“With operating cash costs at the site previously quoted in the low-$900s, the asset is underwater at current prices,” BMO Capital Markets said in a note on Thursday. The most recent Fastmarkets spodumene price in China is $760 per tonne, BMO Commodities Research director Colin Hamilton noted.
Lithium prices have plunged from record highs two years ago, pulling down other miners such as Chile’s SQM (NYSE: SQM), the world’s second-biggest lithium producer, which reported a 63% decline in quarterly profit last month. Albemarle (NYSE: ALB), the largest lithium producer, has slashed costs and delayed projects among its brine and hard-rock operations. Analysts at S&P Global forecast lithium prices to remain subdued for five to 10 years as oversupply and a consumer backlash over electric vehicles hurt the market.
Operations slowed
Mt. Cattlin’s operations would be suspended in next year’s first half after ending its stage…
