• BMI says China has 10x more Gigafactories planned that EU and US combined
  • Arizona lithium plans to build a research facility in Phoenix to complement the Big Sandy project
  • Resource Mining Corp picks up option to acquire two lithium projects in Finland

 

All your ASX lithium news for Tuesday, June 7

 

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Boss Simon Moores says that, while China’s dominance in lithium-ion battery capacity is slowly being chipped away at by the USA and Europe, the country is still on course to have 69.9% of all cell capacity by 2031.

Currently China has 226 Gigafactories in the pipeline, Europe has 30 and the USA has 23.

“China has 10x more Gigafactories than Europe and North America at various stages of production, construction and planning,” Moores tweeted.

“This is an almighty blueprint to build EV electric vehicle dominance from for a generation.”

 


He also flagged that not only will China have a lot of Gigafactories, but they’re also going to be bigger, with around 10% over 50GWh.

Compare that to Tesla’s Gigafactory in Nevada which reached 20Gwh in 2018, and its currently 35GWh of lithium-ion cells annually.

But the carmaker has big plans for its Berlin Gigafactory – with an annual production capacity of around 50-100Gwh and the potential to scale up to 200-250Gwh.

 

Here’s how ASX lithium stocks were tracking today:

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Only 21 stocks were in the green today, a massive 78 were in the red and 29 failed to move the needle.

 

Who’s got news out today?

 

ARIZONA LITHIUM (ASX:AZL)

Arizona Lithium has accepted a US$1m grant from the Arizona Commerce Authority (ACA) to set up its advanced research facility in Phoenix, Arizona.

The state is home to the company’s Big Sandy lithium project, where a scoping study is currently underway.

AZL is planning to create over 300 new jobs as part of the project, and is also eligible for financial programs related to capital investment and job creation totalling over US$100m – which could potentially improve the economics of Big Sandy.

The facility is expected to be operational this year.

 

RESOURCE MINING CORPORATION (ASX:RMI)

RMC has secured an exclusive option to acquire one nickel and two lithium projects – Hirvikallio and Kola – in Finland.

Notably, historic intersections at Hirvikallio include 5m at 2.30% Li2O.

The Kola project is in the most significant lithium-mining region of Finland, and the geology of Keliber’s flagship Syväjärvi and Rapasaari deposits directly to the south extends into Kola.

Keliber’s planned developments in the region include lithium mines and a concentrator plant in Kaustinen, Kokkola and Kruunupyy, Finland, as well as a lithium hydroxide plant in Kokkola with the potential for annual production of 15,000 tonnes of battery grade lithium hydroxide.

“Finland has a strong global reputation as a mining jurisdiction and ranks among the top 10 as per the Fraser Institute’s latest review,” chairman Asimwe Kabunga said.

“We look forward to being able to potentially increase the breadth of the company’s nickel project portfolio into such a top tier location, as well as concurrently adding several highly prospective lithium targets.”

 

MAXIMUS RESOURCES (ASX:MXR)

The company says an external lithium expert review has been completed across the Spargoville Larkinville and Lefroy tenements, which confirmed most of the pegmatites belong to the rare-element lithium-caesium-tantalum (LCT) subtype.

Added to this, rock chip sampling returned 2.7% Li2O, 4,170ppm Cs and 17,250 ppm Rb at Larkinville and 1.97 % Li2O, 1,985 ppm Cs and 9,800 ppm Rb at Lefroy.

The planning and approval process is underway for a drill program in the second half of 2022, subject to approvals.

 

ESSENTIAL METALS (ASX:ESS)

ESS announced that assays have confirmed high-grade near-surface lithium including 23.7m at 1.26% Li2O from 3.6m in the Cade deposit and 31.95m at 1.24% Li2O from 45.4m in the Davy deposit at the Pioneer Dome project in WA.

“Metallurgical test work is the next important step to confirm that the recoverability of lithium from this near-surface material is similar to the previous successful recoveries obtained from the Cade deposit (fresh rock zone), further enhancing the potential economics of the Dome North lithium Resource,” MD Tim Spencer said.

The testwork is expected to take around three months, with results published in early September.

AZL, RMI, MXR and ESS share prices today:

 

At Stockhead we tell it like it is. While Arizona Lithium is a Stockhead advertiser, it did not sponsor this article.