The S&P/ASX 200 Materials Index (ASX: XMJ) closed the day 2.64% lower while the S&P/ASX 200 Index (ASX: XJO) finished down 1.56%.

Most of these companies have made significant announcements amid their shares becoming buoyant over the past week.

Let's cover which companies defied the market today.

Argosy Minerals Limited (ASX: AGY)

The Argosy Minerals share price closed 9.26% higher today. Although the company made no announcements today, or even recently, the Fool put the spotlight on the company earlier this month.

Argosy Minerals was included in a roundup of companies involved in graphite production, an emerging rival to lithium for its role in creating batteries. The company's graphite production at its site in Namibia is currently stalled, pending review and funding opportunities.

Then on 5 September, the Fool reported Argosy Minerals made it into the S&P/ASX 300 Index (ASX: XKO) due to changes in the company's market capitalisation.

Pilbara Minerals Ltd (ASX: PLS)

Pilbara's share price ended the day 1.02% ahead. There were no company announcements on Wednesday but yesterday, Macquarie analysts retained Pilbara's outperform rating. They nominated a $5.60 price target for its shares, an appreciable 12.9% upside.

The impetus for Macquarie holding Pilbara's outperform rating was said to be positive results posted from its battery metals exchange (BMX) auction. In September, Pilbara accepted a bid of US$6,988 per dry metric tonne for its lithium. That's well up from the US$6,188 per dry metric tonne offer it received in July.

My Fool colleague James notes "this strong pricing appears to demonstrate that the insatiable demand for lithium is not cooling despite concerns about the potential for a global recession in the coming months".

EV Resources Ltd (ASX: EVR)

Finally, the EV Resources share price finished flat today after carrying gains of 3.57% for most of the day. Shares lifted amid the company reporting it has discovered high-grade samples from its Christina tin-tungsten project in central Morocco.

On 8 September, it announced it had found high-grade lithium samples at its Austrian lithium projects. The samples taken reportedly tested for up to a 3.24% purity of lithium oxide.

EV Resources also has another horse in the race for lithium with a memorandum of understanding signed with Yahua International Investment and Development to supply spodumene concentrate.

The post These three ASX lithium shares defied Wednesday's selloff appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.

This gain comes even as the All Ordinaries Index (ASX: XAO) is under pressure, down 0.53%.

Below we look at the lithium partnership announced this morning that looks to be driving ASX investor interest in the junior resource explorer.

What lithium partnership was announced?

The Jadar Resources share price is off to the races after the company reported it has signed a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Yahua International Investment and Development to acquire and develop lithium projects and supply spodumene concentrates globally.

Yahua is a subsidiary of Chinese listed Sichuan Yahua Industrial Group Co Ltd (SHE: 002497), one of China's major lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate producers.

The MOU would see Jadar and Yahua enter into a strategic partnership agreement within 6 months. If that goes through, Jadar will sell 100% of the lithium concentrate from its lithium projects to Yahua.

Yahua also has been offered an equity stake of up to 80 million shares in Jadar for 4.5 cents per share. That's some 35% below the current Jadar Resources share price of 7 cents. If Yahua opts to invest in shares, the MOU stipulates that Jadar will only use the additional funds to explore for and develop lithium projects.

Commenting on the partnership, Jadar Resources' executive director, Adrian Paul said:

I am extremely excited to progress this MOU and strategic partnership with Yahua. The EV and lithium markets have seen substantial growth over the past year as global adoption of EV technologies starts to materialise. The MOU provides a potential mechanism for both the development of our current lithium assets as well as an avenue for further growth in the portfolio through acquisition.

Jadar Resources share price snapshot

The Jadar Resources share price is up 168% in 2021. For some context, the All Ords is up 10% year-to-date.

Over the past month, Jadar's shares have gained 72%.

The post Jadar Resources (ASX:JDR) share price rockets 24% on new lithium deal appeared first on The Motley Fool Australia.