Good News & Bad News, page-45043

I haven't seen any credible data /info regarding CoP from these African mines, so I don't know if they are actually operating at a loss like some here are saying.

I can only imagine that their labour costs are very low even if (unlike us) they are labour intensive, but I am only guessing. I imagine transport both within the country and shipping to China is very expensive, but again only guessing. Is there anyone here that has actual data on CoP from these African mines that they can share before I start a deep dive into this.

My understanding is that China is topping up any lithium deficits with Lithium (from Lepidolite). This is apparently very costly due to all of the impurities despite the LiO content being 4+% . It seems clear what the Chinese end game is here, but I think they are short sighted and will end up paying a heavy price for this sort of behaviour.

I think the best way for the West to get on top of this is to pull their finger out and get the demand for lithium moving and quickly........ get chemical processing capacity out of China built quicker .... much quicker. China are trying to strangle this market in its infancy and the West has to do more to stop it. Western governments need to do more to subsidise EV's and battery storage and get the market moving.

In short the answer for us lies outside of China and the ability of the West to do away with the dependance on China.

GLTAH