Thanks @Surferxxl. While many including myself are a little...

Thanks @Surferxxl. While many including myself are a little hesitant about Benchmark's forecasting, it's interesting to note only Lithium, Manganese and Natural Graphite have projected 2025-2030 supply numbers double or more than current production. Copper getting all the headlines and potential big deals has bugger all relative growth.

It's true No.47's arrival has probably given many in the critical mineral sector some restless sleep.
Some industry players though are confident all will be well, despite any US backtracking on climate goals and EV assistance:
https://www.mining.com/web/trumps-ev-rollback-not-expected-to-suppress-appetite-for-critical-minerals/
A snippet:
“Longer term, I just don’t think it will be an issue on demand,” Antonino Ottaviano, Liontown’s CEO, said on a Tuesday analyst call. Much of the EV industry’s growth happens in China, accounting for 11 million sales or 65% of the market, compared with North America, which accounts for 20% of the market, Liontown executives said on the call. , the rest of the world already accounts for 1.3 million EV sales and is growing at 27% year on year, a trajectory that will see it become more meaningful than the entire North American market in less than two years, the Liontown executives added.

Now while Benchmark's 90 future Siviours clangs in our ears, their review of what's actually happened plays a sweeter tune:


Over 200GWh of stationary battery energy storage installation in 2024 is significant. How significant?
The IEA in their 2024 Global EV Outlook noted the following EV battery demand figures for 2023:
"...the United States remains the smallest market of the three, with around 100 GWh in 2023, compared to 185 GWh in Europe and 415 GWh in China."
So BESS was almost double the US EV market (allowing for the 2024 growth to maybe 110GWh), or about the size of the European EV market.

Speaking of Europe, new vehicle emission standards kick in this year, with an expected return to increasing EV sales growth:


LFP batteries are dominant at present in both EV and BESS, so traditional graphite anode cells are being made in the many millions.
It's not all doom and gloom in the critical minerals and graphite space!

A POTUS comment at a press conference reported today in the WSJ bodes ill for the dominant li-ion supply chain and their partners:

BTW, only a few days till we get a quarterly update.
IMO DC and team are not sitting idle. They've certainly not been: