Nice headline. I'd implore readers to click on the link and see where RIO is investing it's capital. It isn't Australia and it is predominantly focused on Brine.
Also, RIO the 2nd biggest is by 2035 according to the link. 10 years from now and Li forecasters struggle 12 months out.
I don't get how RIO is helpful to LTR. They are a competitor aiming to build out supply at lower cost. Is it just word association of RIO and Lithium Investment hoping some of that sticks to LTR?
As posted previously and in the style of @anatol, I'll go ahead and include a full recent post of mine (with a minor prelude to 1st paragraph for context). Apologies for the lack of bold font and colour.
https://hotcopper.com.au/threads/asx-today.4771268/page-50858
Many write of WA claiming it is the best location on earth for mining. The things is, WA isn't really anymore. It rides high on low sovereign risk etc, but costs of labour and energy are prohibitive. Australian inflation has generally been extreme in recent years, and exacerbated in the mining sector. The advantage many operators have found in Aus is scale, but that will be replicated elsewhere.
We see people whinging here on a daily basis that Chinese lepidolite cannot be competitive or that African spod or lepidolite cannot either. But it is.
Don't hit me with the generic, ohhh, but China must subsidise, because Australia and the West subsidise. LTR just received port and tenement fee waivers and a $15m interest free loan. Look at the money being given to converters in WA. Don't get me started on Biden's IRA.
The brutal reality is that for 1 mine worker in Australia you might get a team of 20 in Africa. Please don't give me something racist like they aren't educated enough or smart enough to learn the job, because I'll ahow you the average green FIFO. I know some say they aren't being paid a fair wage elsewhere, but what is a fair wage? Is AU$150kpa for an 18yo high school drop out a fair wage or a symptom of desperation to find a large enough willing workforce? I can also guarantee Chinese and African miners don't have swimming pools on site that look like they've been designed by a 5 star resort builder or dining facilities that closely resemble the Qantas Club.
We're lucky to have a vast continent that has been well surveyed and a history of successfully implementing scale, however the cost increases we've seen - especially in the last decade - have left me feeling that WA is not the number 1 mining location on earth. It's pricing itself out of the market.
I would say, personally if I were working on a minesite, I'd prefer to work in WA. But as an investor, find me a reasonably stable jurisdiction anywhere else - Brazil looks nice.
For reference to help those that think recent inflation was truly global and mining costs must have gone up in line with Australia, here's China's inflation rate from Statistic.
(20min delay)