Mining giant Rio Tinto said Tuesday that lithium prices will remain high for a long time and it is actively looking for opportunities to buy the metal.
Lithium prices have soared to record levels, up more than 1,100% in the past two years, as supply has struggled to keep up with demand. Rio Tinto forecasts that electric vehicles will account for half of all car sales by 2030, up from 9 per cent last year. Mining companies have been scouring the globe for opportunities to add new supply.
Rio Tinto, the world's largest iron ore miner, wants to increase its investment in metals needed for clean energy technologies, such as copper and lithium. The company is actively developing battery metal projects in Argentina and California.
Rio said it would use high-grade salt lake brine and hard rock lithium ore from Australia to meet demand.
While one of Rio's headquarters is in Melbourne, Australia, and the other in London, the company does not have any lithium projects in Australia. Australia is the world's largest exporter of lithium.
Rio Tinto's previous attempt to develop a $2.4bn lithium mine in Serbia's Jadar valley, which it won permission for, fell through.
The Jadar lithium project, originally scheduled for construction in 2022 and full production in 2029, will produce battery-grade lithium carbonate and is expected to become Europe's largest lithium mine within the next 15 years.
However, there has been an outcry from local environmental groups and citizens concerned that lithium mining will damage the environment. Some protesters object to the government's partnership with multinational investors. Finally, under pressure, the Serbian government withdrew the Jadar lithium project's permit.
Rio had previously forecast that lithium demand would grow by 25-35 per cent a year over the next decade, thanks to strong growth in electric vehicles, and that there could be a significant gap between supply and demand in five to 10 years.
