The Hawkstone Mining Ltd (ASX: HWK) share price was through the roof this morning. The share price opened 43% higher at 6 cents after the mining company announced a 99.7% lithium purity from minerals extracted at its Big Sandy Project.
At the time of writing, shares in the company have retreated slightly, now swapping hands for 4.8 cents, up 15%. At its previous close, the share price was 4 cents apiece.
The announcement comes after the Hawkestone share price was frozen for two days in a trading halt.
What did Hawkstone Mining announce?
In today's announcement to the ASX, Hawkstone Mining reported that lithium minerals extracted from its Arizona-based Big Sandy Project produced lithium carbonate at a purity of 99.7%. This figure exceeds the 99.5% benchmark required for battery-grade lithium.
The company said it achieved overall lithium recoveries of 90% with minimal losses in downstream processing.
Hawkstone said it also intended to produce battery-grade lithium hydroxide.
Words from the managing director
Commenting on the update, Hawkstone Mining managing director Paul Lloyd said:
The company is pleased to announce the extremely positive steps being taken by Hazen Research in the initial bench scale testing of the Big Sandy lithium mineralisation, with battery-grade lithium being produced…
With drill approval imminent at Big Sandy, the company will rapidly progress development of the project to realise its full economic potential.
Lithium's meteoric price rise
According to the Royal Society of Chemistry, the main use for lithium is in batteries – including mobile phones, laptops, digital cameras, and electric vehicles.
The increasing number of global electric vehicle sales appear to be the major factor driving lithium's astonishing price rise. The Guardian reports electric car sales were up 43% last year. That's despite a 20% drop in overall car sales.
As of writing, lithium was trading in the commodities market at USD 70,500. On 30 November 2020, lithium was trading at USD 39,000. In percentage terms, that's an 80% increase over the course of 3 months.
Hawkstone Mining share price snapshot
Today's meteoritic rise in Hawkstone's share price is not an anomaly. This time last year, shares in the company were trading at half a cent each – at the current price of 4.8 cents, that's an increase of 360%.
This is the third jump in Hawkstone's share price in 2021 alone. The first rise occurred between 14-19 January, when the share price went from 1.3 cents to 2.8 cents. The second leap saw the share price rise from 2.7 cents to 5.4 cents between 25 and 28 January.
Hawkstone has a market capitalisation of $78.2 million.
