LITHIUM
Reuters | February 14, 2025 |
Vale do Jequitinhonha. Credit: Wikimedia
Chinese electric carmaker BYD acquired mineral rights for two plots of land in a lithium-rich part of Brazil in 2023, entering the mining business in its biggest market outside of China, according to public records reviewed by Reuters.
The EV producer’s acquisition of mineral rights in Brazil is its most concrete step so far toward mining strategic minerals in the Western Hemisphere.
The previously unreported acquisition of the mineral rights in late 2023 was made by BYD subsidiary Exploracao Mineral do Brasil, which was created in May of that year, documents showed.
The plots are just a half-day’s drive from BYD’s new factory project in northeast Brazil, which it also agreed to invest in 2023. They also neighbor plots owned by US-listed miner Atlas Lithium.
The subsidiary was created with a share capital of 4 million reais ($695,000) and turned a profit of about 213,000 reais from exchange rate variations in 2023, public registration documents showed.
The company “is in the research phase, with neither financial movement nor operating revenues,” said a report from an October shareholders meeting seen by Reuters.
BYD declined to comment on the matter.
BYD, which bought stakes in major Chinese miners, was one of six firms allowed to bid on a Chilean lithium project last year, and outlined plans for a lithium cathode plant in northern Chile.
Recent visits by US, Saudi and Chinese delegations have underscored global interest in Brazil as an open market in the geopolitical race for access to strategic minerals.
Brazil has avoided a heavy state presence in its lithium sector, unlike its South American neighbors, even easing export controls on the metal in 2022.
Its best lithium prospects are hard rock deposits that lend themselves to traditional mining, unlike tricky lithium extraction from salt flats in Argentina, Bolivia and Chile.
BYD’s prospecting for Brazilian lithium reinforces the scale of its bet on Latin America’s largest economy, where the firm’s major investment in a former Ford factory complex was tarnished in December with accusations of labor abuses at the worksite.
Last year, the Financial Times reported that BYD had talks with Sigma Lithium, Brazil’s biggest lithium producer, over a possible supply agreement, joint venture or acquisition.
Lithium Valley
BYD’s mineral rights cover 852 hectares (8.5 sq km) in the town of Coronel Murta, part of the Jequitinhonha Valley in the state of Minas Gerais known as Brazil’s Lithium Valley.
The neighboring Atlas Lithium project in Coronel Murta is in the research phase after an initial geological mapping of the area, the firm said on its website in June.
Atlas CEO Marc Fogassa said he learned of BYD’s presence through a third party, but never directly discussed it with the carmaker.
“If they invested in these two areas it is because they saw the potential and this obviously makes my areas more valuable,” Fogassa told Reuters.
Coronel Murta is around 825 km (512 miles) away, roughly a 12-hour drive, from the complex on the coast of Bahia state where BYD is developing the factory with capacity to make 150,000 electric cars per year.
BYD has since it acquired the mineral rights, hired Minagem Geologia e Mineracao, a local mineral research firm, public documents show.
Minagem said it would have to seek permission from the BYD subsidiary to speak about the matter.
It can often take between eight and 15 years for a mining project in Brazil to start production if it is deemed economically viable, according to attorney Luiz Fernando Visconti of Visconti Law, a law firm specializing in the mining sector.
($1 = 5.7568 reais)
(By Fabio Teixeira and Luciana Novaes Magalhaes; Editing by Brad Haynes and Marguerita Choy)
Chinese lithium firms take over copycat Nigeria refinery project
Bloomberg News | February 12, 2025 |
Stock image.
Two Chinese manufacturers have taken over a Nigerian company that raised eyebrows in 2023 when it started building a lithium refinery in the country using a name that was very similar to one of the biggest and best-known Chinese producers.
A joint venture between Canmax Technologies Co. Ltd. and Jiangxi Jiuling Lithium Co. Ltd. last year took a controlling interest in Ganfeng Lithium Industry Ltd., a firm developing a lithium plant in the north of the West African nation, according to company documents obtained by Bloomberg.
Nigeria-registered Ganfeng was founded by Chinese businessmen in 2022, and created confusion a year later when it hosted a groundbreaking ceremony to kick off construction of the processing plant, which local authorities said will cost $250 million.
