3 Best-performing ASX Lithium Stocks of 2024
Global demand for lithium-based power presents a significant opportunity for Australia, the world’s top lithium-producing nation.
Australia’s abundant lithium reserves and strong output position it as a key player in shaping the battery value chain into the 2030s. However, rapid EV market growth has driven increased mining, leading to a global lithium surplus.
The lithium market experienced significant upheaval in 2024, with oversupply and weaker-than-expected EV demand driving a 22 percent drop in lithium carbonate prices.
The year began with a supply glut weighing heavily on prices, which briefly rose in March before resuming their decline. Analysts project a continued surplus into 2025, despite production cuts and project delays.
While Chinese EV sales hit record highs late in the year, geopolitical tensions — including tariffs and potential US policy changes — added uncertainty to the global lithium landscape, leaving the market in a prolonged low-price environment.
Here the Investing News Network looks at the top three ASX-listed lithium companies by year-to-date gains. The list below was generated using TradingView’s stock screener on December 31, 2024, and includes companies that had market caps above AU$10 million at that time. Read on to learn more about their activities over the past year.
1. Vulcan Energy Resources (ASX:VUL)
Year-to-date gain: 84.48 percent
Market cap: AU$1.19 billion
Share price: AU$5.35
Europe-focused Vulcan Energy Resources aims to support a carbon-neutral future by producing lithium and renewable energy from geothermal brine. The company is currently developing the Zero Carbon lithium project in Germany’s Upper Rhine Valley. Vulcan is utilising a proprietary alumina-based adsorbent-type direct lithium extraction (DLE) process to produce lithium with an end goal of supplying sustainable lithium for the European EV market.
On April 11, Vulcan announced the commencement of lithium chloride production at its lithium extraction optimisation plant in Germany. According to the company, the milestone marks the first lithium chemical production in Europe using local supply. The plant consistently exhibited over 90 percent lithium extraction efficiency.
The company already has binding lithium offtake agreements in place with major automakers and battery manufacturers, and expects to supply enough lithium for 500,000 EVs during the first phase of production.
During the third quarter, Vulcan received its first licences for lithium and geothermal exploration in Alsace, France. The permits cover 463 square kilometres, expanding Vulcan’s total licenced area in the Upper Rhine Valley to 2,234 square kilometres across France and Germany.
In early August, Vulcan began commissioning its downstream lithium hydroxide optimisation plant (CLEOP) near Frankfurt, Germany, which will process the lithium chloride concentrate from its DLE plant.
A mid-October release from Vulcan outlines a memorandum of…
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