WEBINAR: Investor appetite increasing for battery raw materials but more upstream investment needed

More than a year after the Covid-19 pandemic began, investors' appetite in the battery raw materials sector has increased, moving away from precious metals such as gold, but it has yet to be seen if that interest will result in more supply, participants in a Fastmarkets webinar heard on Thursday March 4.

"What is an interesting dynamic is that, when Covid-19 came in, everyone looked to gold when currency devalued. But when bond rates increased, equity investors redeployed that money into the battery and [technical] metals sectors," Ryan Hanrahan, director at Wave International, said.
Copper, lithium and anode materials have attracted most of the interest, but so too have rare earths because of political changes in the United States, Hanrahan said, noting that the country's presidential election in November 2020 contributed to improved investment sentiment.
Many companies on the supply side have funding for the next 12-14 months, he said, but he also warned that it was not sufficient to support supply, because predominantly this funding was for the development of studies, approvals or permitting, and very little of it was intended to construct capital.

"While it has been great to see the money...

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