ENERGY MINERALS

LatAm lithium in focus

The advance of lithium brine production in Latin America has been somewhat overshadowed by the development of hard rock mines in Australia in the past year or so as a niche industry has struggled to meet the challenge of a rapidly growing market. Technical issues, weather events, concerns about producing the wrong kind of lithium product and now disinterested equity markets have seen Latin America’s junior explorer pretenders stutter in their efforts to meet growing demand for the battery metal.