Supply Vs Demand. While the world seems to be undergoing a great GREEN revolution, there’s a potentially catastrophic problem on the horizon before we get there.
According to Benchmark, lithium demand is expected to reach 2.4 million tonnes LCE (lithium carbonate equivalent) in 2030 – this is almost 1.8 million tonnes more than the 600,000 tonnes of lithium Benchmark expects will be produced in 2022.1
This means the mining sector will need to step up its production by at least 3x to meet demand, at a cost estimated to be an additional US$42 billion to accomplish.2
And the costs to consumers could keep rising, as we’ve already seen in 2022 with top bids for lithium up 140%, causing Tesla CEO Elon Musk to call the new price point ‘Insane Levels’. 3