Since June 2023, the price of the primary lithium compound has decreased by more than three quarters due to a combination of declining global sales of electric vehicles and an oversupply of lithium ore.
Australia is the world’s largest producer of lithium ore, making up 52% of the worldwide total last year, thus this reduction has hit the country especially hard.
With the majority of its reserves located in Western Australia and a lesser quantity in the Northern Territory, Australia has the second-largest reserves of the mineral globally, after Chile.
Mine closures are the result of the precipitous drop in lithium prices. The Finniss mine in Darwin is run by Adelaide-based Core Lithium, which announced in January that it was suspending operations at the facility because to “weak market conditions” and expecting to lose 150 jobs.
Subsequently, US company Albemarle said in August that it will be reducing output at its lithium processing facility in Kemerton, which is situated around 170 kilometers (100 miles) south of Perth. It is anticipated that around 300 layoffs will result from this.
This month, Arcadium Lithium announced that it would be closing its Mt. Cattlin mine in Western Australia, citing low prices as the reason. The US and Australia both list the company’s shares.
However, while some manufacturers are pausing their output, others are increasing theirs because they are sure that.
