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1) BHP Group said that it is not interested in the lithium market, as it is committed to growing its copper and nickel projects. “We still don’t see the demand-supply equation of lithium to be as fundamental as copper and nickel,” Sonia Scarselli of BHP Xlpor, the company’s division that invests in junior mining companies, told Reuters on the sidelines of the Prospectors and Developers Association of Canada (PDAC) mining conference in Toronto. “For us, lithium will remain flat.” This is an unusual move when it comes to the industry, as the other major miners are looking to increase exposure to the lithium market. In 2021, Rio Tinto paid $825 million for a lithium project in Argentina, along with building a site in Serbia. Glencore is a shareholder in a lithium recycler that plans to be the largest producer of US lithium. Meanwhile, BHP is investing in companies such as Nordic Nickel, Tutume Metals, Red Ox Copper and a large $40 million investment in Kabanga Nickel, which is developing a nickel mine in Tanzania as well as helping Rio Tinto develop the Resolution Copper mine in Arizona.
2) According to Amir Adnani, the President, CEO and Founder of Uranium Energy Corp, the largest North American focused uranium company, the tensions between the US and Russia could lead to sanctions on Russian uranium, which would diminish the US nuclear industry, and send uranium prices much higher. Mr. Adnani pointed to the fact that most of the country's uranium is imported from Russia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan and there are almost zero domestic production capabilities in the US. The US Energy Information Administration says that in 2022, only about 175,000 pounds of uranium was produced, while none was produced in 2020 and 2021. Amir Adnani also mentioned that the price of uranium needs to reach at least $60 dollars in order to make mining economically viable, as it is currently trading at about 51 dollars.