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The spot price of lithium is pushing new highs. Because of recent price movement, M&A activity in the lithium sector is already beginning to heat up from major mining corporations. During the past year, Argentina’s lithium triangle has without a doubt been the hotspot for lithium M&A activities, especially the area around the Hombre Muerto Salar, attracting large M&A transactions and large investments into current operations.

So, where to look if you want to invest in a junior mining lithium project located in Hombre Muerto? There are only two advanced publicly traded companies with a presence in the Hombre Muerto Salar… 

In June 2021, Edison Lithium acquired a 100% equity interest in Resource Ventures S.A., a Catamarca, Argentina-based lithium exploration company. Resource Ventures owned or controlled the rights to more than 148,000 hectares (over 365,700 acres) of prospective lithium brine claims in Argentina, primarily located in two geologic basins in northern Catamarca Province, Argentina known as the Antofalla Salar and the Pipanaco Salar. 

Electric vehicles (EV) will account for 55% of the market by 2030, propelling forward the demand for Lithium-Ion (Li-ion) batteries – the leading type of EV battery. In turn, this powerful trend has led to massive demand growth for the main components of Li-ion batteries, namely nickel, cobalt, lithium – and Manganese.

Demand for lithium is increasing rapidly due to the proliferation of electric batteries dependent on the mineral. McKinsey forecasts the battery cell market will grow at a minimum of 20% per year through 2030, which would put the global value at $360 billion. Depending on market conditions and the possible positive impacts of economies of scale, the firm believes the global electric battery market could plausibly reach $410 billion by that time.

The global electric vehicle fleet in 2022 currently entails approximately 16.6 million cars. To put this figure into perspective, there are about 1.45 billion cars in the global car fleet as of 2022. With this in mind, electric vehicles only account for a mere 1.1% of the global car fleet.