Breaking story on the Nikkei just a few hours ago: the Japanese government has teamed up with Toyota Tsusho and an unnamed Australian company to land rights to Lithium mines in Argentina. Starting at 15k tons/yr in 2012, the move is a first step to guaranteeing supply to Japan's booming hybrid car industry and the broader automotive segment. The two companies will create a joint-venture that will be co-invested by all three partners, although all materials excavated will be managed solely by Toyota Tsusho.
It is unclear what role the Australian partner will have, although my guess is they could probably run the heavy lifting part of the process (drilling, excavation, mine mgmt) with the Toyota Tsusho trading company taking over the logistics, supply chain and processing part. In a world where China is securing large commodity deals left and right across the globe esp. on the African continent recently, this is still a rather small deal for Japan in one of its more high-profile emerging industries. Expect to hear more deals like this.
(original source in Japanese only: http://www.nikkei.co.jp/news/main/20100120ATFS1903919012010.html)
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