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Lithium

  • Thursday, 12 December, 2024
    Rio Tinto PLC
    Rio Tinto to invest $2.5bn in latest commitment to lithium

    Mining major is betting on metal’s future because of its key role in electric vehicle batteries despite global glut

    Brine pools used to extract lithium at the Salar del Rincon salt flat in Argentina
  • Sunday, 27 October, 2024
    News in-depth
    Cornish miner hoping to capitalise on global race for lithium

    Analysts expect supply deficit to develop as countries race to meet climate targets

    Montage of lithium production process
  • Thursday, 24 October, 2024
    US approves lithium project in push to break China’s grip on EV minerals

    Biden administration issues rare mine approval for Ioneer site in Nevada and extends tax breaks to companies

    A serene landscape featuring a calm, reflective body of water in the foreground, surrounded by golden grasses and reeds. The water mirrors the blue sky with scattered clouds
  • Wednesday, 16 October, 2024
    General Motors Co
    GM increases investment in lithium mine to nearly $1bn

    US carmaker seeks to secure supply of metal expected to suffer shortfalls because of rising demand in switch to EVs

    A hand holding several chunks of a gray clay mixture, from which lithium will be extracted.
  • Wednesday, 9 October, 2024
    LexRio Tinto PLC
    Rio Tinto is not bagging a bargain with lithium deal

    Extreme volatility in price of key battery material reflects uncertainty over current global market for electric vehicles

    A brine pool used to extract lithium at a salt flat near Susques, Argentina
  • Wednesday, 9 October, 2024
    Rio Tinto PLC
    Rio Tinto to buy Arcadium Lithium in $6.7bn cash deal

    Acquisition will make Anglo-Australian miner one of world’s biggest producers of key battery material

    Technicians from the Orocobre mining company work on an evaporation pond test at the Olaroz salt flat. One person in a yellow suit and red helmet leans over to measure the water, while another in a dark jacket and white helmet observes and takes notes. The landscape features dry, mountainous terrain in the background.
  • Monday, 7 October, 2024
    Rio Tinto PLC
    Rio Tinto in talks to buy Arcadium Lithium

    Deal would make miner one of world’s largest producers of key battery material

    A worker wearing a Rio Tinto hard hat and orange safety vest examines trays of cylindrical jadarite rock samples using a green spray bottle at the Rio Tinto Group research center in Loznica, Serbia
  • Monday, 30 September, 2024
    CME expands lithium futures battle with LME as battery demand soars

    US futures exchange launches contracts for raw material used in electric vehicle chargers

    Montage of CME logo and CME logo on the screen of a mobile phone
  • Monday, 2 September, 2024
    Serbia
    Serbian protests escalate over proposed lithium mine

    Environmentalists aim to stop Rio Tinto’s Jadar project despite Belgrade’s promise of economic boom

    Demonstrators gather in Valjevo, Serbia, on Sunday as part of nationwide protests against the proposed lithium mine in Jadar
  • Monday, 5 August, 2024
    FT News Briefing podcast10 min listen
    UK leaders court US investors

    Asset managers fret over lost gains as investor cash piles up on the sidelines

  • Monday, 5 August, 2024
    Rio Tinto-backed start-up seeks funds for lithium breakthrough to cut reliance on China

    Analysts say new techniques could double production of key battery material and have similar impact to shale on oil sector

    Wide view of brine piles drying in an evaporation pond
  • Sunday, 4 August, 2024
    World’s biggest lithium producer urges state help to compete with China

    US-based Albemarle cuts expansion plans amid struggles for processor of key mineral for electric cars

    Sacks of lithium carbonate at an Albemarle processing facility in Chile
  • Thursday, 18 July, 2024
    Serbia
    Serbia pledges lithium to European carmakers

    Despite Chinese interest, president says he is ‘loyal’ to EU as he hosts German chancellor in Belgrade

    Aleksandar Vučić
  • Sunday, 16 June, 2024
    Serbia set to give green light to Rio Tinto lithium mine

    Exploitation of one of the world’s largest deposits of the metal would boost Europe’s electric vehicle industry

  • Wednesday, 15 May, 2024
    Special ReportInvesting in Minas Gerais
    Brazil’s lithium makes its presence known with silvery-white promise

    Minas Gerais deposits of the mineral are turning a once forlorn region of the state into a prospecting hotspot

    A conveyor belt loaded with gravel running through a large industrial mining site with various machinery and structures in the background, all secured by bright yellow safety barriers
  • Wednesday, 10 April, 2024
    News in-depthSociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA
    China’s Tianqi Lithium’s $4bn bet on Chile at risk of backfiring

    Strategy is at risk as President Gabriel Boric’s government works to take back control of resources

    Brine ponds and processing areas of a lithium mine
  • Friday, 16 February, 2024
    Albemarle Corp
    Top lithium producer Albemarle downgrades 2030 demand forecast as EV shift slows

    Chinese consumer shift to smaller battery cars that need less of the metal is also expected to cut usage

    Lithium brine evaporation ponds at Albemarle’s lithium mine in Silver Peak, US
  • Thursday, 25 January, 2024
    News in-depth
    Lithium price plunges on slowing Chinese demand for electric vehicles

    Miners slash costs and scale back plans to increase production after battery metal’s price plummets more than 80% in 12 months

    Ore falls from a conveyor on to a stockpile at the Bald Hill lithium mine site outside Widgiemooltha, Australia
  • Sunday, 14 January, 2024
    News in-depthElectric vehicles
    Chinese carmaker BYD held talks with lithium producer in Brazil

    Group is hunting for lithium assets in the country with aim of assembling an integrated supply chain

    BYD is also planning to build an EV factory in Hungary and has been in talks for a plant in Mexico
  • Thursday, 28 December, 2023
    Chile
    Chile’s Codelco to control new lithium venture with miner SQM

    Partnership is first step in President Gabriel Boric’s national strategy for battery metal

    An SQM lithium mine in Chile’s Atacama Desert
  • Tuesday, 19 December, 2023
    Gina Rinehart and Chile’s SQM to buy lithium miner Azure

    $1.1bn deal comes after Australian billionaire thwarts Liontown takeover

    A picture of Gina Rinehart
  • Monday, 4 December, 2023
    Energy sector
    The deflation of ‘greenflation’

    I like it, I’m not gonna crack

  • Monday, 27 November, 2023
    Mining tycoons battle over lithium’s ‘corridor of power’ in Australia

    Local billionaires disrupt consolidation as industry positions itself for boom in mineral vital to electric cars

    A desert tract near Kalgoorlie, best known for Australia’s largest open-pit gold mine
  • Tuesday, 21 November, 2023
    Batteries
    Northvolt in new sodium-ion battery breakthrough

    Swedish start-up has developed an energy storage technology with no critical minerals including lithium which could minimise reliance on China

    People work on Northvolt sodium-ion cells
  • Monday, 20 November, 2023
    28 min
    Inside the global race for lithium batteries | FT Film

    Lithium is the 'new oil' of the clean energy era, crucial to the production of batteries for electric vehicles

    FT Moral Money: The Lithium Mining Race
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