Benchmark opens public consultation on changes to its Sustainable Lithium and Sustainable Nickel grades

Benchmark Mineral Intelligence announced today that it has started a formal consultation on changes to the sustainable lithium and sustainable nickel grades in its Lithium Price Assessment and Nickel Price Assessment Methodologies.

Benchmark proposes to change the frequency of updates to its list of eligible producers, whose material can contribute to these grades, from quarterly to annually. This is in line with changes to the reporting cadence of Benchmark’s Sustainability Index.

The Benchmark Sustainability Index is a composite index that benchmarks lithium and nickel companies based on their degree of ESG transparency and performance.

All lithium and nickel companies are included in this Index and are scored on 87 indicators highlighting the most pressing topics of concern. Separate Environment, Social and Governance scores are calculated, along with an overarching composite ESG score, for each company in the upstream lithium and nickel supply chains. Companies are classified into four categories based on their performance: “Industry Leading”, “Good Practice”, “Moderate Visibility” and “Limited Visibility”.

Only prices collected for material produced by companies categorised as “Industry Leading” in the Sustainability Index can be included in Benchmark’s sustainable lithium and nickel grades.

Market participants have consistently demanded a metric to track and quantify the emergence of a ‘green premium’ for sustainably produced material. Leveraging Benchmark’s market-leading price assessment methodologies, subscribers have been able to track this delta in real time since November 2023 for lithium and March 2024 for nickel metal and nickel sulphate.

The following grades will be impacted by this change in frequency:

As a result of the change, Benchmark is seeking feedback on its plans to modify its methodology in relation to these grades. Public consultation for this change is now open for 30 days.

Benchmark invites feedback from active market participants by Thursday 11 December 2025 at the latest.

Comments are welcomed via submission to: prices@benchmarkminerals.com