I've been a long term holder of FMC (NYSE:FMC) which features in most of the Lithium Global funds. The company has an extraction operation in Argentina, and produces a range of Lithium products, including Lithium ingots (very reactive with water), Lithium Hydroxide and Lithium Carbonate. I understand the company managed to get over two major hurdles: firstly the extraction of the material from South America, and there were reports of major logistics and labour issues, which now seem to have been resolved. The second issue was meeting the level of purity for batteries, particularly the Lithium Carbonate and Lithium Hydroxide. According to their website the typical levels of contaminants are less than 10 ppm Aluminium, and less than 5ppm Cu and Fe. Both the hydroxide and carbonate produce are 99.5% purity.
My understanding from the charging and discharge of batteries is that the level of contaminants plays a major role in the lift of the battery. My point is this: there may be some great Lithium resources available, but how many of them can produce the material at the necessary purity required for rechargeable batteries? I fear some of the proposed lithium stocks are very speculative.
