Fastmarkets 2026 Recap

One theme consistently emerged from conversations at Fastmarkets Global Lithium, Battery & Critical Materials last week:

Chemical reagent strategy is becoming a mine design decision- not simply a procurement decision.

Historically, reagent selection was largely driven by metallurgy.

Today, developers are increasingly asking another question:

Can we reliably source the reagents our project will need over the next 20–30 years?

Five years ago, reagent selection was primarily a metallurgical decision. Today, it’s increasingly becoming a supply chain decision.

This discussion came up repeatedly with lithium developers in Nevada.

For projects using sulphuric acid leaching, today’s market presents new challenges.

Sulphur and sulphuric acid prices remain at historic highs following a series of global supply disruptions and export restrictions, and western US logistics for moving hundreds of thousands of tonnes of sulphur and/or sulphuric acid into remote mining districts remain limited.

As a result, several developers are reconsidering whether alternative processing routes deserve another look.

Century Lithium Corp is perhaps the best-known example, developing a chloride-based flowsheet incorporating an on-site chlor-alkali plant rather than relying on large-volume sulphur or sulphuric acid supply. Whether that approach proves applicable to other claystone deposits remains to be seen- every orebody is different. Nevertheless, the conversation itself is noteworthy.

The trade-off is no longer simply maximizing lithium recovery while minimizing reagent consumption.

It has become:

• Long-term reagent availability

• Delivered reagent cost

• Logistics and infrastructure

• Energy availability and cost

• Capital intensity

• Process complexity

• Supply chain resilience

• Investor confidence

For chemical suppliers, this is an important shift.

Future demand for industrial chemicals will increasingly depend not only on how many lithium projects are built, but also on which processing routes ultimately prove commercially scalable.

The next generation of North American lithium projects may ultimately be shaped as much by reagent supply chains as by the orebodies themselves.