Eye on Lithium: Tesla’s European invasion underway with Berlin plant churning out 5000 EVs a week

• Tesla hits 5,000 electric car builds a week from Berlin plant
• Arizona Lithium completes acquisition of the Prairie Lithium project in Canada
• Allkem increases Olaroz deposit size by 27% to 20.7Mt of lithium carbonate equivalent

All your lithium news, Monday March 27.

Tesla’s Gigafactory Berlin has reached its goal to produce 5,000 electric cars in a single week, one month after hitting 4,000 units per week and a year after delivering the first vehicles to customers.

Weekly production capacity is a measurement the automaker looks at when preparing a new factory for volume production.

If the factory can maintain this newly achieved production rate, it would mean Gigafactory Berlin can produce over 250,000 vehicles per year.

Here’s how ASX lithium stocks are tracking:

Who’s got news out?

ARIZONA LITHUM (ASX:AZL)

Arizona Lithium has completed the acquisition of the Prairie lithium project which boasts a JORC Inferred mineral resource of 4.1Mt LCE at 111 mg/L lithium – the highest quality inferred lithium brine resource in Canada discovered to date.

The acquisition represents a 1,200% increase to AZL’s global lithium resource, now 4.4MT of LCE (inferred and indicated).

AZL has also acquired Prairie’s proprietary direct lithium extraction technology that removes lithium from brines and ore bodies, which is already having encouraging results with Big Sandy material.

Zach Maurer, founder and CEO of Prairie Lithium, will join the board of AZL as an executive director.

ALLKEM (ASX:AKE)

Producer Allkem has increased its Olaroz deposit by 27% to 20.7Mt of lithium carbonate equivalent, comprising 7.6Mt of Measured resource, 7.1Mt of Indicated resource, and 6.1Mt of Inferred resource.

Total resources in the Olaroz-Cauchari basin are now 27 Mt LCE in all resource categories, confirming the basin’s status as hosting one of the largest lithium resources in the world.

“The combined 27Mt resource across Olaroz and Cauchari supports future material expansion of production and will form the basis for the Olaroz Stage 3/Cauchari expansion studies currently underway,” AKE MD Martin Perez de Solay says.

“Further exploration will be required to fully test the significant potential of the Olaroz/Cauchari basin.”

EUROPEAN LITHIUM (ASX:EUR)

European Lithium is continuing to build up its portfolio base in Europe with the acquisition of projects located in the Styria mining district of Austria from 2743718 Ontario Inc, a subsidiary of TSX listed Richmond Minerals Inc.

The Austrian lithium projects, dubbed the Wildbachgraben, Klementkogel, and BretsteinLachtal projects, consist of 245 exploration licenses covering a total area of 114.6km2.

Meanwhile, the company is in the final stages of completing a proposed merger transaction that will see the advanced Wolfsberg Lithium Project develop under the control of Critical Metals Corp. that intends to list on NASDAQ.

LORD RESOURCES (ASX:LRD)

Lord has acquired the Jing Jing project, comprising two exploration licences in Western Australia’s Eastern Goldfields, from Amery Holdings.

The company will pay $10,000 in cash and issue 900,000 fully paid ordinary shares in Lord at settlement to Amery.

CRITICAL RESOURCES (ASX:CRR)

Critical Resources has now completed over 29,530 meters of drilling at Mavis Lake since April 2022 as part of its ongoing campaign.

New stand out intersections from the Main Zone include 16.3m at 1.44% Li2O from 258.5m including 10m at 2.05% Li2O from 260.85m.

RAGUSA MINERALS (ASX:RAS)

Ragusa has commenced diamond drilling exploration works at its NT Lithium Project.

The company says it is currently on-site and has begun the first of two diamond drillholes, targeting two parallel pegmatite bodies exposed at surface at the Tank Hill prospect.

WHITE CLIFF MINERALS (ASX:WCN) 

White Cliff has sold the Yinnetharra rare earth-lithium project to Minerals 260 for 7,000,000 MI6 shares and $100,000 in cash.

White Cliff will continue to have exposure to Yinnetharra through a meaningful shareholding in MI6, and potential upside with MI6’s other exploration projects.

KULA GOLD (ASX:KGD)

Rock chip sampling at Kula Gold’s Marvel Loch Airfield project has returned multiple anomalous lithium and tantalum results up to 59.8ppm and 40.2ppm lithium and 55.5ppm tantalum, along a magnetic structure of up to 4km.

The company says a follow-up field mapping and rock chipping programme is scheduled for the next quarter.

INFINITY MINING (ASX:IMI)

Infinity Mining has deployed the first Fleet Space ExoSphere geodes at its Tambourah South lithium project in WA’s Pilbara, which will augment the successful 2022 geological rock chip and mapping program.

That program identified 36 weathered pegmatites with samples taken for surface outcrops with a width of 10 meters and a strike length up to 558 meters.

Lithium of up to 3.86% was also identified.

Infinity Mining says the technology will map out in 3D the extent of the pegmatites; the controlling structures and host units below the surface of the tenements.

CHARGER METALS (ASX:CHR)

Charger has strengthened its board with the appointment of Aidan Platel as MD and CEO as the company ramps up its exploration activities at both the Bynoe and Lake Johnston lithium projects.

Platel was formerly the MD of Auroch Minerals and has held numerous non-executive director roles in ASX listed exploration companies over his career.

Existing director Adrian Griffin has been appointed to non-executive chairman.

RED DIRT METALS (ASX:RDT)

Red Dirt Metals has sold 24m shares to Japanese automaker, Mitsubishi, giving them a 5.58% voting power.

Since acquiring the Yinnetharra lithium project in WA’s Gascoyne region, the company has completed 59 drill holes for a combined 12,119 metres exploring for ore grade (>1% Li2O) pegmatites.

With more than 3,000 samples now with the lab, the next lot of results are expected to significantly add to Red Dirt’s geological understanding of the project.