Latest news with #CosmosExploration
News.com.au
29-06-2025
- Automotive
- News.com.au
Lithium customers are still jostling for offtake, suggesting long term outlook is strong
Lithium prices are tumbling but customers involved in the EV supply chain are more focused on lithium grade and purity Lithium-ion batteries require battery-grade lithium with a purity of 99.5% or higher Juniors like Green Technology Metals and Cosmos Exploration continue to demonstrate the strength of their projects despite challenging market conditions While ASX lithium prices fall and retail investors flee, the world's battery makers are quietly locking in supply deals, with expected demand of three million tonnes by 2030 having the potential to make today's prices look like a bargain. To put the current lithium 'crash' in perspective, at US$8800 per tonne, today's prices are still nearly double the $4450/t lithium was fetching in 2012. And despite an apparent flood of material, customers are still eager to lock up future supplies, worried the market could flip on its head as demand soars. Pursuit Minerals (ASX:PUR) managing director Aaron Revelle told Stockhead, its partners involved in the EV supply chain are less concerned about the depressed market and more focused on who can deliver the ultra-pure product that tomorrow's batteries demand. Revelle said Chinese buyers, who dominate global lithium demand, are hunting for lithium chloride to refine into battery-grade material of 99.5% purity or better, which is where ASX juniors like Pursuit are separating themselves from the pack. Pursuit's Rio Grande project in Brazil has already demonstrated it can deliver 99.5% lithium carbonate, putting the asset in the premium tier offtakers are actually chasing. That's great news for future producers in the South American brine space. 'Chinese buyers are going into the South American salars which have a history of producing the higher-grade material, especially from the more established projects like Olaroz or Pheonix in Argentina,' Revelle said. 'These mines are producing 99.5% lithium carbonate and the companies that own them are upgrading the product to the 99.95% battery grade." Proven quality By remaining active even with prices at a low ebb, Pursuit is ensuring Rio Grande is ready to feed a high quality product into the flobal market. 'When you look at Rio Grande, the attraction is that it's already proven it can produce 99.5% technical grade lithium carbonate. It has a long life, it's low cost, robust and has over a million tonnes of resource with potential upside,' he said. 'You can't find projects like ours anymore where we have what we call tier-1 chemistry profile where the brine is 450-500mg/l Li, one of our drill holes had an intercept of 620mg/l Li which is getting towards the higher end of the lithium content. 'And there's still plenty of upside at our project because we were originally going to drill around six to eight holes and we've only drilled two of that program.' Pursuit is now transitioning to the next phase of development and commercialisation at the asset, after dispatching lithium carbonate samples to multiple prospective offtake and strategic partners earlier this month. Initial pilot plant production at the company's 250tpa pilot plant in Salta churned out 15kg of lithium carbonate at 98.9% purity, validating everything from their Rio Grande brine quality to their processing tech. Lithium's wild ride Revelle believes the long-term fundamentals for lithium are intact. And, he is no stranger to the lithium rollercoaster. The seasoned operator has weathered three or four price cycles since founding Argentinian-lithium focused company Centaur Resources in 2018, which sold to Arena Minerals for a tidy $23m in 2020. Two years later, with no further work done and when lithium prices caught fire, Arena was acquired by Lithium Americas Corp for US$227m. 'That's the sort of environment you'll see,' he said. 'What history has shown us is that lithium is immature – prices go up, supply comes online, price drops, then a couple years later demand catches up and more supply is needed, price spikes and it repeats the cycle. 'We're seeing surging EV sales where it's estimated to hit 7 million units globally in the first five month of 2025, that's quite significant – that's a 28% year on year growth rate,' he said. 'When you're looking at the horizon, in the next five years lithium demand is to reach 3-4x, and it's not a question of will it happen, but when it will happen. 