Sinomine Resource Group Resumes Production at High-Purity Lithium Salt Lines

The Electric Vehicle Association of Thailand, or EVAT, hosted a forum to present the findings of a feasibility study on the technical aspects and sustainable recycling of electric vehicle batteries, under the Thai-German Cooperation on Energy, Mobility and Climate, or TGC EMC. The study forecasts that the volume of all battery types examined that are retired from vehicles will rise from about 1.4 gigawatt-hours, or 9,349 tonnes, in 2030 to about 9.8 gigawatt-hours, or 73,855 tonnes, in 2038. Suroj Sangsnit, president of the Electric Vehicle Association of Thailand, said the growth of electric vehicles is a major opportunity for Thailand, but that the transition will only be sustainable if there is a battery management system covering the entire life cycle. Assistant Professor Dr. Uthen Supatti, head of the EVAT TGC EMC project, said Thailand must prepare systems to support both the assessment of battery condition for reuse as energy storage and the proper channelling of end-of-life batteries into recycling. The study indicates that setting up recycling plants alone may face limitations in terms of cost-effectiveness, while business models that integrate everything from sorting and manufacturing energy storage systems through to recycling have the potential to generate better returns. The study was conducted by a consulting team from the Thailand Development Research Institute, or TDRI, and the event also featured a joint discussion among representatives from the public and private sectors, including the Board of Investment, BMW Group Thailand, SK tes Thailand and PricewaterhouseCoopers FAS.

A Federal Court of Appeals upheld Sigma Lithium Corporation's environmental licenses, allowing the company to resume mining-industrial operations. The decision overturned a September 8 emergency ruling by a local federal judge in Teofilo Otoni that had suspended those licenses, with Senior Federal Judge Mônica Sifuentes granting Sigma Lithium an emergency motion for suspensive relief on the grounds that a prolonged stoppage would cause significant negative economic impact in the Vale do Jequitinhonha region. Sigma Lithium reaffirmed guidance to scale annualized production of lithium oxide concentrate to 330,000 tonnes by year-end 2027, saying it needs no additional capacity beyond its existing Mine 1 capacity in the South Pit operations and its Cleantech Industrial Plant. The court noted the company supports approximately 19,000 direct and indirect jobs and around 80,000 family members across 12 municipalities. The original suspension stemmed from a lawsuit filed by Ngolo, an association acting for local Quilombola communities, though the government official registry showed no Quilombola heritage descendant houses within a 12 km radius of the Grota do Cirilo Project when its current licenses were issued and operations began in 2023.

Evolution Metals & Technologies Corp. has signed a Strategic Partnership Letter of Intent with UK-based INERGX Energy Optimisation Ltd. to engineer, supply, integrate and service the energy storage and power optimization systems for its planned critical materials and battery black mass recovery facility in the United States. The Facility is planned at approximately 1 GW of on-site capacity within two years, equivalent to the output of one typical U.S. nuclear reactor, and up to approximately 5 GW at full build-out, equivalent to five reactors and to the annual electricity use of approximately 4 million American homes, powered by on-site LNG generation. Under the LOI, INERGX intends to source cells, packs and battery management systems through qualified European or other approved non-China partners, with full country-of-origin documentation and no change in source without EM&T's written approval, addressing the roughly 85% share of global battery cell manufacturing capacity located in China in 2024. INERGX will carry out a First Block Study within eight weeks of receiving EM&T's site inputs, with definitive agreements for the first block targeted within twelve weeks of the study's delivery and acceptance, and a long-term service agreement with an anticipated initial term of ten years. The partnership comes as EM&T executes on its previously announced fiscal 2027 revenue guidance of $400 million to $460 million, reflecting the expected first full-year contribution from expanding its Pohang, Republic of Korea magnet capacity to approximately 10,000 metric tons annually.

Liontown Resources has approved the Final Investment Decision for its Kathleen Valley Expansion Project, moving the operation's next phase from planning into execution. The approval signals a potential scale-up of Kathleen Valley's role within Liontown's portfolio and shifts near-term focus to execution and capital discipline. The company's narrative projects A$1.5 billion in revenue and A$422.9 million in earnings by 2029, yielding a A$1.39 fair value and a 73% upside to its current price. A more cautious case assumes A$1.2 billion in revenue and A$176.2 million in earnings by 2029. The recent Centenario farm-in agreement with NEXT Lithium adds a separate growth option outside Kathleen Valley, though it carries its own project and capital risks.