Shortly after the event, the company issued a statement to local media saying it had “no formal affiliation whatsoever” with Ganfeng Lithium Group Co. Ltd., one of the world’s biggest suppliers of lithium chemicals. A company representative offered no explanation as to why it was trading under a similar name.
Canmax and Jiuling’s takeover of the company — which corporate records show occurred in mid-2024 — brings financial clout and operating nous to the development of Nigeria’s nascent lithium industry, which has typically shipped raw ore to China for further treatment.
The investments signal that Chinese lithium companies are doubling down on efforts to lock down feedstock in anticipation of soaring future demand for the metal used in electric-vehicle batteries. They’ve been investing heavily in Africa’s lithium deposits from Mali to Zimbabwe, even after prices tumbled almost 90% from a peak in 2022.
Separately, Canmax also announced this month that it will invest over $200 million to develop two lithium mining deposits elsewhere in northern Nigeria, working with local company Three Crown Mines Ltd.
Shenzhen-listed Canmax is a large producer of lithium chemicals whose founder, Pei Zhenhua, made his fortune as an investor in Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd., the world’s top EV battery maker. Pei and CATL co-own a separate lithium mining and processing joint venture. Jiuling is a chemical producer based in Jiangxi – one of China’s lithium mining hubs – and a supplier to CATL.
Nigeria has sizable untapped deposits of metals including gold, tin and lithium, but most extraction is done informally by so-called artisanal miners on a small-scale or manual basis.
The Nigerian Ganfeng signed an agreement in September allowing the company to mine lithium for 10 years under permits held by a firm owned by the government of Nasarawa state – the location of the plant under construction.
The first phase of the facility is due for completion by the middle of this year and the second phase four months later, said Ibrahim Abdullahi, the chief executive officer of the state’s development and investment agency. “Nasarawa state is pleased with this investment and welcomes more of it,” he said.
Canmax and Jiuling, which together own 75% of the Nigerian Ganfeng, declined to comment. Nigeria’s federal mines ministry didn’t respond to questions about the acquisition or how much lithium concentrate it will produce.
(By William Clowes, Annie Lee and Nduka Orjinmo)
Bloomberg News | February 12, 2025 |
Stock image.
Two Chinese manufacturers have taken over a Nigerian company that raised eyebrows in 2023 when it started building a lithium refinery in the country using a name that was very similar to one of the biggest and best-known Chinese producers.
A joint venture between Canmax Technologies Co. Ltd. and Jiangxi Jiuling Lithium Co. Ltd. last year took a controlling interest in Ganfeng Lithium Industry Ltd., a firm developing a lithium plant in the north of the West African nation, according to company documents obtained by Bloomberg.
Nigeria-registered Ganfeng was founded by Chinese businessmen in 2022, and created confusion a year later when it hosted a groundbreaking ceremony to kick off construction of the processing plant, which local authorities said will cost $250 million.
Shortly after the event, the company issued a statement to local media saying it had “no formal affiliation whatsoever” with Ganfeng Lithium Group Co. Ltd., one of the world’s biggest suppliers of lithium chemicals. A company representative offered no explanation as to why it was trading under a similar name.
Canmax and Jiuling’s takeover of the company — which corporate records show occurred in mid-2024 — brings financial clout and operating nous to the development of Nigeria’s nascent lithium industry, which has typically shipped raw ore to China for further treatment.
The investments signal that Chinese lithium companies are doubling down on efforts to lock down feedstock in anticipation of soaring future demand for the metal used in electric-vehicle batteries. They’ve been investing heavily in Africa’s lithium deposits from Mali to Zimbabwe, even after prices tumbled almost 90% from a peak in 2022.
Separately, Canmax also announced this month that it will invest over $200 million to develop two lithium mining deposits elsewhere in northern Nigeria, working with local company Three Crown Mines Ltd.
Shenzhen-listed Canmax is a large producer of lithium chemicals whose founder, Pei Zhenhua, made his fortune as an investor in Contemporary Amperex Technology Co Ltd., the world’s top EV battery maker. Pei and CATL co-own a separate lithium mining and processing joint venture. Jiuling is a chemical producer based in Jiangxi – one of China’s lithium mining hubs – and a supplier to CATL.
