The worst winter storm in Argentina’s Puna region for years has cut land access to one of the country’s largest brine lithium salars, Hombre Muerto, from 19–27 July, where the road opened only for 4x4 vehicles. While the disruption in raw lithium tonnage is likely to be negligible, the situation is likely to encourage changes to permit conditions and greater requirements for operators to contribute to road maintenance. Satellite imagery shows up to two metres of snow on the roads into Hombre Muerto. Several Rio Tinto and Zijin employees and contractors were brought out after being stranded, four of them isolated for more than three days. Galan's camp, wellfield roads and evaporation ponds at Hombre Muerto West under a metre of snow. Rio Tinto suspended operations at both Fenix and Sal de Vida preventively.

BMI's latest lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide and spodumene data shows where price risk is concentrated across the next 12 months, and what that means for procurement, offtake and hedging decisions.

Copper smelter treatment charges (TCs), the charge levied by smelters to process copper concentrates, have hit record lows in recent weeks as a result of years of smelter overcapacity, particularly in China. As of 7th August, copper TCs were at -$173/tonne.  Concentrate supply has not grown quickly enough in recent years to make use of all the additional capacity among smelters, but strong byproduct prices, high premiums, and high copper prices have supported smelters despite dwindling TC proceeds. 

On 30 July the Trump administration issued a memorandum to secure the supply of recoverable Critical Minerals and Materials (CMMs) by controlling exports under Section 101 of the Defense Production Act. Included within these controls are black mass and used batteries. Following this the Department of Commerce’s Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) issued a temporary rule to restrict exports of black mass and tungsten scrap without a license on 4 August, which it is now seeking feedback on. According to the summary “U.S. persons engaged in the sale of black mass and tungsten waste and scrap must allocate 100 percent of monthly sales to U.S. persons, unless an adjustment or exception is obtained in advance from BIS.” After publication on 6 August, there are 21 days permitted for feedback before official implementation on 27 August with an expiration date of 17 September 2027. “A ban on the export of black mass should redirect feedstock towards US recyclers,” said Frederick Bloomfield, a senior black mass pricing analyst at Benchmark. “The key question is whether the policy will accelerate the buildout of US black mass refining capacity and mitigate critical mineral leakage, or whether these rules can be circumvented.”