Today, lithium carbonate will rise another 7000 yuan to close to the 350000 mark! Overseas news causes twists and turns in lithium mine supply regeneration [SMM Express]

SMM January 21: today, lithium carbonate rose 7000 yuan / ton to 349000 yuan / ton, approaching the 350000 yuan mark. This is the lithium carbonate rose sharply again, rising more than 2 per cent in a single day and 5.44 per cent this week, following a jump of 8000 yuan yesterday.

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In terms of lithium hydroxide, its price increase is slightly lower than that of lithium carbonate, rising 3000 yuan / ton to 289500 yuan / ton today, an one-day increase of 1.05%, and a cumulative increase of 6.24% this week. In addition, lithium metal, which rose fiercely this week, also ushered in a new wave of rise today, rising 40, 000 yuan / ton to 1.865 million yuan / ton a day, with a cumulative increase of 10.68% this week.

On the news side, the recent performance of lithium mining has been quite volatile. The news that BYD won the contract for 80,000 tons of lithium production quota in the Chilean court, but was suspended by the Chilean court, sparked speculation in the market that lithium prices would rise further. Today, lithium stocks rebounded strongly after Serbia vetoed Rio Tinto's largest lithium mine plan in Europe and revoked the lithium exploration license of Anglo-Australian mining giant Rio Tinto.

Earlier this week, Rio Tinto postponed the first output of the Jadar project by one year to 2027 in its fourth-quarter production performance report, citing key delays in approval. But a speech by Ana Burnabic, Serbia's general manager, on Thursday left Rio Tinto's project "stillborn".

Ana Burnabic said, "Serbia has' completely stopped 'Rio Tinto's Jadar lithium project. All decisions and permits (relating to the lithium project) have been revoked. We have met all the demands of the environmentalists' protest, which is over in the case of the Jadar project. "

However, Burnabic did not answer the question of whether the Serbian government will allow lithium mining in the future. Judging from the mining of mineral resources around the world, many projects are under pressure from environmentalists, and Rio Tinto said in a statement after Serbia's decision that it had been abiding by Serbian laws. "Rio is reviewing the legal basis for this decision and its impact on our business activities and employees in Serbia."

There is no doubt that this decision has once again made the supply side of lithium resources, which is already in short supply, even more difficult. Rio Tinto is obviously not alone, and the lithium project in Nevada is currently facing a lot of resistance.

At a time when lithium resources are increasingly scarce, the supply gap of lithium salts is also increasing. According to the latest research of SMM, the price of small and medium-sized lithium salt factories and materials factories of battery grade lithium carbonate has reached 36.5-370000 yuan / ton. Under the influence of the shutdown and overhaul of some lithium salt plants in January, the monthly output of lithium carbonate continued to decline by about 3% month-on-month, the demand side continued to increase by 3% month-on-month under the support of three yuan and iron-lithium plates, and the supply gap of lithium carbonate continued to enlarge. "View details

In terms of lithium extraction from salt lakes, Xin Changxing, governor of Qinghai Province, pointed out in a government report that in 2022, it will speed up the construction of a world-class salt lake industrial base as its top priority in 2022. Qinghai will focus on improving the competitiveness of strategic emerging industries, starting with strong chains, extended chains and complementary chains, so as to improve the comprehensive efficiency of salt lake resources utilization. In order to achieve the goal of "expanding the scale of lithium industry, releasing lithium carbonate production capacity, and raising the level of lithium battery industry", Qinghai will set up a salt lake industry development fund, introduce a number of high-tech leading enterprises, and promote salt lake industrial clusters to strengthen their muscles and bones.

Today, the Salt Lake Management Index finally turned red after falling for three consecutive trading days, closing up 0.94% at 1492.44.