If this is the case, it will hurt high-cost producers most, and loss-making operations will be the first to be curtailed or mothballed if there is a surplus of product in the market.
I've read a number of articles claiming lithium production from hard rock sources is cheaper and more environmentally friendly than from brine, however these seem to ignore the fact that the ore mined from hard rock sources needs to be shipped to a chemical processing factory (mostly in China at the moment) and processed to extract lithium from the spodumene in the crushed ore for conversion it to lithium carbonate or hydroxide.
ORE claims to be one of the lowest cost producers of lithium carbonate and there's no reason to doubt them. So if there's oversupply in the lithium market, ORE should still be able to operate profitably while some other producers may not.
ORE Price at posting:
$2.93 Sentiment: Hold Disclosure: Held
