Global Lithium Market's Explosive Growth Showing No Signs of Slowing Down

PALM BEACH, Florida, December 7, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The global lithium market is experiencing an enormous uptick in competition as major and junior miners race to enhance mining efforts in order to maximize the revenue potential that comes in hand with the precious metal. As demand across the planet skyrockets due to the electric vehicle boom, the forecasts for lithium's growth continue to grow, with the most recent estimate pinned at a 16.6% CAGR according to MarketsandMarkets. The key driving factors for the growth of the lithium ion battery market are increase in demand for electric vehicle, strict government mandates on fuel economy, growing demand for smart devices and other consumer electronics, and development toward enhancement of lithium ion batteries. Increased investment in production facilities, along with other methods of optimization, are allowing industry leaders to keep up with the steadily rising demand such as: NRG Metals Inc. (TSX-V: NGZ) (OTC: NRGMF), Lithium X Energy Corp. (OTC: LIXXF) (TSX-V: LIX), Glencore Plc (OTC: GLNCY) (LSE: GLEN.L), Rio Tinto plc (NYSE: RIO), Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX).

NRG Metals Inc. (TSX-V: NGZ) (OTCQB: NRGMF) (Frankfurt OGPN), is pleased to announce the discovery of lithium at the Salar Escondido Lithium Project, Catamarca Province, Argentina. Consistent with the Company's geophysical data and geological model, the target zone of sediments saturated with brine that could contain lithium was intersected, and the first lithium values from near the top of the brine are very encouraging.See a table of values and read more news for NRG Metals at http://www.marketnewsupdates.com/news/nrg.html

The samples, which were collected with a single packer, were analyzed by the Alex Stewart laboratory in Jujuy, Argentina. Alex Stewart employed Inductively Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry ("ICP-OES") as the analytical technique for the primary constituents of interest, including those shown in the table.

Adrian Hobkirk, CEO of NRG commented, "We are very excited with the initial results from near the top of the brine zone at Salar Escondido. These results prove the concept that there is a buried salar that contains lithium at Salar Escondido. Furthermore, the Mg/Li ratio is relatively low at 4.6, which is very encouraging. We are hopeful that lithium grades will increase at deeper levels, which is the case in many salars in Argentina. We look forward to continuing the exploration at Salar Escondido to fully assess and delineate this discovery."

The drill hole has intersected weakly consolidated sandstone and unconsolidated sand horizons with occasional conglomerate and clay layers from a depth of 113 meters to 176 meters, and predominately poorly consolidated conglomerate with occasional clay layers below 176 meters. Saline brine is present below a depth of 140 meters. As of December 5, 2017, the hole had reached a depth of 221 meters, and the Company is planning to extend the hole to a depth of 350 meters.
In other mining industry news and developments:
Lithium X Energy Corp. (OTC: LIXXF) (TSX-V: LIX.V) (CDNX: LIX) announced in November it has closed its previously announced agreements with Borax Argentina SA and South American Salars SA and their parent company, Orocobre Ltd., collectively (refer to news release of Oct. 4, 2017). The Orocobre agreements involved the acquisition of 2,700 hectares of claims from Borax Argentina SA replacing the usufruct Lithium rights previously held by the company over the Borax claims and an agreement to acquire a further 700 hectares currently owned by South American Salars SA for a total consideration of 650,000 common shares of Lithium X, $1-million (U.S.) and a 1-per-cent net revenue royalty over the SDLA project.

In an article published on BloombergTechnology, The race is on to supply more of the cobalt needed for batteries in the fast-growing market for electric vehicles - and that means fresh competition for the big players Glencore Plc (OTC: GLNCY) (LSE: GLEN.L) and the Democratic Republic of Congo. A pipeline of projects is looming in places including Australia, the U.S. and Canada after cobalt prices more than doubled in the past year. Glencore produces almost a third of the world's supply, mainly from the Congo, which is by far the biggest source, accounting for as much as 65 percent.  Read more at: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-08/cobalt-upstarts-eye-glencore-s-turf-for-244-billion-ev-spoils .

Rio Tinto plc (NYSE: RIO) came to a close up .53% on Wednesday with a volume north of 2.9 million. In a recent article on Business Times, Rio Tinto plc is getting distracted by a shiny new thing. The Anglo-Australian mining giant may be on the verge of buying a stake in US$15 billion lithium producer Sociedad Quimica y Minera (NYSE: SQM). After previously chasing aluminium at its peak, Rio is looking late again. Excavators are emerging from a period of austerity. They have cleaned up a string of disastrous deals and slashed costs. Thanks to China and the surge of interest in electric cars, demand is growing. Materials including lithium, cobalt and copper are in vogue. Read more at: http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/energy-commodities/rio-tinto-may-buy-stake-in-lithium-producer-sociedad-quimica-y-minera

Freeport-McMoRan Inc. (NYSE: FCX) closed Wednesday up 1.70% with over 22.5 million shares traded by the market clsoe. Freeport-McMoRan Inc. In a recent article, there are potentially bottlenecks in lithium and cobalt mining efforts, which are crucial for lithium-ion batteries used to power electric cars. In terms of supply, major disruptions that took place in the first half of the year supported prices. But worries have eased as top copper producer Chile reported higher output in July. Meanwhile, Freeport-McMoRan, which owns Grasberg, the world's second-largest copper mine, will continue to export copper as it negotiates a new permit with the Indonesian government. Read more at https://investingnews.com/daily/resource-investing/base-metals-investing/copper-investing/copper-prices-rally-q4/

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