Nigeria has sizable untapped deposits of metals including gold, tin and lithium, but most extraction is done informally by so-called artisanal miners on a small-scale or manual basis.
The Nigerian Ganfeng signed an agreement in September allowing the company to mine lithium for 10 years under permits held by a firm owned by the government of Nasarawa state – the location of the plant under construction.
The first phase of the facility is due for completion by the middle of this year and the second phase four months later, said Ibrahim Abdullahi, the chief executive officer of the state’s development and investment agency. “Nasarawa state is pleased with this investment and welcomes more of it,” he said.
Canmax and Jiuling, which together own 75% of the Nigerian Ganfeng, declined to comment. Nigeria’s federal mines ministry didn’t respond to questions about the acquisition or how much lithium concentrate it will produce.
(By William Clowes, Annie Lee and Nduka Orjinmo)
China's EV Subsidies Set to Fuel Lithium Price Recovery in 2025
Lithium prices are expected to stabilize in 2025 as strong electric vehicle sales growth, particularly in China, and mine closures help to reduce the global supply glut.
China's increased EV subsidies have significantly boosted electric vehicle sales, driving much of the anticipated lithium demand.
Potential policy changes in the United States, such as cuts to EV tax credits and trade tensions with China, could create uncertainty and negatively impact the lithium market.
After a year of extreme volatility, lithium prices are expected to stabilize in 2025 as a global supply glut eases. Strong electric vehicle (EV) sales growth from Chinese markets paired with mine closures are expected to cut the global glut by a staggering 50 percent according to figures from Antaike, China's state-owned commodity data provider. However, there are other factors that leave a certain degree of uncertainty in projections for the rest of 2025, with United States politics potentially lowering lithium demand, while other factors could, including politics in China, lower EV prices, and better EV charging infrastructure, could do the exact opposite.
Lithium has become a “critical mineral” in the global clean energy transition due to its central role in battery manufacturing for electric vehicles as well as for energy storage, a burgeoning sector which is expected to explode as power grids approach 100 percent renewable (and thereby largely variable) energy. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has estimated that lithium demand for battery-making alone will increase tenfold in the ten-year window between 2020 and 2030. What is more, a 2023 report from Popular Mechanics calculated that “an electrified economy in 2030 will likely need anywhere from 250,000 to 450,000 tonnes of lithium.” To put the scale of that increase in perspective, “in 2021, the world produced only 105—not 105,000—tonnes.”
However, a combination of soft EV sales and oversupply from China and Africa has caused lithium prices to nosedive over the past two years. Since their peak in November 2022, lithium prices have fallen a jaw-dropping 86 percent, causing shockwaves in global markets. As a result, companies around the have had to close or pause operations at their lithium mines until lithium prices are able to recover. And it appears that that time has finally come.
"We expect to see a price recovery for lithium in 2025 as the curtailments seen in 2024, and the possibility of further curtailments, will significantly reduce the market surplus," Cameron Hughes, battery markets analyst at CRU Group, was recently quoted by Reuters.
In fact, experts expect that demand will outpace supply this year, largely on the back of strong growth in Chinese EV purchases thanks to supportive policy measures and improving EV technologies, infrastructure, and pricing. China doubled its nationwide EV subsidies in July of last year, and as of December over 5 million EV sales had benefited from those increased subsidies. In fact, in 2024, China alone accounted for 86 percent of plug-in electric vehicles sales growth. The United States represented just 5.9 percent, while in the European Union EV sales declined due to unsupportive policy changes.
"The uptick in lithium trade business in the fourth quarter of 2024 can be undeniably attributed to the policy of providing subsidies [in China]," a buyer at a mid-sized cathode material plant in China told Reuters.
However, while the policy atmosphere becomes increasingly friendlier for EVs in China, oppositional policy measures in the United States could temper the expected upswing in lithium prices. CarbonCredits.com reports that the Trump administration “might slow EV adoption by reversing climate goals.” The United States currently offers a $7,500 tax credit for EV buyers. If this program is cut (or, more likely, when it is cut) EV sales will almost certainly plummet from their already modest U.S. sales, hurting lithium demand. Furthermore, the trade war with China and likely tariffs on Chinese battery imports could also take a chunk out of the lithium market.
