E53: Boys In The Hood

The Global Lithium Podcast duo sits down with “Team Benchmark” after a successful Anodes and Cathodes 2019 conference in Los Angeles. Emily wastes no time awarding Caspar the “best beard” award, and Joe and Simon...

The Global Lithium Podcast duo sits down with “Team Benchmark” after a successful Anodes and Cathodes 2019 conference in Los Angeles. Emily wastes no time awarding Caspar the “best beard” award, and Joe and Simon discuss their first meeting on “lithium row” when Benchmark had fewer than 3 employees, to today with over 30 and where Simon sees
Benchmark in the future. Caspar Rowles talks to us about cobalt – how it’s produced, how it’s sold, and the misconceptions that surround the market. We discuss the failure of the LME contract on cobalt, and the lessons that the LME should learn in its efforts to succeed in lithium.

Joe asks the Benchmark teams about the ABCs of lithium (Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile), and we discuss the implications of political unrest and change in the lithium triangle. We discuss which automakers are concerned about raw material supplies, but note that the lithium “party”
has already started – in China and Asia. The group discusses whether or not we’ve hit the lithium “bottom,” and agrees that there should be market tightness by year end 2020. As always, we end with some rapid fire questions, in which Ben Ash reveals his hidden past as DJ “Society”, Andy Miller makes a life or death decision, and Simon waxes philosophical on the butterfly effect.