From Psst, Wanna buy Some Cobalt:
...Anyway, in 2015-2016 we had a series of posts on a trade to capitalize on Tesla's battery ambitions that we hoped would go beyond the "common knowledge" lithium action (which we had covered here on the blog for the prior ten years):From Reuters:
Chile's Corfo, SQM strike deal in lithium dispute
Chilean development agency Corfo said on Wednesday that it had struck a deal with lithium company SQM , ending a long dispute over royalties in Chile’s Salar de Atacama, home to one of the world’s richest lithium deposits.
The deal frees the miner to apply for an increase in its production quota amid a demand boom and surging prices for lithium, which is used in the batteries that power electric cars.
Corfo chief Eduardo Bitran said SQM had agreed to overhaul its corporate governance board to ensure adherence to global standards, a key condition put forward by Chilean authorities. The deal also hikes the royalties paid by SQM to equal those established in a similar contract between Chile and SQM competitor and lithium producer Albemarle.
SQM, like the U.S.-based Albemarle, would be required to supply Chile with lithium at a favorable price, a stipulation intended to incentivize value-added production in Chile.
The deal also includes an option that would permit SQM to work with state miner Codelco to begin developing the Maricunga lithium deposit. Codelco, one of the world’s largest copper producers, has lithium assets in Chile but is currently not producing the metal.
“Our intention is to make it available for Codelco so it can ... make viable the development of a new activity in this area,” Bitran told reporters...MORE
Related:
Jan. 2
August 2017
Eighteen months ago we went with cobalt over lithium as the battery
material that would be in shortest supply and think that is still a
correct assessment. However, if long-suffering reader is interested the
'search blog' box has quite a few hits for 'lithium'....
