The price of lithium is already at the point where Core's mining of Grants is profitable. The mine has not been said to be unviable anywhere - that's your interpretation The terminology used by Core is a temporary suspension - Its your faulty view of the world that has mining being unlikely in the foreseeable future
New Australian discoveries are actually pretty rare and limited given the number of people looking. The big existing/planned projects of Greenbushes, Pilgangoora, Mt Holland, Wodgina, Kathleen Valley, Mt Marion, Grants, BP33, Bald Hill, Mt Catlin were all sufficiently advanced to have JORC resources by 2018.
There have been new discoveries since then. Those with JORC's include: Buldania (2019), Pioneer dome (2019), Marble Bar (2020), Manna (2022), Mt Ida (2022), Split Rocks (2023), Yinnetharra (2023), Lei (2024). Faraday (2023) with 0.5Mt @ 0.59% is technically a JORC resource but low grade and tiny. Azure was the success story of 2023 but is yet to release its JORC. WC8 was another 2023 success story and is yet to release its JORC.
There's been about two project JORC's per year, but as PLS noted, with demand growth about 2-3 Pilgangoora size projects need to be brought into production every year to meet projected demand. If that growth comes from small projects then its into the dozens needed each year.
What there has actually been is a string of companies with disappointing drilling results or the expectation they would drill and nothing has happened. The most recent of those was IND who reported only 1-2m intersections. CHR hasn't found much. FBM has something but all the 10m+ intercepts are closely clumped together. KTA had results like 7m @ 0.31% (or 1m at 0.51%). RR1 had 40m @ 0.09% or 16m @ 0.15% inc 2m @ 0.22%.
The share price reflects people the terrible job Core has done in selling the positives. You need to dig hard to find positive things that Core is telling. I believe I've found one that exists and if that story was told well by Core, I don't think the current share price would stay at its current levels.
CXO Price at posting:
15.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
