Piedmont Lithium is an Australian miner that started in 1983. The company now has a large project in North Carolina, US and has just issued a press release that details a new agreement with Tesla.
The agreement is for an initial 5-year term, with an option for a second 5-year term. Under the agreement, Piedmont will mine Lithium for Tesla, at a rate of 160,000 tones per year.
In the latest Corporate Presentation from earlier this month, Piedmont highlight that Electric vehicle (EV) penetration is projected to grow from ~3% to ~30% by 2030. As we know from Tesla’s Battery Day presentation last week, Tesla is pushing hard to scale out battery production to service this growing demand, and this new agreement will secure Lithium supply in the US to enable that.
Deliveries are expected to start between July 2022 and July 2023 and operations will be based in Piedmont’s North Carolina location.
We are excited to be working with Tesla, which represents the start of the first US domestic lithium supply change and disruption to the current value chain. The Agreement highlights the strategic importance of Piedmont’s unique American spodumene deposit and confirms the trend toward spodumene as the preferred feedstock for the lithium hydroxide required in high-nickel batteries.
We will now accelerate our mine/concentrator development to support Tesla’s plans, work to further expand our mineral resources, and potentially increase our planned annual spodumene concentrate production capacity. We will simultaneously be advancing our plans to produce lithium hydroxide in North Carolina, using a combination of internally produced spodumene concentrate as well as material sourced from other producers around the world.
Keith D. Philips, President and Chief Executive Officer, Piedmont Lithium Limited.
Piedmont is listed on the ASX and shares today have skyrocketed 60% on the news of the Tesla deal.
Via Yahoo Finance.