'We'll probably see another couple of cycles before it stabilises but there's definitely another spike coming and with added project scarcity, there'll be more economies of scale introduced with more M&A to take place, and more consolidation in Argentina.' Lithium players still inking deals Plenty of other companies have also managed to attract potential partners, enter offtake deals and agreements despite the market carnage, showing interest in the metal remains strong. Argosy Minerals (ASX:AGY) has struck a spot sales contract with a Hong Kong chemical company for 60 metric tonnes of premium battery-grade lithium carbonate (>99.5% purity) from its 77.5%-owned Rincon project in Argentina's Salta province. The company is developing the 12,000tpa project with engineering and feasibility works currently underway to achieve a final investment decision. Rincon holds a total resource of 731,801t of LiCO3 with a weighted mean average lithium concentration of 329mg/L, which includes an indicated resource of 640,330t LiCO3 with a weighted mean average lithium concentration of 327mg/L. In December last year, Cosmos Exploration (ASX:C1X) signed an exclusive option agreement to acquire EAU Lithium, a private lithium development company part owned by Vulcan Energy Resources (ASX:VUL) with a technology-testing agreement with Bolivian state-owned company Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB). This agreement enables EAU to test lithium brines from Salar de Coipasa, Salar de Empexa and Salar de Pastos Grandes salars – some of the largest salars in the country. The Bolivian Government, through YLB, is seeking to unlock its vast lithium resources to drive economic growth and establish Bolivia as a global leader in the lithium supply chain. Previous extraction attempts using chemicals plus solar evaporation-based methods have faced challenges due to the high magnesium content in the salars. By partnering with EAU lithium and using Vulcan's DLE tech, YLB aims to overcome these technical hurdles and capitalise on rising global lithium demand while reducing environmental impacts. So far, five cubic metres of brine samples have been shipped from Bolivia's lithium salars to Germany for testing. Up in Canada, Green Technology Metals' (ASX:GT1) hard rock lithium assets in Ontario are on the doorstep of North America's EV sector. Leading South Korean battery materials group EcoPro is a major shareholder, while GT1 has already locked in a lithium offtake agreement with LG Energy Solutions (also a shareholder) for 25% of its spodumene concentrate production from the Seymour lithium project for five years. First production at Seymour, home to a 10.3Mt at 1.03% Li20 resource, is targeted for 2026, with DFS work currently underway. It is GT1's flagship project and plays a central role in the Eastern Hub strategy, which involves developing multiple satellite sites to supply long-term feedstock for a planned concentrator at the site. Meanwhile, GT1's Western Hub, slated for operation in 2029, centres around the Root Bay deposit and will serve as additional feed for a proposed lithium conversion facility. An updated preliminary economic assessment reinforced the Root lithium project as a viable, standalone project delivering an increase in NPV at the Root lithium project to US$668m, after tax IRR of 53.5% and a payback period of three years. At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Pursuit Minerals, Cosmos Exploration and Green Technology Metals are Stockhead advertisers, they did not sponsor this article.
News.com.au
27-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
Bolivian lithium brines emerging from the shadows cast by Chile and Argentina
Bolivia's salars are estimated to host about 22% of the world's known lithium resources Lithium brines in the country saddled with high levels of magnesium that make it expensive to process Cosmos Exploration is counting on A-DLE technology developed by Vulcan Energy to overcome this hurdle The famed Lithium Triangle encompasses parts of Chile, Argentina and Bolivia and supplies the majority of the world's lithium and hosts the lion's share of identified reserves. This lithium is contained within salt lakes (salars) that host mineral-rich brines that have to be pumped up to surface and traditionally left in evaporation ponds to be concentrated with reagents before being processed. These are globally significant due to their exceptional lithium enrichment that is due to a combination of geological, climatic, basin morphology and hydrological factors that create ideal conditions for lithium concentration. However, while Bolivia's salars are estimated by the US Geological Survey to host an estimated 23Mt of contained lithium, about 22% of the world's known lithium resources, most of the attention has been monopolised by Chile and Argentina. Chile is the second largest producer of lithium after Australia, while companies have snapped up, grown and carried out extensive work in Argentina. So why has Bolivia fallen by the wayside? Magnesium malaise For starters, the Bolivian salars are higher in altitude and wetter than those in Chile, meaning that the extraction process takes longer and costs more as the cooler temperatures reduce the evaporation rate and seasonal rainfall exacerbates this. But Cosmos Exploration (ASX:C1X) executive chairman Jeremy Robinson told Stockhead the foremost reason was the relatively high magnesium content of the Bolivian brines. As an example, the giant Salar de Uyuni – the largest lithium-bearing salt lake in the world – has an extremely high magnesium to lithium ratio of 19:1, above the 6:1 found at Chile's Salar de Atacama and 1:1 at Argentina's Hombre Muerto salar. This magnesium has to be removed by adding slaked lime before the concentrated brine can be processed, a requirement that adds further costs to the process. A common industry axiom says that the ratio needs to be below 10:1 to remain economical. 