Look at the graph in the article. Lithium cost $5000/ton 4 years ago. Now it costs more than $11,000/ton. The only difference is the period in between where the price of lithium was almost $21,000/ton.
Presumably the mines operation 4 years ago were profitable. Now there's all these additional mines, and demand still has the price doubled in 4 years. And yet somehow the story is that EVs aren't succeeding? I see just the opposite- EVs are succeeding so much that the industry supporting them is growing and profiting very nicely.
Note that this is the spot price of lithium, which no large consumer of lithium pays. All the big users of lithium (like Panasonic) buy it based on long term contracts with companies like Albemarle (which bought Rockwood Lithium just before the recent boom). Thus it's very misleading to look at spot prices for reaching any determinations about the prospective returns from lithium mine investments.
Fun fact, there is no spot market for lithium. Lithium is sold on a contract by contract basis and there isn't an equivalent of the London Metal Exchange price.
Probably because most uses of lithium are heavily processed and it's not particularly useful or safe in it's raw form, so if you're going to use it you're more likely to need an oxide or something instead of the raw metal.
Predominantly market size, it was considered a speciality metal and we didn't need nearly as much of it in the past. More on the lines of going to a specialty store than Walmart so you'd either go to a broker to get what you need or buy it directly from a mine if you needed a very large supply.
"And yet somehow the story is that EVs aren't succeeding"
That isn't the story. Even the headline calls it an "electric-car boom". The story is that there is a rush to build lithium mines to get ahead of the demand, which seems eminently reasonable.
Look at the graph in the article. Lithium cost $5000/ton 4 years ago. Now it costs more than $11,000/ton. The only difference is the period in between where the price of lithium was almost $21,000/ton.
Presumably the mines operation 4 years ago were profitable. Now there's all these additional mines, and demand still has the price doubled in 4 years. And yet somehow the story is that EVs aren't succeeding? I see just the opposite- EVs are succeeding so much that the industry supporting them is growing and profiting very nicely.