The Global Lithium Podcast

Episode 82 features Marco Romero, CEO of Euro Manganese. We discuss the manganese market especially as it relates to lithium batteries and then take a deep dive into the company’s project in the Czech Republic.

In a separate segment of this podcast you will also hear my candid thoughts on Piedmont Lithium’s supply contract with Tesla and SQM’s recent ESG announcement and 2020 sales/production guidance.

The Euro Manganese Project entails re-processing a significant manganese deposit hosted in historic mine tailings, strategically located in the heart of Europe, approximately 90km east of Prague. EMN's goal is to become a leading, competitive and environmentally superior supplier of Ultra-High-Purity Manganese Products, serving both the lithium-ion battery industry, as well as producers of specialty steel and aluminum alloys.

This is a two part episode. The first 20 minutes is episode 81 "Elon Musk: 40 Shades of Battery Grade" a Q&A with questions that resulted from my recent appearance on TC's Chartcast - episode 46. I discussed lithium industry basics with an audience more familiar with EVs than lithum chemicals. I got a few dozen questions after that episode and answer several of them here. Afterwards, I include episode 80 with my comments on Tesla's Battery Day. This episode was originally posted on my website: globallithium.net but so the Anchor catalog is complete I am including it here.

This episode features Vivas Kumar of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence for a second appearance. Vivas has been involved in the battery space since 2017 beginning as the “lithium guy” at Tesla before joining Benchmark.

We cover a wide variety of topics of the day and then focus the conversation on what is going on in the "soon to be very significant” Indian market.

Listen all the way to “rapid fire” and you will find out why Vivas doesn’t want his mother listening to this episode.

Episode 77 of the Global Lithium Podcast: “Gradually then Suddenly”: is a conversation with Roger Atkins.

Roger Atkins of electricvehiclesoutlook.com is one of the top EV voices on the planet with 30 years of auto industry experience.

This conversation is not really about lithium, it is more about the demand drivers of lithium’s future. Anyone interested in batteries, electric mobility, energy storage or the future will benefit from this podcast.

We discuss why OEMs really aren’t as motivated to transition to e-mobility as they like to “advertise”, why Tesla has an almost insurmountable lead in battery and EV technology and move on to the rivalry between Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos and how the world will benefit from their growing competition. We ponder if Musk and Bezos are the new generation of “Robber Barons” with social media generated halos.

Elon Musk’s admiration for Henry Ford is another topic. We wonder aloud if Elon would benefit from sharing ideas with Henry’s great grandson the current executive Chairman of Ford Motor Company.

Roger explains why simple EV penetration metrics are essentially a meaningless form of what he calls “numerical alliteration”.

We break down the e-mobility world by different types of vehicles and discuss how regional differences impact the development of the market. Some market segments are past the mass adoption “tipping point”, others are not.

Along the way you will hear thoughts about the major battery chemistries and their relative merits. Roger asks me if I think ESS will be a bigger market than e-mobility, the answer may surprise you.

The above, much more and rapid fire.

Alison Dai is the Commercial Director of Chengdu Chemphys, a specialty producer of high purity lithium chemicals. Although less well known than Chinese major producers Ganfeng and Tianqi, Chemphys was active selling high quality lithium chemicals to the difficult to penetrate Japanese and Korean markets long before their larger rivals.

Alison was born in China, raised in Western Australia and left an investment banking career with JP Morgan Chase to return to Chengdu and become involved in the family lithium business.

We discuss the current state of the lithium market and ponder when the the oversupply situation will turn to shortage. I ask Alison about Chemphys plans for both expansion and utilizing partnerships to grow in the international market.

We explore the rise of lithium reprocessors, the challenge of upgrading industrial quality lithium to battery quality and opportunities for Chemphys to help brine producers implement direct lithium extraction.

Alison gives her thoughts on the rise of high nickel cathodes and the recent resurgence of LFP cathode.

And, of course, we close with rapid fire.

My guest for Episode 75 is Gene Morgan the CEO of brine field services provider Zelandez. Gene has an interesting story that starts in New Zealand, moves to oil fields in various parts of the world before an invitation to Bolivia led to both meeting his wife and, ultimately, a career change to lithium.

We discuss the various services Zelandez provides to lithium explorers, developers and producers. Gene has a unique window on the lithium space interacting  with a wide array of current and future producers.

Having started my career with an oil exploration and production company I have long believed that the lithium industry has a lot to learn from the much larger and technologically advanced oil business.

If you want to know more about the future of brine production in South America, then this is episode is for you.

The name Zelandez should be familiar to you since they have been a loyal sponsor of the Global Lithium Podcast since the early days.

Episode 74 “Forged in the Fire” features Ken Brinsden the CEO of Pilbara Minerals. Ken is one of my favorite all time guests. He is articulate and forthright in an industry known for opacity.

We cover several topics in 40 minutes including: Pilbara’s recent refinancing, their improved lithium recoveries to the world class level, how Pilbara is dealing with the current challenging market conditions and preparing for the inevitable upturn.

Ken gives his thoughts on the ability of the industry to respond to the anticipated steep growth in lithium demand in the coming decade and the opportunities a global lithium ion battery build out represent for the company.

I ask Ken to comment on Pilbara’s partnership strategy, corporate culture and the growing importance of ESG considerations to those seeking to finance lithium projects.

Ken’s office in Perth is about as far away from my home base in Charlotte as you can be. The normally reliable Zoom connection was stressed a few times but the majority of the episode is fine from a sound perspective.

Thanks to our sponsor - Zelandez

Episode 72 features Dave Buckley one of the few people on the planet to have extensive (more than two decades) experience processing brine and hard rock into carbonate and hydroxide for two major lithium companies followed by half a decade of consulting experience with projects around the world. In addition, Dave also has cathode processing experience.

We cover brine and hard rock processing challenges, issues with expansions in the Atacama, recovery rates, the challenge of producing a higher percentage of battery quality material, DLE, the need for developing lithium talent, hydroxide shelf life and why the “direct” hard rock route to hydroxide is a misnomer.

Dave and I grew both grew up in Western New York and although we didn’t meet until 1992 share a common bond in optimistically suffering through decades of football futility in Buffalo. Dave can be found on Linked In but keeps a very low social media profile.