Ann: Project and Funding Update, page-570

Apologies for some errors in copying formula, here’s corrected one,

I also added lithium carbonate price of US$25,000/t which the bosses of Livent and ALB believe long term lithium price should be between US$25,000/t and US$35,000/t, discussed in an interview held last month.

Currently Chinese spot price has already smashed by 84% since late 2022, but spodumene concentrate 6% Li2O (SC6 CIF) price is still around US$980/ton, even higher than Wood Mac long term price of US$950/ton. Wood Mac did say “sticky” supply from Africa (currently mainly from Acadia and Bikita), but Acadia is currently already making a loss, similar to Bikita, the analysts are believed production cost will be around US$800-US$1,000/ton. Chinese lepidolite future new supply is mainly from CATL and Gotion (planned nameplate 120ktpa LCE each, from 0.27% Li2O lepidolite projects, yes 0.27% Li2O grade, requiring 300 tons to produce 1 ton LCE, all in production cost would be minimum US$1,447/ton SC6 equivalent, conservative analyst estimates all in production cost could be as high as CNY 195,000 per ton. Second large existing Chinese lepidolite miner, just confirmed two days ago, their production cost was CNY 80,000 – CNY 100,000/t for ore grade of 0.5% Li2O. So for 0.27% ore grade, CNY 125,000/t is not easy to achieve, don’t forget CATL also have royalties of CNY 10,000 to CNY 30,000 on top of it.



Always DYOR. all imo.