Hey mate, I agree that ATL have some Tier 1 customers (Apple and...

Hey mate, I agree that ATL have some Tier 1 customers (Apple and Samsung), but that doesn't make them a Tier 1 business since they don't handle anywhere near the volume of the larger players in the battery supply chain.

For context, in 2023, 1.17 billion mobile phones, 188 million laptops, and 128 million tablets were sold worldwide. The average lithium metal content is less than 1 gram per phone, less than 5 grams per laptop, and less than 3 grams per tablet. We can therefore estimate the worldwide demand for personal devices (phones, laptops, and tablets) as follows:

Mobile phones: 1.17 billion x 1g = 1,170 tons of lithium metal
Laptops: 188 million x 5g = 940 tons of lithium metal
Tablets: 128 million x 3g = 384 tons of lithium metal

Total: 2,494 tons of lithium metal

2,494 tons of lithium metal x 5.323 (lithium metal to LCE conversion factor) = 13,275 tons LCE

Therefore, the expanded Rincon operation (12 ktpa) could almost supply enough lithium for the annual demand of all phones, tablets, and laptops on earth. This shows just how minuscule the lithium market is for personal devices.