Much has been speculated about this ramp-up supply to China, which must be viewed from LTR perspective of not dealing with China. The CCP has a wide range of leavers to pull to manipulate. Don't discount political interference from Canberra, a call from on-high, 'listen guys, turn down the rhetoric and sell them some spod.' China has a small win, gets its hands on enough spod. to work out the refining chemistry and costs. If, which IMO, high quality spod. is significantly cheaper to process: then it follows the batteries produced will be cheaper & better quality, and a premium for LTR spod. created. As previously stated by others, low grade ores are expensive to process, and the impurities limit battery life etc. see post by Anatol. Can you imagine the damage and warranty claims if the cheap end EV's batteries start to fail... quality is everything. Also awaiting ESG to get some teeth and backbone, no point in going electric if in the process the planet is trashed. ESG currently has no premium as we have seen in Ni prices, but soon,... maybe Trump will play that card against China?
Just my early morning reading of the tealeaves, awaiting a rough day on the bourse.
LTR Price at posting:
99.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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