With structural market deficits projected to grow for most battery metals over the next decade, companies are scrambling to find and build more supply. Here are four companies with significant projects to watch. Another four companies are to follow in a separate Spotlight.
Arizona Sonoran
Arizona Sonoran Copper (TSX: ASCU; US-OTC: ASCUF) is on track to complete a definitive feasibility study for its Cactus brownfield copper mine project in this year’s second half and make a final investment decision as early as the fourth quarter.
The company also anticipates receiving major permit amendments in the second half of the year, including the Aquifer Protection permit, Industrial Air permit and the Mined Land Reclamation permit. If all goes according to plan, Arizona Sonoran says it expects first cathode production in the latter half of 2029.
The porphyry copper project is on private land near the city of Casa Grande, Ariz., about 75 km southeast of Phoenix. In September the company updated the resource estimate to 1.03 billion measured and indicated tonnes grading 0.48% copper for 11 billion lb. contained copper and another 211 million tonnes (grading 0.37% copper for 1.7 billion lb. copper.
A prefeasibility study in October envisioned an open-pit, heap leach-solvent extraction electrowinning (SX-EW) processing operation with oxide and enriched materials from the Cactus and Parks/Salyer open pits, with a 22-year life.
The mine would produce an average of 198 million lb. copper a year (226 million lb. copper in the first 10 years), at an all-in sustaining cost (AISC) of $1.62 per lb. copper. The study estimated a post-tax net present value (NPV) at an 8% discount rate of $2.3 billion and an internal rate of return (IRR) of 22.8%. Initial capital of $977 million (C$1.3 billion) could be repaid in 5.3 years.
“Cactus is a project capable of plating an average of 103,000 tonnes of copper cathodes annually in the first 10 years of the mine, available for direct shipment into the American supply chain,” George Ogilvie, the company’s president and CEO said in a release. “We have the opportunity to become a significant player in the American copper industry, filling a clear gap in the domestic copper supply.”
Cactus, previously known as the Sacaton mine, produced for owner/operater Asarco from 1972 to 1984, when economic conditions forced its closure. Since then, the project has undergone a $20-million reclamation program under the guidance of the Asarco Trust and the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality.
Arizona Sonoran has a market cap of about $1.2 billion.
Atlantic Lithium
Atlantic Lithium (AIM: ALL; ASX: A11; US-OTC: ALLIF) is building Ghana’s first lithium mine at its flagship Ewoyaa lithium project, 110 km from the Takoradi port and 100 km from the capital, Accra.
A 2023 definitive feasibility study outlined a 12-year open-pit mine life producing 3.6 million tonnes of spodumene concentrate, making it one of the largest spodumene mines in the world.
Elevra Lithium (ASX: ELV; Nasdaq: ELVR) holds an equity interest in Atlantic Lithium and a 50% earn-in for the Ewoyaa project. Through this agreement, Elevra Lithium can offtake 50% of Ewoyaa’s annual spodumene production on a life-of-mine basis at market prices. The company has contributed over $39 million to the project to date.
Ghana’s Ministry of Lands and Natural Resources has granted a 15-year mining lease, subject to parliamentary ratification and final regulatory approvals.
Ewoyaa hosts 3.7 million measured tonnes grading 1.37% lithium oxide (Li2O) and 26.1 million indicated tonnes averaging 1.24% Li20. Inferred resources add 7.0 million tonnes grading 1.15% Li2O, according to an updated resource estimate from January 2025.
Atlantic also holds lithium licences in Cote d’Ivoire, about 80 km from the West African nation’s commercial capital, Abidjan.
During geological mapping the company discovered a number of spodumene pegmatite occurrences on its Rubino and Agbovile licences as rock float and a single rare outcrop. Rock chip samples returned assay values of up to 1.25% Li2O.
At the Rubino licence, lithium-in-soil anomalies extending over a 2.5-km by 2-km area have been identified from soil sampling and the anomalies remain open to the northeast.
The two contiguous licences are situated within the Birimian-Eburnean geological setting that hosts the Ewoyaa project in Ghana and other spodumene pegmatite deposits in Mali.
Atlantic Lithium has a market cap of about £93.52 million ($128.4 million).
Black Rock Mining
Black Rock Mining (ASX: BKT) is developing its 84%-owned Mahenge graphite project in Tanzania, hosting one of the largest flake graphite resources and the second-largest reserves in the world.
