State of the Market: Mining Q4-21

Despite the rise of Omicron during the December 2021 quarter, global economies continued to recover from the pandemic shock of the first half of 2020. As a result, many commodity prices have touched recent highs or maintained strength gained during the first three quarters of 2021. Although weakness began to show in Chinese and U.S. demand in the December quarter, government initiatives are expected to support both economies — even if more moderate GDP growth rate is expected for both countries in 2022. Government initiatives will be most important in China, where the Central Bank has eased monetary policy. This is an important factor in the Chinese electric vehicle market, which flirted with new highs during the quarter. Unsurprisingly, the increased EV sales greatly benefited the lithium price, with the CIF Asia lithium price hitting $20,000 per tonne by year-end, just off the peak of $21,500/t in late 2017. The rising price has spurred project development as miners seek to cash in and position themselves for forecast demand increases.

Join us to recap the December quarter and to obtain our views for the coming year and beyond.

• Commodity price trends, drivers and estimates
• Cost forecasts and future margin expectations
• Financing, drilling and exploration metrics
• Mergers and acquisitions