Lithium Related Media Articles, page-18829

1. On Prices

Despite all the negativity of late, spodumene prices are still anticpated to be well above what most put into their respective DFS.

2. On Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology

DLE will not operate for quite a while IMO. I posted on that a while back - Post #:69711272On DLE, it is largely unproven technology IMO and is probably costlier than typical brine processes - with the difficulty in process is the fact that the 'input' is in varied concentrations, ranging from lithium to deleterious elements as it enters DLE and that is a problem in itself, although if they can ever get it to workat scaleit would be a good thing (assuming they can further improve on the ESG aspects of the production technique in terms of returning water to the water table). Background is here -Post #:49764761

The embedded post has this image, i.e. at a time comparisons were between Atacama and hard rock, and whilst the numbers may be outdated the relativities remain:


Treating brines is a two step process to hydroxide, whilst hard rock it is a one step process. Point of the above is that I suspect, even if DLE is proven at scale which will take time btw, it will produce carbonate and hydroxide at a greater cost, where comparison is to brines using evaporation techniques of extraction, and hard rock

A good article on pro and cons of DLE is this one:
Lithium Extraction Startup Landscape, role of direct lithium extraction (DLE) in energy transition. | by Anil Achyuta | TDK Ventures | Medium

3. Next move - improving battery efficiency

The next move is actually on improving battery efficiency IMO. The theoretical efficiency is 0.371kg LCE per kWh, but currently we are at around 0.9 kg per kWh. In the next five years that IMO might reduce to 0.7kg LCE per kWh. Improving battery efficiency in terms of inputs per kWh, would mean the costs of EVs would further reduce, and more importantly take up of EVs would further increase meaning demand for EVs would further increase beyond current forecasts (which are largely built largely on 0.9 kg LCE per kWh). Or another way to put it, despite EVs needing less lithium (and other materials per kWh) at some point in time, the increase in EV demand more than compensates for the fall in LCE need in EVs. A bit like what you saw with takeup of say computers and typical technology change overtime - they become cheaper and functions improve, but demand accelerates. Further info - Post #:66633823 Current spodumene cost in EVs is here - Post #:66330003

All IMO