Shares of start-up Piedmont Lithium (NASDAQ: PLL) popped more than 17% in early trading Thursday before giving much of that back and retracing to a much more modest 7.5% gain as of 12:55 p.m. EST.
It's hard to say for certain what sparked today's share-price move at the lithium miner . On the one hand, Piedmont announced yesterday that it has begun "test work" on a spodumene concentrator pilot project. Piedmont will be aiming to transform 50 tons of mineralized pegmatite into spodumene concentrate containing at least 6% lithium oxide useful for the production of rechargeable batteries.
These samples can then be provided to Pidemont customer Tesla (NASDAQ: TSLA) for further testing, preparatory to the latter's agreement to begin buying in excess of 50,000 tons of spodumene concentrate annually from Piedmont beginning after July 2022.
For further details see:
Why Piedmont Lithium Stock Popped 17% Today