Unlike other precious metals such as gold and palladium, traders are not able to invest in lithium as a commodity. Instead, they can gain exposure through investing in publicly traded lithium companies. This is similar to physical uranium and uranium stocks.
Are lithium shares a good investment? While lithium share prices can be volatile due to supply-demand issues that impact the value of lithium as a commodity, the lithium sector does have good long-term growth prospects as the demand for lithium-ion batteries in electric vehicles (EVs) continues to increase.
Tesla officially broke ground Monday on a Texas lithium refinery, making it the only U.S. automaker to refine its own lithium. CEO Elon Musk said the refinery will produce enough battery-grade lithium for 1 million electric vehicles by 2025, which would make Tesla the largest processor of lithium in North America.
After a two-year run, the spot price for lithium has wiped out all its gains since November 2021.
Most of the experts who understand the value of lithium production would say that it's nowhere near too late to be investing in lithium as a resource.
Argosy Minerals is a lithium stock in Australia. It's hard rock production is in the lithium triangle where the world's largest lithium resources are. 40% of the world's hard rock lithium is mined here at the lowest cost. It also It's production is in Nevada US and Argentina.
The world's largest hard-rock lithium mine, the Greenbushes mine, is in Western Australia. It is co-operated by the Chinese company Tianqi Lithium and the Australian companies Talison Lithium and IGO Limited.
But with the prices seemingly passing a trough, Firetrail analysts are predicting a bright outlook for the rest of this year. “An acceleration of electric vehicle sales in China and battery production could provide upside to lithium prices in the second half of 2023.”
Shares of lithium miners have been volatile amid falling prices and unusual pricing strategies from industry players. On Friday, lithium related-stocks are diving on the new policies in one country. Shares of Albemarle (ticker: ALB), Livent (LTHM), and SQM (SQM) dropped 10%, 5.5%, and 18.6% on Friday, respectively.
Until then, with demand outstripping supply, lithium hydroxide prices are forecast to rise to $US61,520 per tonne in 2023 from last year's $US44,090 a tonne, but then ease to $US36,220 by 2028, the OCE said.
The Kemerton lithium hydroxide processing plant.
Lithium is proving to be largely immune from the volatility that has rocked commodity markets as prices soar in the face of a looming global recession, prompting Macquarie to deliver another round of upgrades for producers and developers of the battery metal.
The Sigma Lithium Corporation stock prediction for 2025 is currently $ 142.22, assuming that Sigma Lithium Corporation shares will continue growing at the average yearly rate as they did in the last 10 years. This would represent a 267.63% increase in the SGML stock price.
For three years from 2025, Magnis Energy Technologies plans to supply Tesla with 17,500 tonnes of battery materials each year, with the US electric car-maker given an option to purchase up to 35,000 tonnes per annum if car production ramps up.
Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR,OTC Pink:LINRF) is set to supply Tesla with lithium spodumene concentrate from its AU$473 million Kathleen Valley project. The deal is for an initial five year period set to begin in 2024, conditional on Liontown starting commercial production by 2025.
The average price target for Lithium Americas is $29.50. This is based on 2 Wall Streets Analysts 12-month price targets, issued in the past 3 months. The highest analyst price target is $33.00 ,the lowest forecast is $26.00.
But a 2022 analysis by the McKinsey Battery Insights team projects that the entire lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery chain, from mining through recycling, could grow by over 30 percent annually from 2022 to 2030, when it would reach a value of more than $400 billion and a market size of 4.7 TWh.
Feb 15 (Reuters) - Global demand for lithium batteries is expected to surge more than five-fold by 2030, public-private alliance Li-Bridge said on Wednesday, as more people opt for electric vehicles and energy storage systems.
As a result, projected global output of lithium carbonate from top producer, Australia, is expected to reach 915,000 tonnes in 2023, a 3 per cent rise from 2022's estimate. Lithium shortages are expected to ease as this supply comes online, placing a downward pressure on prices.
The Lithium Supply Challenge
Even though the price of lithium has surged more than tenfold over the past two years, there's enough capacity to meet anticipated demand until around 2025—and potentially through 2030 if enough recycling operations come online. After that, chronic shortages are expected.