Interest in battery metals has been buoyant since governments around the world began to talk about “building back greener” in the wake of COVID, but a sense of urgency is now evident from major Western miners on the M&A front.

In the case of lithium, soaring prices in the second half of 2021 have highlighted a supply shortfall that miners are moving to address – witness Rio Tinto’s US$825 million acquisition of the Rincon lithium brine project in Argentina late December.

Whether or not the frenzied corporate activity persists across 2022 remains to be seen, but the underlying data gives little reason to suspect otherwise: Tesla shares surged early January after the company said it had delivered 936,172 electric vehicles in 2021, a big jump from 500,000 in 2020.

Inside this report:

• Heavy metallers mosh for battery assets
• China makes the lithium running in LatAm
• Beware the return of the lithium glut
• European lithium juniors buff up their green credentials