• The global demand for lithium is predicted to rise, over 40X by 2040 and is estimated to experience the fastest growth of all metals driven by EV demand

• Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) is cost competitive with traditional methods when adjusted for greater yields (<90%) while also significantly reducing resource dependence on water, land, and energy, resulting in reduced operational expenses

• DLE is expected to disrupt traditional lithium refining and mining due to improved process efficiencies including:
     - Speeding up refining
     - Increasing recovery rates from around 40% to over 80%
     - Enabling more to be harvested from less
     - Reducing inputs of energy, water, land use and chemicals

• There are multiple new approaches to DLE each with differing tradeoffs in the above efficiencies

• Following successful pilots with mining incumbents, new DLE technologies are entering commercialization pilot phases, commercial scale production is expected in 2025, e.g., Summit Nanotech, E3 Lithium

• Strategic investments are enabling off takers to secure lithium supply e.g. GM-led EnergyX’s 50M Series B, which included an off take agreement

• Innovators are consolidating to combine technologies, while incumbents are acquiring innovators to take greater control of lithium supply chain as there are limited global lithium reserves