The Green Technology Industry is the largest end-user of REEs and is continually growing with the development of electric vehicles and green energy electrical generators; wind turbines and solar panels. According to the American Chemistry Society, Lithium is among these endangered metals. China, which controls 97% of global rare earth production, has made significant investments in securing their supply. One excellent example of this is the recent news from China based Ganfeng Lithium Corp. regarding their 15million yuan (US $2.4 million) investment into International Lithium’s Blackstairs Pegmatite project in Ireland and the Mariana Brine project in Argentina for the 2014 budget year.  Ganfeng Lithium Corp. is one of the largest lithium product suppliers in the world supplying ILC with both capital and expertise and providing the global green technology industry with a new potential source of lithium supply.

  Ganfeng’s transaction signifies confidence in ILC’s capabilities as ILC is currently one of the only publicly traded Canadian Corporations receiving funding from China after the collapse of the multi-million dollar CNOOC/Nexen deal. The Blackstairs Lithium project in Ireland is particularly momentous as a recent European Union study concluded that rare earth supply constraints could hamper clean energy efforts. Ireland has pledged to make the mining process more efficient as part of an approach to boost lithium production. Subsequent to the Blackstairs funding announcement, Jianguo Xu, Chinese Ambassador to Ireland, paid a courtesy call to Richard Bruton, Ireland’s Minister for Jobs, Enterprise & Innovation, to discuss how to promote pragmatic and mutually beneficial cooperation between the two countries.  

  Beyond the growing demand and investment from Chinese conglomerates, encouraging headlines have also come out of Argentina, which is home to ILC’s Lithium-Brine Project located within the famous Andes Lithium Triangle. The political tide appears to have made a turn for the better this year as governments in Argentina took positive steps towards modernizing public policy to encourage foreign investment. Not only was the national currency devalued to bring it closer to its real value but new economic systems to measure real impacts of inflation were implemented. The settlement with Spanish oil giant Repsol over the YPF nationalization is another indicator that change for the better is in the works. In addition, an unprecedented debt repayment deal was struck with the “Paris Club” of creditor nations, and Lumina Copper’s announcement that First Quantum Minerals has agreed to purchase the Taca Taca copper project for $470 million  should help to shore up lingering doubts about the direction  Argentina’s mining industry is headed. Taca Taca is approximately 70 kilometres from ILC’s Mariana project and any infrastructure built to facilitate production at Taca Taca will also benefit Mariana.

  ILCs goes beyond traditional mine development and is creating a business model that is focused on cooperation and growth. Ganfeng Lithium and ILC are jointly working on a vertical integration plan to develop both lithium projects and have just announced an exploration budget for 2014. With the REE demand growing and Tesla’s big Open Source move, this venture could not have occurred at a more opportune time.

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