Elevra Lithium Shares Down 75% From May Peak: What Happened at North American Lithium and in the Lithium Price

Elevra Lithium (ASX: ELV; Nasdaq: ELVR) closed at A$3.40 on the ASX on Friday, October 23, 2026, down 9.3% on the day, giving it a market value of about A$728 million (ASX, ELV quote as of the Oct. 23 close). That close was still the latest as of October 25. It is about 75% below the stock's closing high of A$13.80 on May 25 and about 40% below where it ended September at A$5.65 (Yahoo Finance, ELV.AX daily closes). The Nasdaq-listed shares closed at US$23.53 on October 23 (Yahoo Finance, ELVR). The company's mine in Québec has been running well. The main driver was the lithium price. Chinese carbonate rose more than threefold from its mid-2025 low to a May 2026 peak and has since lost over half its value.

The lithium price did most of the work

The benchmark lithium carbonate contract on China's Guangzhou Futures Exchange closed at RMB94,180/t on October 22. That was 55% below its May 13 high of RMB210,580/t. Australian SC6 spodumene was quoted at US$1,540/t, down 48% from a US$2,945/t peak (Market Index, Oct. 23, 2026). The same report links the latest leg down to an 11.8% one-day drop in carbonate futures on October 12. That drop came on unconfirmed market chatter that CATL had cut its October production plan. The report also cites doubts about battery-storage demand after Beijing froze approvals for new battery capacity, and a supply response as idled mines restart.

The slide began well before October. By June 29, Market Index noted that carbonate futures had already fallen nearly 30% from the May peak. It cited concerns about sodium-ion batteries and returning Chinese supply (Market Index, June 29, 2026). Elevra closed at A$13.10 on June 16 and A$9.60 on June 30. Those are the weeks covered by the original version of this article.

What North American Lithium is producing

Elevra's flagship asset is the North American Lithium (NAL) spodumene mine in Québec. The company calls itself North America's largest hard-rock lithium producer (Elevra June 2026 quarterly). In the June 2026 quarter, NAL:

• produced 54,479 dry tonnes of concentrate at 5.0% Li2O, up 15% on the March quarter, including a monthly record of 22,202 dmt in May
• lifted lithium recovery to 71% from 66%
• sold 33,977 dmt at an average realised US$921/dmt (FOB Port of Québec), down 37% on the March quarter
• ran at a unit operating cost of US$907/dmt sold, up 3%.

For FY26 (the year to June 30, 2026), NAL produced 197,967 dmt and sold 181,494 dmt at an average US$1,092/dmt, up from US$694 in FY25, with a unit cost of US$853/dmt.

The weak June-quarter price wasn't a market price. Elevra says it delivered the final tonnes under a legacy multi-year offtake contract, which used a lagged pricing mechanism linked to historical lithium prices. As a result, the spring rally "was not fully reflected" in what it received. The company expects pricing from the September quarter onward to track spodumene spot more closely. Spot is now much lower than it was in May.

Balance sheet and expansion

Elevra reported a FY26 profit after tax of US$44 million, against a US$247 million loss in FY25. That figure includes a US$156 million reversal of an earlier NAL impairment. Group underlying EBITDA was US$14 million (Elevra FY26 results, Aug. 28, 2026). In May it raised A$275 million in an institutional placement and arranged C$145 million of convertible notes with the Canada Growth Fund. It ended June with US$255 million in cash.

That money funds a staged NAL expansion. Elevra's September 2026 presentation describes it as targeting capacity growth from 199,000 to about 373,000 tonnes a year of concentrate (Elevra presentation, SEC). For FY27, Elevra guides to 198,000–210,000 dmt of production at a unit cost of US$880–950/dmt, with capital spending of US$120–140 million. It attributes the higher costs to inflation, currency, a higher 10:1 strip ratio and pre-stripping for the expansion. Elevra is also selling its Ghana interest (Ewoyaa) to Huayou for about US$71 million.

What to watch

On FY27 guidance, Elevra's costs sit well below the spot spodumene price quoted in October. However, the realised price is on a lower-grade (~5.0%) basis and FOB Québec, so the two figures don't compare directly. The September-quarter report, which Elevra has scheduled for October 27, 2026 (Sydney time) (Elevra advisory, Oct. 20, 2026), will be the first to show NAL selling without the legacy contract. Lithium prices remain the swing factor. For more, see our lithium and Canada coverage and our company profiles.

How we checked this: AI-drafted from the sources linked above and checked against them by our AI editor.