Gates, Bezos-backed firm gets cash injection to find battery metals

If China’s Tianqi grabs a stake in Chile’s SQM, the world’s lowest cost lithium miner, it would mean the top three producers would control at least 80% of the total market, Chile’s government has said.

Soc. Quimica & Minera de Chile SA sits on the world’s richest deposit of lithium and already produces more than 20 percent of the global supply.

The machinery manufacturer logged earnings of $2.82 per share on revenue of $12.9 billion, surpassing expectations.

If the commodity sector keeps the pace for the rest of 2018, this will be the best year for the asset class since 2003.

They said they expected authorities to realize the sliding scale they propose would be a more effective mechanism for the government to share in higher commodity prices than the windfall tax and strategic minerals scheme included in the new code.

Along with Argentina and Chile, Bolivia is part of South America's so-called "lithium triangle."

The South American nation hopes to sign a deal with a foreign partner after a decade of state-led development left output far short of goals for the metal.

Spodumene is a mineral mined as a source of lithium, a key ingredient in electric vehicle batteries, for which China is the world's biggest market.

The Deputy Secretary of Mining Policy said the world needs Argentina's copper, lithium, gold and silver.