Lets keep things in perspective. ORE will produce a simple...

Lets keep things in perspective. ORE will produce a simple Lithium carbonate product to 98-99% purity at the mine gate, which is currently selling for around US$6000/t. A lot of expensive processing goes into producing pure lithium metal.

Just a reminder about the "in-elasticity" of demand for lithium once the technology and cost improvements for large Li batteries are improved. The cost of raw lithium carbonate in the scheme of final materials and cost of hybrid batteries will be very low. Currently the lithium carbonate represents about 1% of the final cost of battery and this may move up towards 5% as battery price comes down. It really doesn't matter the slightest to battery cost, let alone new hybrid cars what the cost of lithium carbonate is. If the technology is good and desireable they will pay multiples of current price if need be without impacting battery demand.

Supply and demand will obviously determine the Lithium carbonate price but there is real price upside if the system is adopted world-wide because substitution with cheaper, inferior battery materials will only occur at lithium prices an order of magnitude higher. Currently the research challenge is to develop technology and manufacturing methodology that reduces the battery cost.

goodluck