Originally posted by binwood
It's not easy to compare the two.
Let's say Wodgina spod costs $400/t (pretty high for spod). You need 7 tonnes for a tonne of Hydroxide. That is $2,800 and probably $2,500 conversion costs. Call it $5,300 per tonne of Hydroxide.
SDV after some economies of scale
might be in the $2,800-$3,000 mark for Carbonate if all goes well which is a big if. Then you still have to process to Hydroxide as that's what people actually want. You end up getting very similar costs.
The move to Hydroxide is flattening the cost curve to some degree.
Not sure about direct extraction. Will be interested to see how that develops.
What about solid state lithium metal which is coming in next few years? My understanding the lithium metal is converted from lithium chloride which is coming from carbonate. There will be additional cost from carbonate to chloride for hard rock process. Maybe I am wrong.