As a result of these competing factors, experts are expecting a much better year for lithium, but they’re not making any promises. Bets are being loudly hedged across the board. “With significant latent production capacity ready to meet new demand within ‘weeks’, new lower-cost projects due onstream this year and uncertainty around US and China trade tensions, the market could be facing another challenging year, even in a tightening supply environment,” says Fastmarkets.
By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com
By Haley Zaremba - Feb 11, 2025,
Lithium prices are expected to stabilize in 2025 as strong electric vehicle sales growth, particularly in China, and mine closures help to reduce the global supply glut.
China's increased EV subsidies have significantly boosted electric vehicle sales, driving much of the anticipated lithium demand.
Potential policy changes in the United States, such as cuts to EV tax credits and trade tensions with China, could create uncertainty and negatively impact the lithium market.
After a year of extreme volatility, lithium prices are expected to stabilize in 2025 as a global supply glut eases. Strong electric vehicle (EV) sales growth from Chinese markets paired with mine closures are expected to cut the global glut by a staggering 50 percent according to figures from Antaike, China's state-owned commodity data provider. However, there are other factors that leave a certain degree of uncertainty in projections for the rest of 2025, with United States politics potentially lowering lithium demand, while other factors could, including politics in China, lower EV prices, and better EV charging infrastructure, could do the exact opposite.
Lithium has become a “critical mineral” in the global clean energy transition due to its central role in battery manufacturing for electric vehicles as well as for energy storage, a burgeoning sector which is expected to explode as power grids approach 100 percent renewable (and thereby largely variable) energy. The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has estimated that lithium demand for battery-making alone will increase tenfold in the ten-year window between 2020 and 2030. What is more, a 2023 report from Popular Mechanics calculated that “an electrified economy in 2030 will likely need anywhere from 250,000 to 450,000 tonnes of lithium.” To put the scale of that increase in perspective, “in 2021, the world produced only 105—not 105,000—tonnes.”
However, a combination of soft EV sales and oversupply from China and Africa has caused lithium prices to nosedive over the past two years. Since their peak in November 2022, lithium prices have fallen a jaw-dropping 86 percent, causing shockwaves in global markets. As a result, companies around the have had to close or pause operations at their lithium mines until lithium prices are able to recover. And it appears that that time has finally come.
"We expect to see a price recovery for lithium in 2025 as the curtailments seen in 2024, and the possibility of further curtailments, will significantly reduce the market surplus," Cameron Hughes, battery markets analyst at CRU Group, was recently quoted by Reuters.
In fact, experts expect that demand will outpace supply this year, largely on the back of strong growth in Chinese EV purchases thanks to supportive policy measures and improving EV technologies, infrastructure, and pricing. China doubled its nationwide EV subsidies in July of last year, and as of December over 5 million EV sales had benefited from those increased subsidies. In fact, in 2024, China alone accounted for 86 percent of plug-in electric vehicles sales growth. The United States represented just 5.9 percent, while in the European Union EV sales declined due to unsupportive policy changes.
"The uptick in lithium trade business in the fourth quarter of 2024 can be undeniably attributed to the policy of providing subsidies [in China]," a buyer at a mid-sized cathode material plant in China told Reuters.
However, while the policy atmosphere becomes increasingly friendlier for EVs in China, oppositional policy measures in the United States could temper the expected upswing in lithium prices. CarbonCredits.com reports that the Trump administration “might slow EV adoption by reversing climate goals.” The United States currently offers a $7,500 tax credit for EV buyers. If this program is cut (or, more likely, when it is cut) EV sales will almost certainly plummet from their already modest U.S. sales, hurting lithium demand. Furthermore, the trade war with China and likely tariffs on Chinese battery imports could also take a chunk out of the lithium market.
As a result of these competing factors, experts are expecting a much better year for lithium, but they’re not making any promises. Bets are being loudly hedged across the board. “With significant latent production capacity ready to meet new demand within ‘weeks’, new lower-cost projects due onstream this year and uncertainty around US and China trade tensions, the market could be facing another challenging year, even in a tightening supply environment,” says Fastmarkets.
By Haley Zaremba for Oilprice.com
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