As the demand for lithium for storage batteries increases, it has created pressures on the lithium mining and processing sector. No one was prepared for the demand as electric car sales went from near zero a decade ago to over half-a-million last year.
And along with the increased demand for electric vehicles is the demand for lithium as prices for the mineral surge to record highs. Benchmark Minerals Intelligence, a price data collection and assessment company specializing in the lithium-ion battery supply chain is forecasting lithium carbonate will average $14,000 a ton over the 2017-2020 period from around $9,000 a ton in 2015-2016.
And even though Argentina and Australia are attracting the largest number of new lithium projects, A mineral exploration company in British Columbia, Canada is also looking to expand its operations into the lithium market. Spearmint’s portfolio includes two lithium projects in the Clayton Valley of Nevada, comprising two claim blocks covering 800 acres.
The Spearmint claim blocks border on properties held by Vancouver, Canada-based Cypress Development Corp. and Vancouver, Canada-based Pure Energy Minerals Ltd. Pure Energy holds a 26,000-acre Lithium Brine Project, which hosts an inferred resource of 247,000 tons of lithium hydroxide monohydrate (218,000 tons Lithium Carbonate Equivalent).
“With this placement, we will be in a position to immediately start work in Nevada on our lithium property and in Quebec on our vanadium assets,” said Spearmint President James Nelson.
Spearmint also has three lithium projects in Quebec, Canada, as well as its vanadium projects located in Chibougamau, Quebec that consist of five separate claim blocks, covering 9,735 acres. Spearmint Resources is awaiting approval of the notice of intent submitted to the Bureau of Land Management’s office in Tonopah, Nevada before commencing drilling activities.
In related news, one of the world’s biggest lithium producers is looking to expand its operations into a fourth country. Soc. Quimica & Minera de Chile SA operates in Chile’s Atacama Desert, however, according to company sources, it is developing a mine in Argentina and has entered into an Australian joint venture.
The Argentina project is expected to begin in 2019. The company was looking into a lithium [project in China, but dropped it for being too complicated, according to Bloomberg.