'That's why we need direct lithium extraction technology,' Robinson added. Counting on DLE Adsorption-type Direct Lithium Extraction (A-DLE) uses physical processes, optimised by heat and salinity gradients, to selectively extract lithium from brines while minimising water loss and environmental impact. DLE extraction does require significant upfront investment and energy input but can achieve lithium extraction in just hours or days – rather than weeks or months with higher recoveries. Cosmos itself is counting on A-DLE. In December last year, the company signed an exclusive option agreement to acquire EAU Lithium, a private lithium development company, part owned by Vulcan Energy Resources (ASX:VUL), with a technology-testing agreement with Bolivian state-owned company Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB). This agreement, which also leverages EAU's technology partnership with Vulcan, enables EAU to test lithium brines from Salar de Coipasa, Salar de Empexa and Salar de Pastos Grandes salars – some of the largest salars in the country. While recognised for their high lithium, high magnesium brine chemistry, these salars remain largely undeveloped and have seen less work than the more widely studied Salar de Uyuni. Despite this, they offer compelling opportunities for the evaluation of advanced lithium extraction technologies with the region benefitting from existing road infrastructure and access to export routes via nearby Chilean ports. 'We've purchased an option to acquire EAU lithium and EAU Lithium has a test work agreement whereby it has to prove that the Vulcan A-DLE technology can recover the lithium from the lithium brine in Bolivia,' Robinson said. VULSORB is Vulcan's proprietary alumina-based sorbent that has demonstrated higher performance and lower water consumption for lithium extraction compared to commercially available sorbents. Cosmos had previously flagged that the entire process could take six to nine months.
News.com.au
01-05-2025
- Business
- News.com.au
ASX Resources Quarterly Wrap: Lithium green shoots despite market pull-back
The lithium market is still in the doldrums but lithium focused resources stocks are staying active with exploration Others are safeguarding capital to capitalise on future market recovery We survey quarterly reports to bring you highlights from up and comers like Pursuit Minerals, Green Technology Metals, Cosmos Exploration and First Lithium Lithium prices are deep into the cost curve by any metric, and a number of lithium stocks are pushing ahead with exploration despite the downturn in the hope of arriving early to the next cycle. At the upper end of town, Liontown Resources (ASX:LTR) reported solid results from its Kathleen Valley project, which declared commercial production during the quarter amid a volatile trading environment. Revenue rose by 17% to $104m, with $14m in cash flow generated from operations. The company produced 95,709 dmt of spodumene concentrate and sold 93,940dmt across five shipments. LTR managing director and CEO Tony Ottavino said the company is seeing consistent, positive performance across key metrics, including the shipment of over 180,000dmt of spodumene concentrate since production started, generating $205m in revenue. He added that the emerging lithium producer remains focused on streamlining costs, with operational efficiencies continuing to pay off. Lithium frontrunner Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS) noted a 34% drop in production volume to 125,000t at Pilgangoora as well as a 30% slide in revenue over the prior quarter to $150m. Argonaut Funds Management's David Franklyn said although Pilbara shares have dropped 41% in the past three months, there was nothing dramatic in the March quarterly report. But it continues to show that we are 'bouncing along the bottom in the lithium market'. 'It just took another step down with the recent pull back in the market. If you look at the results, I think they're doing everything right operationally,' he added. A few green shoots were also reported at the smaller end of the market, with some highlights including the successful commissioning of Pursuit Minerals' 250tpa lithium carbonate plant in Salta, Argentina. That's where we head for our wrap of the quarterlies you may have missed. Pursuit Minerals (ASX:PUR) PUR's lithium carbonate pilot plant sits within its wider Rio Grande Sur project, which is being advanced through a deliberately phased and modular development strategy that enables the company to manage capital intensity, validate process flow efficiency, and expand in alignment with market demand. Initial production from