Wednesday, August 03, 2022

Toyota-Panasonic battery JV to buy lithium from ioneer’s Nevada mine

Reuters | July 31, 2022 | 

Credit: Prime Planet Energy & Solutions

A joint battery venture of Toyota Motor Corp and Panasonic Corp will buy lithium from ioneer Ltd’s Rhyolite Ridge mining project and use the metal to build electric vehicle batteries in the United States.


The binding supply deal, announced on Sunday, is the second in less than a month for ioneer and a strong vote of confidence in a project that is racing to be the first new US source of the battery metal in decades.

Under the terms of the deal, ioneer will supply 4,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate annually for five years to Prime Planet Energy & Solutions (PPES), which was formed by Toyota and Panasonic in 2020 to better compete with battery market leader Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd (CATL).

Supplies are slated to begin in 2025, a timeline that depends in part on ioneer obtaining financing and permitting.

The deal includes a commitment from PPES that ioneer’s lithium will be used to build EV battery parts inside the United States for the US EV market. PPES, which is based in Japan, has reportedly been considering building a battery plant in western North Carolina.

“The whole purpose of this agreement is for this lithium to be used in the United States,” James Calaway, ioneer’s executive chairman, told Reuters.

A proposed expansion of the US EV tax credit would require that lithium and other EV minerals be sourced domestically or from allies starting as soon as next year. That potential change, which is under debate in Congress, has shown a spotlight on the nascent US development plans of battery and automakers.

“Having an agreement with ioneer provides PPES a first step in securing a US supply of lithium,” said PPES President Hiroaki Koda, who added he has “confidence in ioneer’s technology.”

The amount of lithium that ioneer will supply PPES is enough to make batteries for about 150,000 EVs annually, though that figure would vary depending on design and other factors.

Australia-based ioneer aims to produce about 21,000 tonnes of lithium in Nevada annually starting in 2025. It signed a supply deal with Ford Motor Co in mid-July and last year with South Korea’s Ecopro Co.

The Rhyolite Ridge project has faced push back from some conservationists who worry it could harm a rare flower known as Tiehm’s buckwheat, though ioneer has said it believes it can safely extract lithium while also protecting the plant.

“We’ve figured out how we can build the mine and not touch the Tiehm’s buckwheat,” said Calaway.

(By Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Daniel Wallis)


GM prepaying Livent $198 million for guaranteed lithium supply

Reuters | August 2, 2022 |

GM is launching at least 20 new all-electric vehicles by 2023. (Image courtesy of General Motors.)

General Motors Co is prepaying Livent Corp $198 million for a guaranteed six-year supply of lithium, a deal that reflects the auto industry’s rising worry about a tightening market for the electric vehicle battery metal.


Prepaying cash for a guaranteed metal supply is unusual in the mining industry. The deal shows GM’s eagerness to ensure it has sufficient raw materials to meet its goal of producing 1 million EVs annually in North America by 2025.


Both companies announced the broad brushstrokes of the deal last week, but Livent announced financial terms on Tuesday as it posted a better-than-expected profit and raised its forecast for the year.

“GM is certainly thinking for the long term here,” Paul Graves, Livent’s chief executive, told investors on a Tuesday conference call. “By making the advanced payment, they are clearly giving us the commitment that we were looking for.”

Graves has long prodded automakers to work closer with lithium producers. In an interview with Reuters last fall, Graves warned that unless the auto industry signed long-term deals, “there may be periods where there is just insufficient lithium.”

Livent produces lithium in Argentina and has processing facilities in the United States.

Livent, which also supplies BMW, expects to receive the GM prepayment later this year. The company is set to start supplying GM in 2025 at a contractual price per tonne, though neither company disclosed volume.

Philadelphia-based Livent reported second-quarter net income of $60 million, or 31 cents per share, compared with $6.5 million, or 4 cents per share, a year ago.

Excluding one-time items, Livent earned 37 cents per share. By that measure, analysts expected earnings of 29 cents per share, according to IBES data from Refinitiv.

Livent said expansion of its Argentina site is on schedule. The company’s stock rose slightly in after-hours trading.

(By Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Jonathan Oatis, Bill Berkrot and David Gregorio)

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