Taken from Benchmark Mineral Intelligence‘s Membership service, the chart above compares the average price movements of lithium carbonate versus other minerals and metals in 2015.
While a simplified version of reality, it demonstrates nicely the trend of 2015: a lithium shortage which saw prices surge and a commodity crash (Note: we could also add to the chart, oil down 30% and platinum falling by 26%).
While nearly all minerals and metals are fundamentally tied to industrial demand, lithium has evolved from its industrial roots and into a hi-tech era and is now dominated by lithium-ion battery demand.
While other battery raw materials lag behind lithium, Benchmark believes the futures for graphite and cobalt will share a similar path to lithium.
Lithium prices are collected by Benchmark as part of its pricing data service.
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