Australian miner Core Lithium said the deadline for a binding offtake term sheet with automaker Tesla has passed without an agreement being reached.

The term sheet was for the supply of up to 110,000 dry metric tonnes of lithium spodumene concentrate produced at Core's Finnis lithium mine in the Northern Territory. It was expected to commence in 2023.

“I want to thank Tesla for the time taken to negotiate with Core and look forward to maintaining an open and ongoing dialogue,” said CEO Gareth Manderson.

“The recent [direct shipping ore] sale, predicted commencement of lithium concentrate sales in H1 2023 and an increasing lithium price environment indicate that Core Lithium is well positioned to capitalise on the high demand and current shortage of available battery-grade lithium spodumene concentrate.”

The miner said the sale of 15,000 tonnes of direct shipping ore (DSO) was tendered on a CIF basis to several pre-screened participants active in the lithium-ion battery supply chain. The DSO is expected to be shipped before the end of the year, in advance of spodumene concentrate production in the first half of 2023. 

Agreements in place with Ganfeng Lithium and Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group, both based in China, bring total concentrate sales under offtake contracts to about 80% of the Finniss production over the first four years of operations.

Finniss, which is located about 80 kilometres southwest of Darwin, is Australia’s only lithium mine outside of Western Australia.

Source: Core Lithium