Just saw this in Sat's BMI newsletter. it's freely available, so...

Just saw this in Sat's BMI newsletter. it's freely available, so I'm sure it's ok to share:

Bidding war for Argentinian lithium

Greetings from London! I’m Henry Sanderson, the new executive editor at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. I’ll be helping to develop new content for Benchmark subscribers. It’s been a busy week in the lithium sector. China’s Ganfeng Lithium signed a three-year deal with Tesla to supply lithium hydroxide to the electric carmaker, whose valuation hit over $1 trillion last week. Amid all the talk about the rise of LFP batteries, the deal shows that demand for more powerful nickel-based lithium batteries that use lithium hydroxide is also set to grow. A bidding war for the Canadian miner Millennial Lithium escalated after Lithium Americas offered $400 million for the company in cash and shares, around $100 million higher than a previous offer from China’s largest battery maker CATL. The company’s Pastos Grandes project in Argentina is 100 kilometres from Cauchari-Olaroz, which Lithium Americas is developing with Ganfeng Lithium. Ganfeng Lithium, however, denied that it was involved with Lithium America’s bid. Benchmark expects lithium supply from Argentina to almost rival that of neighbour Chile by the end of the decade due to the number of new projects that have been funded. Another region that could emerge as a supplier of lithium is Africa. This week China’s Chengxin Lithium Group paid $76.5 million for a majority stake in a company that has rights to mine for lithium and other metals in Zimbabwe. Benchmark believes there is potential for lithium supply from Africa to grow by a compound annual growth rate of 31 per cent this decade. Elsewhere, Albemarle, the world’s biggest lithium producer, reported a 35 per cent increase in sales of lithium to $359.2 million in the third quarter. The North Carolina-based company also increased its full year guidance for lithium revenues due to higher expected production volumes. Albemarle also said its Wodgina mine in Australia would start production in the third quarter of 2022. Smaller rival Livent also increased its revenue guidance for the year this week, saying that it now expects between $390 million to $410 million in sales, from an earlier forecast of between $370 million to $390 million. Livent, however, said ‘various supply chain disruptions’ had offset the benefit of higher pricing in the third quarter.