Finance & Fury Podcast

Welcome to Finance and Fury, the Say What Wednesday Edition Today’s question from Zed “I recently noticed that Australia seems to be opening lots of lithium mines as the demand for Electric Vehicles rises and we turn away from oil. Is Australia at risk of their lithium mines being undercut by competition from South America in the near to medium future?”   Today: Demand for Lithium Who is providing it?   What is Lithium? Alkali metal Used in rechargeable batteries The supply is increasing   Where Lithium comes from? Lithium from brine (70%) It can take over a year to extract the Lithium through evaporation Lithium from hard rock (30%) Hard rock drilling and extraction through traditional methods Lithium can potentially be recycled   Who are the producers? Bolivia, Argentina, Brazil, and Chile South America produces a lot of the Lithium Australia holds more than 2.7 million MT of identified lithium reserves Chinese companies own more than half of the world’s production   What are the Issues? Oversupply