[Lithium battery: China exported 3.69 billion lithium-ion batteries in Jan-Aug, up 22.9% YoY]

[SMM Analysis: Solid-State Battery Next Decade Series, 9 of 9: A Brand-New Track, Not a "Simple Sequel" to Liquid Lithium Batteries] The industrialisation of solid-state batteries is not a "capacity replication + minor technical adjustment" of liquid lithium batteries, but a systematic shift from resource logic, chemical logic, and material logic to patent logic. The most common mistake in understanding solid-state batteries through the framework of liquid lithium batteries is treating "planned capacity" as "effective supply," treating "technical routes" as "settled answers," and treating "first-mover advantage" as "ultimate victory.

Sinomine’s Bikita Minerals in Zimbabwe plans to raise its annual spodumene processing capacity from about 2 million mt to 3 million mt by Q2 2027, a 50% increase. Sinomine has invested over $320 million in spodumene and petalite beneficiation at Bikita, and total investment is expected to reach about $900 million by the end of 2027. A lithium sulphate plant is scheduled for completion in July 2027. It will let Bikita process lithium concentrate into lithium sulphate, an intermediate product used to make battery materials. Bikita’s lithium-bearing mineral resources have grown from about 29 million mt to over 218 million mt since Sinomine’s acquisition, extending projected mine life by more than 15 years.