ENERGY MINERALS

Lithium market in an 'air pocket'

INVESTOR interest in battery materials such as lithium and cobalt may have waned over the past year as prices fell, but they continue to be critical to the ongoing development of the electric vehicle (EV) market. For minerals developers, scarcity of investment extends project development times. For the automotive industry, the stakes are even higher as their future depends upon the supply of materials from a sector with a poor track record of delivering projects on time and on budget.