except in China.”“While we anticipate next year’s demand to grow by 50,000 tons from this year… there is a possibility it may fall short of that projection,” he added.(Reporting by Yuka Obayashi; Editing by Jan Harvey)

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