Sharp Output Cuts Led to Lithium Ore Shortages, High Import Prices Drove Lithium Salt Producers to Shut Down

Solis Minerals has started diamond drilling at its Campo Grande Lithium Project in Brazil's Araçuaí-Salinas Lithium Valley. The company plans five holes totalling about 1,000 m, with planned depths of up to 200 m, to test lithium pegmatites across a 500 m corridor. The targets rest on coincident multi-element geochemical anomalies at surface and on historical auger drilling results. Historical work by Rio Tinto and later mapping and geochemical work by Solis defined the targets. Solis has also mapped a new pegmatite swarm of three coherent outcrop zones between planned holes DHCG-001 and DHCG-004. The program will test the continuity, geometry and lithium potential of the pegmatites beneath surface, starting where mapped pegmatites coincide with geochemical anomalies. Solis says Campo Grande's geology and geochemistry are comparable to PLS Group's Colina Lithium Project, about 100 km to the southwest. Separately, Solis has completed seven drill holes at its Mandacaru Lithium Project in Brazil, with assay results pending.

Charger Metals has mobilized a second drill rig to its Lake Johnston Lithium Project in Western Australia as part of a 10,000 m program targeting resource growth. Diamond and reverse circulation rigs are now operating at the Medcalf lithium deposit, and RC drilling began just over a week ago. The program will double the meters drilled at Medcalf. The drilling targets extensions and infill at the Medcalf inferred mineral resource estimate of 10.6 Mt grading 1% Li₂O. Drilling has further defined the Medcalf West Exploration Target of 3-5 Mt at 1-1.4% Li₂O. The program also aims to provide diamond core for metallurgical and geotechnical test work. Following the recent Medcalf resource upgrade, which raised contained Li₂O by 34%, Charger's board has committed to a Scoping Study on the Lake Johnston Project. The current resource sits on a predominantly 40 m x 80 m drilling grid, including 10,936 m of drilling at a cost of $32 per tone of contained Li₂O. The program is fully funded from Charger's sale of the Bynoe Lithium Project to Core Lithium for $3.75 million cash, received on 17 July 2026. Lake Johnston lies 450 km east of Perth in the Yilgarn Province, about 70 km from the Earl Grey Lithium Project, where Covalent Lithium began mining and commissioning in March 2024.

On September 23(rd), Savannah Resources raised US$30 million for its Barroso Lithium Project in Portugal, via 408 million shares at £0.055/share, including US$11.2 million from subscription agreements with major shareholders. Combined with US$15.5 million cash on hand, funds go toward long lead item fabrication, access road works, EPCM contracting, plant engineering, permitting, and land use rights. Barroso's July 2026 phase one DFS outlined a 14-year mine life at 183,000 t/y lithium oxide, 5.5% grade, based on US$1,788/t pricing yielding US$3.2 billion EBITDA, US$1.9 billion free cash flow, and US$913 million post-tax NPV. The deposit holds 39 million tones at 1.05% Li2O for 411,900 tones contained, Europe's largest hard-rock spodumene resource. The funding advances one of the few large-scale hard-rock lithium sources under development outside China linked African and South American supply chains, feeding EU critical raw material diversification targets.