...there would be more production of lithium coming out of US, that is for sure. Their oil companies are going into it.
They have lithium, lots of them in US, they just need to process them cheaply, and they will.
...so eventually why would they need LTR's lithium? With our high cost of production plus increasingly higher shipping cost, it does not make sense for US to import our lithium. They can get them from South America and Canada.
...so where are we selling our lithium then? Only one place - China, and the viability of our mines could in the end rest on us allowing them to acquire our lithium mines. But Gina won't allow it, so someone would need to make more capital injection to keep them chugging. That won't be pretty.
...mines could easily be transferred into a JV vehicle on a 51:49 JV with the Chinese on a take or pay lithium contract preferably with the likes of CATL. So the PLC company can be the holding company controlling 51% of the JV company that owns the mines. And the PLC holding company should explore lithium mines to acquire in other parts of the world to work with the Chinese and supply them.
...lithium is beholden to the Chinese EV and survival rest on it. But because politics/ideology gets in the way, the industry faces an existential threat because it looks like the Western car makers have about giving up competing in the EV space as Chinese EV technology grow from strength to strength.
“Later this week, I will take historic action to dramatically expand production of critical minerals and rare earths here in the USA” - @realDonaldTrump @WhiteHouse
