The IGO Ltd (ASX: IGO) share price has gained 57% in 2021 and opened this morning at $10.58 per share.
The Allkem Ltd (ASX: AKE) is up 102% year-to-date, opening at $9.16 per share this morning.
You may be more familiar with Allkem's previous name, Orocobre. Following a shareholder vote on 30 November, the company officially began trading under its new name, Allkem, last Monday 6 December.
Both S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) miners are well-exposed to the global push to electrification, with world-class lithium assets, alongside other metals like copper that are in high demand amid rapid EV growth.
But at the current Allkem and IGO share prices, which company offers ASX 200 investors better value?
Is the IGO share price a better buy than Allkem?
For the answer to that question, we defer to Joseph Koh, a portfolio manager in Schroders' Australian equities team.
When asked which lithium focused ASX shares he held "to capitalise on the shift to EVs", Koh said (quoted by the Australian Financial Review):
IGO; its Greenbushes asset is one of the lowest cost, highest grade hard rock lithium resources in the world. And the largest. It also has a lithium hydroxide refinery, with the potential to quadruple capacity with additional trains to cope with increasing throughput needs in the future.
Koh noted that IGO's assets go well beyond its Greenbushes lithium project:
IGO also produces nickel, another key component of lithium-ion batteries, from its Nova mine. Production volumes have been at or above target, while costs have been well managed, which compares favourably against other miners who have struggled with these two metrics due to COVID-19 restrictions on labour movement and other cost pressures.
So how does the IGO share price stack up against Allkem (formerly Orocobre)?
According to Koh, "We did hold Orocobre in the past, but as its valuation got increasingly stretched, we consolidated our exposure to IGO."
How has IGO been performing?
As mentioned up top, the IGO share price is up 57% since 4 January this year. Over the past 12 months shares have gained 69%, and they're up 5% since this time last month.
