LRS General Discussion, page-16742

In early September 2023 Mr Lithium (ie Joe Lowry) presented in Australia. In one slide which he took from Cannacord he looked at the cost curve for lithium producers in 2025. I sourced that slide from Cannacord (see below) which included the cost curve in 2022, 2025 and 2030 for quite a few lithium projects around the world. Interestingly it did not include many WA projects ( eg it excluded PLS, Greenbushes, Bald Hill, Liontown and Mt Marion). It also excluded Sigma’s project.

It is interesting that in 2030 many more lithium projects will have a cost below $US10k but in 2022 and in 2025 only half the production has a cost below $US10k and half have a cost above $US30k in 2022 and half a cost above $US20k in 2025.

Assuming the figures accurate or close to, then a very large proportion of lithium producers in the world are currently losing heaps of money at current LCE prices which I believe are around $US12-13k. Logically, the current low lithium prices are unsustainable and if they continue for too long eg past 2024 then we may see a significant reduction in supply and some potential projects may be shelved.

LRS is in a good position being in the lowest cost quartile along with Sigma for hard rock projects.