(Yicai Global) Nov. 4 -- Shares in several Chinese lithium miners surged by the exchange-imposed limit today as the industry could see more demand after Canada clamped down on foreign investments in its critical minerals mining companies earlier this week, ordering three Chinese mineral resource developers to divest their interests.

Qinghai Salt Lake Industry [SHE:000792], which is engaged in salt lake lithium extraction, surged 10 percent to CNY25.83 (USD3.56). Lithium miners Tibet Mineral Development [SHE:000762] and Tibet Summit Resources [SHA:600338] soared 10 percent to CNY48.62 and CNY24.74 respectively while lithium investor Tibet Urban Development And Investment [SHA:600773] also jumped 10 percent to CNY20.67.

Sinomine Resource Group, Zangge Mining and Chengxin Lithium were instructed by the Canadian government to withdraw their investments in Canadian miners on Nov. 2 due to heightened concerns about national security and the critical minerals supply chain, which refers to those minerals used in mobile phones, electric cars, solar cells and other emerging technologies.

All three recovered strongly today after a bit of a wobble yesterday, Sinomine’s share price [SHE:002738] closed up 2.5 percent at CNY88.92, although earlier in the day it advanced 5.2 percent. While Zangge [SHE:000408] jumped 7.4 percent to finish at CNY31.11 and Chengxin Lithium [SHE:002240] advanced 6.7 percent to end at CNY48.74.

The price of lithium ore, a key raw material used to make electric car batteries, continues to soar amid strong demand from the new energy vehicle industry and other fields. The average price of lithium carbonate in China jumped 14 percent in October from the month before to reach a record high of CNY560,000 (USD77,168) per ton, the Securities Times reported.

And as a result, lithium miners are minting it. Qinghai Salt Lake’s net profit more than tripled in the third quarter from the same period last year to CNY12.1 billion (USD1.7 billion) while revenue more than doubled to CNY23.5 billion. 

China has plenty of lithium reserves but their development is slow, which means that around 65 percent of the country’s lithium ore is imported, Jiang Weiping, chairman of lithium giant Tianqi Lithium, said in March. China needs to accelerate the development of lithium resources, he added.

Editor: Kim Taylor