Precious & Base Metals · Minor & Specialty Metals
Lithium
Battery and technical grade lithium carbonate, hydroxide and spodumene concentrate.
Overview
What Lithium is and who uses it
Lithium is traded as spodumene concentrate, the mined and beneficiated feedstock quoted on percentage Li₂O, and as refined carbonate and hydroxide. Battery grade requires 99.5% purity with tightly bounded impurity limits; technical grade serves glass and ceramics. Hydroxide is preferred for high-nickel cathode chemistries.
Why go through us rather than buying direct
Metals concentrate the risk. Counterparty fraud, sanctioned ownership, material that cannot show where it came from. Values are high, settlement is fast and there is very little recourse afterwards. We work through verified refiners and LME-registered brands, run OECD and AML screening before any money moves, and arrange independent assay.
Specification
Variants & Grades
The grades below are the ones traded commercially. If a grade has a standard code, put the code in your brief rather than describing the material. Codes are enforceable in a contract. Descriptions are not.
- Lithium Carbonate (battery grade, technical grade)
- Lithium Hydroxide
- Spodumene Concentrate
Sourcing
Origin Countries
We source this from the countries below. Origin is not a preference. It decides which phytosanitary and licensing rules apply, what specification is achievable, how the freight routes and what sanctions exposure you take on. We choose it against your compliance and delivery needs, not on price alone.
Standards
Compliance & Documentation
Everything below is applied as standard on this commodity. You get the complete document set when the transaction closes.
- OECD Due Diligence Guidance, applied in full to tin, tantalum, tungsten and gold-bearing material
- Conflict minerals declaration and smelter identification
- Export licence and quota documentation, which materially constrains rare earth and gallium supply
- REACH registration and, where applicable, authorisation
- Sanctions screening on producer and intermediary
- Certificate of analysis with full trace element profile
Verification
Quality & Inspection
Put the parameters below in your brief with a tolerance against each, not a single target figure. A specification without tolerances gives the contract nothing to fall back on when a cargo lands marginally out.
- Purity / assay (%, often 99.9% to 99.999%)
- Particle size distribution and mesh
- Form (metal, oxide, carbonate, hydroxide, sponge, powder)
- Trace element and deleterious impurity limits (ppm)
- Moisture content (%)
- Battery-grade or technical-grade designation
- Li₂O content (% for spodumene concentrate)
- Purity (99.5% minimum for battery grade)
- Sodium, potassium, calcium, iron, sulphate (ppm)
- Magnetic particle content (ppb)
- Particle size distribution
We appoint an independent inspection agency at origin. They check quantity, quality against what was contracted, and the condition of the packaging, all before the shipment is released for loading. That certificate is what any later claim rests on.
Movement
Getting it to you
| Packaging | Sealed steel or fibre drums with polyethylene liner, vacuum packs for oxidation-sensitive material, argon-flushed where required |
|---|---|
| Shipment | 20 ft FCL or LCL consolidation; air freight for high-value, low-volume parcels |
| Storage | Dry, sealed and temperature-stable; inert atmosphere for reactive powders under controlled access |
| Incoterms | FOB, CFR, CIP, DAP |
Engagement
How to order Lithium
Send us a brief covering the points below. Within one working day we will tell you whether we can fulfil it, how we would approach it, what paperwork it needs and roughly how long it takes.
- Which grade of Lithium you need, with tolerances
- Volume, and whether this is one shipment or a regular requirement
- Where it needs to land, which port, and by when
- Any certification you need: organic, Halal, Kosher, RSPO, FSC or other
- Preferred Incoterms and how you want to pay
- Packaging format and any labelling
Next step
Need Lithium?
Send us the specification, the volume and when you need it. We will confirm whether we can do it, and how, within one working day.