That IGO may use the Pilbara Minerals GLX Battery Minerals Exchange Platform (BMX/GLX) is kind of exciting.
Fireworks across the spot price lithium globe both times that little secret biddersauction-house-in-a-computer was employed, and this story indicates there’s better prices still to come ?
Cheers
https://www.afr. com/companies/mining/lithium-price-rockets-45pc-with-no-end-in-sight-20220204-p59trs Lithium price rockets 45pc with no end in sight Peter KerResources reporter
Feb 4, 2022 – 10.23am
Prices for the lithium-rich spodumene concentrate that Australian miners send to the world’s battery manufacturers surged by 45.5 per cent in January, and experts say the record-breaking 15-month rally in lithium prices has further to run.
Price reporting agency Benchmark Mineral Intelligence (BMI) said Australian spodumene concentrate was fetching $US2400 per tonne in January, up from $US1650 per tonne in December. The Greenbushes mine in WA is the world’s best source of lithium from hard rocks.
The price is up a staggering 478.3 per cent compared to January 2021 and is about six times higher than in September 2020 when a bear market for battery minerals like lithium started to turn positive on recovering electric vehicle sales and a sentiment boost from the election of Joe Biden to the office of US President.
Lithium production has struggled to keep pace with the recovery in demand over the past 15 months, with BMI reporting that extremely low inventory levels across all lithium products were prompting customers to pay increasingly high prices.
Spodumene concentrate typically contains 6 per cent lithium and needs to be further refined, usually in China, to be turned into higher value battery grade lithium.
The price reported by BMI is an assessment of spodumene concentrate sold on longer term contracts where prices are calculated with reference to prices for battery grade lithium products like lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide.
The spodumene price reported by BMI is therefore a trailing indicator of both the prices being paid for battery grade lithium and also the prices being paid for spodumene on illiquid but rapidly maturing daily markets.
BMI said lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide prices had risen by more than 34 per cent and 36 per cent respectively in January and BMI said those rallies had not yet been factored into the spodumene price it reported for January.
“Given that many spodumene contracts are tied to chemical pricing, Benchmark expects spodumene pricing to maintain upwards momentum in the first quarter of 2022,” said BMI in a note on Friday.
Western Australia is the world’s dominant supplier of spodumene and the WA mining industry has predicted a disrupted start to 2022 as the COVID-19 virus spreads into the state and exacerbates an existing labour shortage at a time of the year when cyclones have traditionally halted production and shipments for at least a few days each year.
BMI said there was potential for spodumene supply to be further hit in coming months.
“The labour shortage in Western Australia has already begun to impact spodumene production figures and mine development timelines, which could worsen supply availability amid an already unbalanced feedstock market,” said BMI.
Australian exporter Pilbara Minerals warned on Monday that it was likely to downgrade its spodumene production target for the second time in two months because labour shortages were exacerbating operational challenges.
Pilbara sells the vast majority of its spodumene on contract prices and managing director Ken Brinsden said he expected those contract prices to fetch between $US2600 and $US3000 per tonne in the three months to March.
Pilbara Minerals received $US2350 per tonne for a shipment on the platform in October and its next auction will be keenly watched in the sector.
IGO Group said it was also investigating whether it could sell some lithium products on the GLX platform now that it has a minority stake in Australia’s best spodumene mine at Greenbushes as well as a lithium hydroxide processing facility south of Perth.
Supply of spodumene should be stronger by the end of this year, with Pilbara ramping up export volumes while Chris Ellison’s Mineral Resources has also flagged plans to restart the giant Wodgina mine in September
(20min delay)