"It's crowded, no doubt about it, and it will get culled," said Jon Hykawy, president of Stormcrow Capital, calling lithium, the "latest bubble sector."
Explorers are gathering at the Prospectors & Developers Association of Canada mining convention in Toronto through Wednesday.
To survive, suppliers must produce at low cost, enabling them to withstand price corrections, Hykawy said.
Dozens of companies globally look to be "pump and dump" schemes, unlikely to produce a single tonne, said consultant Joe Lowry of Global Lithium. Investors who back them risk being burned, he said.
Even potential new players are nervous.
"If there is one screw-up, one fly-by-night (company), it affects every single one of us," said Carlos Vicens, chief financial officer of early-stage explorer Neo Lithium Corp .