The fully-permitted open-pit project has probable reserves of 70.5 million tonnes grading 8.5% total graphitic carbon (TGC) and hosts a JORC-compliant resource of 116.4 million measured and indicated tonnes grading 8% TGC and 96.7 million inferred tonnes grading 7.4% TGC.
Early construction works started at Mahenge last October.
The resource, which contains a high proportion of valuable large flake graphite, is open at depth and along strike and the final pit is expected to be 2.5 km long, up to 280 metres wide and up to 233 metres deep.
An enhanced definitive feasibility study envisioned a four-stage construction schedule to deliver up to 340,000 tonnes per year of high-purity 98.5% graphite flake concentrate for 26 years at an AISC of $518 per tonne.
The study forecasted a post-tax NPV (at a 10% discount rate) of $1.48 billion and an IRR of 36%. The study used a basket graphite price of $1,709 per tonne.
The project’s first module can be built at an initial capital cost of $231 million, including a $33-million power line and $16 million for early works. Initial capital for Module 2 comes in at $107 million, Module 3 $117 million and Module 4 at $104 million.
In September 2024, South Korea-headquartered POSCO, the largest anode producer outside China, invested $40 million in Black Rock, increasing its stake in the company from 10.1% to 19.9%. The investment secures POSCO long-term offtake rights for graphite from Modules 1 and 2.
The 324-sq.-km project is 250 km north of Tanzania’s border with Mozambique and 250 km west of the port city of Mtwara on the Indian Ocean.
Mahenge is expected to have a very low carbon intensity compared to peers because grid power in Tanzania is sourced from about 40% hydroelectric sources and about 60% from natural gas, with that proportion of hydroelectricity projected to grow, the company says.
Black Rock Mining has a market cap of about A$33 million ($23 million).
Delta Lithium
Delta Lithium (ASX: DLI) is focused on two lithium projects in Western Australia, Mt. Ida and Yinnetharra.
The Mt. Ida project in the Eastern Goldfields, about 570 km northeast of Perth, contains high-grade lithium and tantalum and is fully permitted for open pit and underground mining.
Delta Lithium’s Mt Ida project in the Goldfields region of Western Australia. Credit: Delta Lithium
The shovel-ready project has a JORC-compliant resource of 500,000 measured tonnes grading 1.2% Li2O and 0.39% rubidium oxide (Rb2O) for 5,900 tonnes Li2O; and 7.2 million indicated tonnes averaging 1.3% Li2O and 0.45% Rb2O for 96,000 tonnes Li2O. Inferred resources add 7.1 million tonnes grading 1.1% Li2O and 0.42% Rb2O for 76,000 tonnes Li2O.
Last year Delta spun out Mt. Ida’s gold assets into a new company, Ballard Mining (ASX: BM1), in which it retains a 41% stake.
Yinnetharra’s Malinda deposit sits in the Gascoyne region, about 500 km east of Carnarvon, and contains a JORC-compliant resource of 16.1 million indicated tonnes averaging 1% Li2O and 77 parts per million (ppm) tantalum pentoxide (Ta2O5). Inferred resources add 5.8 million tonnes grading 0.9% Li2O and 69 ppm Ta2O5.
Malinda features three main LCT pegmatites M1, M36 and M47, and mineralization runs from surface to a depth of at least 350 metres, striking east-west for over 2 kilometres.
Drill highlights from the M1 lode include 94 metres grading 0.94% Li20 from 152 metres downhole in drillhole YRRD471 and 69 metres grading 1% Li20 from 127 metres in YDRD018.
At M36, assays include 29 metres grading 1.1% Li2O from 121 metres in YNEX003 and 33 metres of 1.9% Li2O from 218 metres in YRRD118. The M47 lode has returned 44 metres of 0.85% Li2O from 3 metres in drill hole YRRD249 and 41 metres of 1.3% Li2O from 66 metres in YRRD082.
The company is also exploring the Jameson target on its 3,000-sq.-km landholding at Yinnetharra, with assay highlights of 16 metres grading 1.7% Li2O from 26 metres in drillhole JREX001 and 71 metres of 1.2% Li2O from 27 metres in JREX012.
Delta Lithium has a market cap of about A$172.2 million.
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