Lowry: "If you remember one thing let it be this: “lack of investment in lithium chemical production during the past few years will create tight market for battery quality material lasting more than five years in the face of 300% growth”

This is in synchrony with what Chip Russell had to say.  I will refer to my comments about Chip Russell that I made in a post back on 31 December 2020:

"Chip Russell from MassifCap.com starts off talking about how later this decade there will be a "real rate of change differential on the demand side" regarding lithium.  He uses March 2020 as a demarcation point where after that there have been a number of lithium mining companies cancel or suspend their previous plans for expansion of their mining efforts in some cases and cancellation of mining activities of lithium by other companies.  These combined events are expected to tighten the lithium supply lines in the next very few years.

He postulates that the lag between supply and demand that will be occuring will have an effect of increasing prices for lithium hydoxide and lithium carbonate and that lag could be over a "multi-year period".  When you throw in the factor of big numbers of "Gigafactories" for lithium batteries coming on line during this same time period it will even exacerbate the lag effect and help to raise lithium prices. He speculates that it will be somwhere in the 2025 to 2030 time frame before lithium mining expansion will catch up to meet the expansion of demand.  That means that we are in an interesting window between now and 2025, and possibly a little beyond, in realtionship to the dynamics of lithium demand vs supply.  He postulates that lithium price currently has reached a bottom.

One key quote from Chip Russell:  "I think it is factually incorrect to suggest that (lithium) supply can be brought on quickly."

He goes on to illustrate that the Lithium Majors (SQM, Albemarle, etc ) over the period from 2015 through 2018 have consistently underachieved their stated targets for lithium mining production expansion by about 50%.  He goes on in the video interview to state the reasons for both brine and hard rock mining companies around the world failing to meet their own goals for expansion of their lithium mining production to meet their published target goals.  

He lists problems with government-lithium mining company issues, transportation issues, the quality of lithium produced issues, hard rock sources in many instances needing further processing mostly in China and that overall the mid stream processing issues have been underestimated by those lithium financial commentators who hold to the false belief that lithium supply deficits can "turn on a dime" to immediately expand to meet lithium demand.  It is this lag time between the expansion first in lithium demand and the slower response on the supply side that creates the current window of opportunity... a window that LAC intends to take to their advantage.

More Chip Russell quotes:  "We think Lithium Americas Corporation today is the strongest Junior Lithium mining producer in the world." "It is an advanced stage developer, bringing to market two world class assets, the Cauchari-Olaroz project in northwest Argentina and the Thacker Pass project in Nevada."  "We think that over a 5 to 8 year period we are going to see a pre production mining firm become one of the Majors in the (Lithium mining) industry."

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Many thanks, again, to WB DT for posting the link to Chip Russells's interview.  If you haven't seen that interview yet then don't let that opportunity go unutilized.  Russell gives a ton of insight and information very succinctly.  You don't have to wait for the "good stuff" when listening to Russell, it is all good from start to finish with no wasted space.   Okiedo