Regarding new brine supply, ORE really should have went bust due to technical issues, only rampant prices and their backers bending over for product have made it a success. That’s before issues with water, green and red tape with brine production that need to be sorted. Regarding SQM this is equally flawed for the same issues as well. Not impossible and brine supply will increase, it’s simply not as fast and expandable as hard rock with big trucks and gravity separation.
So what’s going on with agrressive production targets at the top and junior end? It’s simply easily to push the sp, raise capital with a close end point of cash flow. Better to disappoint the punters down the track once the money is banked. Perhaps SQM and others may also have a need to satisfy a gov target as part of a negotiating position on approvals, employment or tax.
Spoiler alert latter this year or early next: SQM pushes back the medium and long term production targets, lithium price breaks out again.
PLS Price at posting:
89.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Not Held
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