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Vulcan Energy Resources’ (ASX:VUL) comeback era is in full swing, with the company reporting on Monday its first production of “battery quality” lithium hydroxide.
The news from the renewables heavy co-power-and-lithium-producer was enough to push the share price up 5% on Monday, boosting Vulcan’s market cap above the $1 billion mark it commanded when lithium prices were far higher.
To remind: Vulcan seeks to extract lithium from underground brines in Germany, while at the same time providing geothermal energy to warm dwellings.
Surely helping matters further with regards to Vulcan’s stock price on Monday is that Vulcan has seen its short selling pressure recently plummet in December 2024.
On December 12, 5% of the company’s shares were shorted. By December 20, that figure was just over 1%.
Vulcan has always had a knack for dealing with short sellers, including when it successfully sued J Capital in relatively recent history over a critical assessment of the company’s claims that Vulcan argued breached defamation laws.
The courts sided with Vulcan, sort of – a settlement was reached in late 2021. Fun fact: The stock was actually backed by Gina Rinehart at the time.
That JCap report was effectively scrubbed from the internet before anybody seemingly got a chance to archive it, which is a rarity for the modern era. (One can still find video interviews with J Capital’s Tim Murray, but you can go find them on your own.)
The ultimate thrust of that highly controversial and proven-to-be-defamatory report suggested Vulcan used not-so-independent third parties to verify its claims in a pre-feasibility study for its European project.
In retrospect – with Vulcan reporting production of battery-ready lithium on Monday – that report may have been too steeped in cautious betmaking.
According to the company, Vulcan processed “high purity lithium chloride concentrate extracted from brine” at its Landau-based facility, an apparent first for Europe.
“Battery quality [lithium] … will be used in ongoing qualification processes with Vulcan’s European focused off-takers, including Stellantis, Renault, LG, and Umicore, whilst Vulcan’s Phase One project is being constructed,” the company advised on Monday.
“This is a major milestone for Vulcan and demonstrates the final step in establishing a first fully domestic and integrated supply chain in Europe producing battery grade LHM from a local resource,” Vulcan CEO Cris Moreno said.
VUL last traded at $6.23/sh.
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