By Kishori Krishnan Exclusive To Lithium Investing News ^{[1] [2]}

It is turning out to be a commodity of choice for most investors. With the spotlight now firmly fixed on lithium as the new wave green-energy material of choice, the first annual industrial mineral commodity conference in Las Vegas showcased how corporates are warming up to the strategic resource.

Clearly, there is a mad dash to lock in lithium-mining rights in the Argentine, Bolivian and Chilean Andes. With expectations of booming demand, lithium users are also banking on some South American miners.

Already, well over half of the world's lithium output comes from mines in Chile and Argentina run by Sociédad Quimica y Minera de Chile (SQM); Chemetall Foote, a subsidiary of Rockwood Holdings (ROC); and FMC (FMC).

At the Las Vegas meet, emerging North American lithium producers like Canada Lithium Corp ^[3], International Lithium Corp ^[4]/TNR Gold, Western Lithium ^[5] and Avalon Rare Metals Inc ^[6], presented their cases. All of them were ultra positive on the global opportunities in lithium.

While Canada Lithium harped about ensuring a secure US lithium supply, which they said was only a 12-hour drive from Detroit, the company also maintained that early tests conducted by the firm had produced battery-grade lithium.

Peter Secker, president and CEO of Canada Lithium spoke on several advanced projects that have been fast-tracked by the company, all in mining-friendly Quebec. Some details were also presented earlier, which you can see here ^[7].

Chief Operating Officer Mike Sleb of International Lithium Corp, which is a wholly-owned subsidiary of TNR Gold Corp ^[8] (TSXV:TNR.V) spoke on diversification across sources of lithium and highlighted the firm's recent project advancements.

Officials of Western Lithium gave an update on the progress of Kings Valley Hectorite project. The company also revealed the extent of its open-pit mining plans.

Speaking on global supply developments, Iggy Tan, managing director of Galaxy Resources ^[9], Australia, detailed the firm's lithium progress from Australia to China.

The company has a firm proposition to be the world's fourth largest lithium carbonate producer by 2011. While the firm maintains it is developing the largest lithium carbonate plant, the CEO also spoke on the development of the 2nd largest hard rock spodumene mine in the world.

Avalon Rare Metals was represented by David Trueman, resident expert on rare metals geology. He chaired a panel discussion, on "Do we have enough economic lithium reserves?".

Earlier, Trueman had forecasted that the mining exploration industry would rapidly respond to the expanding demand for lithium ^[10]from the rechargeable battery sector, a forecast that has proven correct with over 100 mineral exploration companies now actively exploring for lithium on at least 144 lithium projects around the world.

Avalon has a relatively advanced project with a large NI 43-101 compliant lithium resource defined, that is also permitted to start production once a market is established and development partnerships are finalized.

More choice

Though the conference was timely, many questions still remain on the supply, and particularly, the demand aspect of the industry. As the number of new entrants scorches, there is an urgent need for accurate and informed intelligence on lithium.

New entrants to the lithium supply side are bound to come in as demand increases and source logistics and economics all fall into place.

Take the case of Applied Nanotech Holdings Inc ^[11] (OTCBB: APNT), which has bagged a $100,000 contract from the U S Army. The Austin-based molecular research firm signed the contract with the Army's Small Business Innovation Research program to develop special rechargeable lithium-ion battery.

Lithium-ion batteries, which make up about 75 per cent of the rechargeable battery marketplace, currently use carbon anodes.

Applied Nanotech is developing batteries based on silicon nanostructure instead of carbon anodes.

Analysts are also said to be looking closely at Channel Resources ^[12] (TSX.V:CHU), which has the Fox Creek lithium/potash brine project ^[13], which reportedly has a historical resource estimate of 2.7 million tones of lithium carbonate equivalent.

Caution ahead

Interest and demand in lithium minerals has increased significantly. But there is a rider.

The problem with predicting the demand for the future use of lithium in transportation as a preferred medium of energy storage is that no one actually knows just how enthusiastic the trend will be.

The need is there and urgent research is bound to fuel it.Strategic investors are already veering to lithium source types like hectorite clay and oilfield brines, which are meant to rank ahead of hard rock pegmatite, which is considered massively expensive to mine.

The point is - which side of the fence are you on?