WR1 - Pros & Cons, page-2

Yes - alot of Aust lithium plays will face greater ESG scrutiny going forward with their large carbon footprint in hard rock lithium production.
In fact Europe has set new ESG credentials for lithium battery supply chain and will take effect in 2024 where batteries not meeting the ESG standards will not be able to be sold in the Euro markets.

WR1 has the none of these ESG worries as we use the cleanest and cheapest Hydro power in Quebec, extremely low strip ratio with our deposit starting meters below surface, water is plentiful in Quebec and we only require DMS plant without tailings to produce SC6, transport of our DSO or SC6 concentrate to local markets will minimise carbon emission

• Lithium prices continue to fall
• Hard rock carbon emissions up to three times higher than brines
• Gelion secures key lithium sulphur battery patents

All your lithium news, Friday March 10.

Falling lithium chemical prices in China have led buyers on international spot markets to seek further discounts from their suppliers with the Benchmark Lithium Price Index down 6.2% in the assessment period between February 22 and March 8.

However, international contract prices held firm, with material being delivered under long-term deals at prices based on the previous quarter’s record-high spot pricing, resulting in higher contract prices than the current spot market in some cases.

Lithium carbonate prices are down 6.6% to US$58,721/t while lithium hydroxide slipped 5.4% to US$65,185/t as higher feedstock prices kept hydroxide prices from falling as much as carbonate pricing.

Spodumene concentrate took the biggest hit, falling 10.8% to US$5,350/t.

Lithium production impacts

Benchmark also released its Lithium ESG report, which showed that lithium chemicals derived from hard-rock sources, which make up 60% of global mined lithium supply, can be over three times as carbon-intensive as that from brine sources.

The top 20 lithium chemical producers who use hard-rock sources all have higher carbon emissions than those using brine sources due to it being a more energy-intensive process.

Over half of the emissions associated with producing lithium hydroxide from spodumene come from China’s electricity grid or from the energy-intensive production of spodumene concentrate.

This is due in part to reliance of both Australian and Chinese electricity grids on fossil fuels for power generation.

By contrast, just 6% of the carbon emissions for lithium carbonate produced from brine sources are associated with the Chilean electricity grid.

Rather, the single largest contributor comes from the production of soda ash (29%) used to precipitate out lithium carbonate from the brine solution.

Hard-rock processing also uses more water than brine processing though Benchmark noted that both types of lithium processing have serious burdens and risks that need to be mitigated in order to reduce overall environmental burden.

It added that while the traditional evaporation method of lithium brine extraction only work in a limited number of geological locations, direct lithium extraction is expected to encroach on the market share of traditional brine sources over the coming decade and reach over 16% of the total mined lithium market share.