Column: Electric dreams turn into a nightmare for battery metals
A sector that was once racing to build new supply has been closing mines and deferring projects as low prices bite into the cost curve.
Novo Lítio (ASX:NLI), a company that praises itself for “supplying lithium from Europe to Europe,” announced this week that it plans to start drilling at its Spodumenberget lithium project in Västernorrland County, Sweden, before year-end.
The Australian explorer is just waiting for local stakeholders, landowners and authorities to approve its initial drill programme, which is expected to target high-grade results from previous surface sampling, including 2.77% Li2O from spodumene-bearing rock chip samples.
According to a press release, mapping has shown the presence of pegmatite outcrops over a strike length of 340m, and up to 100m wide, with surrounding areas masked by glacial cover. “This area will be tested by four initial drill holes, to ascertain whether any mineralised pegmatites of significant width are present at depth.”
In the same release, Novo Lítio CEO David Frances said that since Spodumenberget has exhibited encouraging high-grade lithium mineralisation at surface, he and his team are very keen to test their exploration models with some first-pass drill holes.