synthetic brine has kicked off, making the transition to near-term revenue generation. Progress was also made on feasibility studies to incorporate the 339% jump in new resources that were upgraded last year (1.1Mt) and a staged development plan with the company saying it remains on track for release in H1 2025. Active discussions were also held with offtake partners who made multiple product sample requests in the quarter. It also advanced numerous engineering and geological workstreams and permitting approval processes. Green Technology Metals (ASX:GT1) GT1 said it is continuing to implement cost-control measures in direct response to challenging global lithium market conditions. GT1 managing director Cameron Henry said exploration programs have been significantly scaled back, and a targeted workforce restructure has resulted in a 40% reduction in staffing levels, retaining only those roles essential to progressing core projects. 'Given the sustained challenges in global lithium markets, all key workstreams and development timelines—including any potential Final Investment Decision (FID) at Seymour—are dependent on improved market conditions and the availability of funding support from strategic partners,' he said. 'GT1 will continue to rigorously assess its cost base and project schedule, taking further action where necessary to safeguard capital and ensure the company remains well-positioned for a market recovery.' A 1 for 3.85 non-renounceable pro rata entitlement offer during the period, raising approximately $3.46 million before costs. The Entitlement Offer and Top-Up Offer closed on April 15 with strong participation from directors John Young, Cameron Henry, Patrick Murphy, and existing long-term shareholders and institutional investors. GT1 is now preparing funding applications under the Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund (CMIF) for all three of its core projects. New applications are expected to be finalised and submitted during the upcoming quarter. Cosmos Exploration (ASX:C1X) C1X started activities that private Australian company EAU Lithium, which it acquired in December 2024, had agreed to perform under its technology agreement with Bolivian state-owned lithium company Yacimientos de Litio Bolivianos (YLB). EAU Lithium had been selected by YLB to undertake technology testing on brines from Salar de Coipasa, Salar de Empexa, and Salar de Pastos Grandes. As part of this, the company has shipped 5m3 of bulk brine samples from the three salars to Germany for testing at Vulcan Energy Resources' (ASX:VUL) facility in Germany. While these samples are still in transit from Bolivia, testing of synthetic brine formulated to replicate the major ion chemistry of the three salars is underway at the facility to provide early indications of the compatibility of Vulcan's VULSORB sorbent ahead of any future test work using the bulk brine samples. VUL's direct lithium extraction technology is being evaluated for its potential to provide a more efficient, scalable and environmentally sustainable solution for lithium recovery from Bolivia's complex brine chemistry. Successful validation of a DLE tech will represent a significant step forward for lithium extraction in Bolivia, enabling higher-yield, lower-impact processing in one of the world's largest untapped lithium resource jurisdictions. Results from the testing will support ongoing negotiations toward a proposed industrialisation agreement, which is expected to establish a long-term framework for the supply and processing of lithium-rich brine over multiple decades. This agreement would form the basis for commercial-scale development and a secure, sustainable lithium supply chain aligned with Bolivia's national development objectives. First Lithium (ASX:FL1) During the March 2025 quarter, First Lithium progressed renewals of its mining licence after the Mali government moved on March 15, 2025, to partially lift the suspension of mining permits that had been in place since September 2022. The company also received a letter from the National Director of Geology and Mines in Mali which confirmed that it could continue geophysical survey work on both the Faraba and Blakala permits in the interim while requirements for the licence renewal process were being finalised. FL1 also finalised a loan note of $1.2m via an agreement with sophisticated and professional investors. Funds will be used to finalise the licence renewal process and advance a maiden resource estimate for Blakala as well as general working capital. The resource update will include some stellar drill hits, such as strikes in the Eastern pegmatite zones including 24m at 1.53% Li2O from 129m, 28.59m at 1.51% from 117m and 9m at 1.62% from 117m. Anything above 1% Li2O is generally considered economic with only a handful of deposits reporting grades upwards of 1.4%. The loan funding will occur in three $400,000 tranches with a conversion price of $0.10 each, with interest accruing at 10% per annum and payable in stock on the same terms as the loan.
