Economics
Mad Scramble for Lithium Stretches From Congo to Cornwall
- AVZ Minerals has risen about 1,300 percent this year
- While demand is expected to surge, lithium is fairly abundant
Lithium ore
Photographer: Carla Gottgens/BloombergThis article is for subscribers only.
For evidence of just how hot battery ingredient lithium is right now, look no further than Australia’s AVZ Minerals Ltd.
A penny stock until a few months ago, the mining hopeful has surged about 1,300 percent this year. The proposition: recasting a remote, century-old tin mine in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a supplier of lithium needed to power electric cars.