Lithium companies have had a dramatic rise and fall in the public markets. But, are they starting to make a comeback now?
What’s happening:
- Publicly traded lithium producers and exploration companies have been seeing a resurgence in excitement recently, with a flurry of new acquisitions, discoveries and government funding
Why it matters:
- Lithium was once the hottest trend in the public markets with the surge in lithium carbonate pricing and unrelenting demand from electric vehicle manufacturers to secure lithium supply for new battery production, which subsequently changed as more public companies began saturating the landscape and lithium prices sharply declined globally
Who is making moves:
- Rio Tinto (NYSE: RIO) just made waves with their announcement they will buyout Arcadium Lithium (NYSE: ALTM) in a multi billion dollar all cash acquisition
- Li-FT Power (TSXV: LIFT) recently announced their mineral resource estimate from their flagship Yellowknife Lithium Project, which is one of the largest hard rock lithium deposits in Canadian history
- Sigma Lithium (NASDAQ: SGML) previously landed a loan from the National Brazilian Bank For Economic and Social Development to accelerate the build out of a new lithium production plant in Brazil
- Standard Lithium (NYSE: SLI) previously successfully validated their technology for the largest continuously operational and commercial scale Direct Lithium Extraction column to ever exist in North America
- E3 Lithium (TSXV: ETL) previously was awarded $5M CAD from the government of Alberta for the development of their flagship Integrated Lithium Brine Demonstration Facility which is located near Olds, Alberta
- Rock Tech Lithium (TSXV: RCK) recently announced they received $1.4M CAD in funding from the Government of Canada’s Critical Minerals Infrastructure Fund for their Georgia Lake Project lithium site in Red Rock, Ontario
Going deeper:
- Lithium has also been attracting attention from technology companies of late, including a notable collaboration between SES AI (NASDAQ: SES), Nvidia (NASDAQ: NVDA) and Super Micro Computers (NASDAQ: SMCI) to build out new artificial intelligence models capable of discovering material science breakthroughs in how lithium metal batteries can be manufactured and produced
The fine print:
- The price of lithium is still down nearly 90% from all time highs, leading to a drastic reduction in the amount of new funding being allocated to early stage lithium companies which has remained one of the most significant challenges for smaller publicly traded lithium exploration companies who are yet to make a meaningful discovery or enter into production at promising projects
