The Global Lithium Podcast

This episode features Vivas Kumar of Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. Vivas was previously with Tesla.  We discuss e-mobility, the "Manhattan Project" like effort the US needs to catch up in the "battery arms race", millennial attitudes towards mining and much more. 

Jose Hofer is a rare breed in the lithium world. He has experience working for a major producer (SQM) and now the freedom to leverage his knowledge as a senior analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence. I have known Jose since shortly after he entered the lithium world. One of his first mentors at SQM was Daniel Jimenez, a past guest of both the Global Lithium Podcast and this podcast. Jose also known as "titanium fingers" based on his guitar prowess is someone I believe you will be hearing from for a long time.

The first Global Lithium Podcast guest makes his initial appearance on Global Lithium Q&A. Chris Berry of House Mountain Partners answers my question and then I answer two listener questions. Run time: ~18 minutes

A Cyber Monday special - I am posting E53 of the Global Lithium Podcast on the Q&A site and later today will post a regular Global Lithium Q&A episode with Chris Berry aka "The Voice of Reason". 

I spent the past week in Japan and China meeting leading cathode and battery producers. I give you my "take aways" on the transition to high nickel cathode, price and quality. I also make comments on the SQM earnings call and Galaxy's recent Sal de Vida announcement.

Joe and Emily are joined in Los Angeles by the newly minted “geek squad,” the label intended as the ultimate compliment to four technical experts. All are veterans of the podcast. We are guided through the lithium value chain from the ground to lithium chemicals to cathode and ultimately the battery. Dr. Tom Benson of Lithium Americas shares how lithium is formed inside the earth, and how the fact that lithium “Can’t Be Tamed” is what makes it so practical for batteries. Dr. Yuan Gao of Pulead and now a Lithium Americas Board Member takes us through extracting lithium from raw materials and making cathodes. Dr. Gao, or the “Lithium OG”, explains the concept of excess lithium and why it matters even more in a high nickel world. Dr. Dr. Rene LeBlanc of Lithium Americas explains how the process to separate lithium can be the reverse of how it's formed, and shares how the physical separation process for the sedimentary material at Thacker Pass is like the process for extracting gold.. Dan Blondal of Nano One explains the different purposes served by cobalt, as a stabilizer of layered nickel structure or active material in LCO batteries. We give a shout out to the Real Clear Politics discussion of Minerals: The Overlooked Foundations of our Future, where Emily was a panelist and felt like she knew the cool kids when Alexi Zawadski and Thacker Pass were name dropped by Carl Cannon, Executive Editor & Washington Bureau Chief of RealClearPolitics, as a carbon-neutral project. Our guests close with what they experience as most misunderstood lithium myths, and as always we end with rapid fire questions.

This episode reviews some highlights from Cathodes 2019 and my feedback to listeners on their criticism of the podcast. One gaffe is when I say spodumene carbonate instead of spodumene concentrate but most of you would understand what I meant anyway.

Questions about Ponds, ALB earnings, Price and the Future

Five questions: from Livent earnings to why I am critical of ALB but not of Ganfeng. Does Bolivia matter? Do I ignore Altura? plus rapid fire.

More on the social unrest situation in Chile. In this episode we hear from Alonso Barros, an attorney and Cambridge PhD.  Alonso is involved in many things, among them serving as an advisor to various  Indigenous Groups in Chile.  Dr. Barros knows the details of the situation between various stakeholders in the world's largest lithium brine producing region well.