Mexico values its Sonora lithium deposits at $600bn

Reuters 

Sonora lithium project in Mexico. Credit: Bacanora

A potentially vast lithium deposit in Mexico’s northern Sonora state could be worth as much as 12 trillion Mexican pesos ($602 billion), according to a recent finance ministry report, or over a third of the country’s projected economic output this year.


Mexico hopes its reserves of the key battery component will help it benefit from a global shift toward electric vehicle production that has turbo-charged demand, but experts are skeptical it will be able to quickly mobilize its industry.

Lithium prices have soared to surpass $70,000 per tonne this year.

While the ultra-light white metal is typically extracted from rock or brine deposits, lithium in Sonora is mostly trapped in clay soils, from which it has not yet been mined on a commercial scale.

President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador has urged the private sector to work with the new state miner, saying the size of the investment needed means the government needs partners.

But analysts argue that companies are more likely to focus near-term investments in Chile or Argentina’s sprawling salt flats, where industries are more established and policies more market-friendly.

The massive projected lithium demand should, however, eventually draw interest to Mexico, they added.

“We have a product which can define what will happen with the world’s energy,” Bolivia’s Mexico ambassador Jose Crespo said in a statement published on Thursday.

Mexican newspaper La Jornada reported the government’s lithium valuation earlier on Thursday.

Though Mexico does not currently produce the metal, the finance ministry estimated the Sonora reserves could add some 0.3 percentage points to potential GDP in the medium-term.

($1 = 19.9400 Mexican pesos)

(By Sarah Morland; Editing by David Alire Garcia and Sam Holmes)

LG Energy inks cobalt, lithium supply deals with three Canadian miners
Reuters 

Credit: Avalon Advanced Materials.

South Korean battery maker LG Energy Solution said on Friday it has signed agreements on lithium and cobalt sourcing with three Canadian mining firms in a bid to expand its footprint in North America.


The Tesla supplier said in a statement the agreements were part of an effort to expand mid- to long-term supply contracts with companies that mine and process key battery materials in North America.

The US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), signed into law by US President Joe Biden in August, requires a percentage of critical minerals used in electric vehicle (EV) batteries come from the United States or an American free-trade partner.

LG said the three Canadian mining firms, Electra, Avalon and Snowlake, will supply LG with 7,000 tonnes of cobalt sulfate for three years from 2023, 55,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide for five years from 2025, and 200,000 tonnes of lithium hydroxide for 10 years, respectively.

(By Joyce Lee; Editing by Sherry Jacob-Phillips)