Australia’s lithium miners could become a fixture of the local sharemarket’s major indices, with a favourable supply and demand equation propelling Pilbara Minerals and the soon-to-be merged Orocobre and Galaxy Resources into the top 100 stocks.

Physical demand for lithium and other battery materials such as nickel, copper and cobalt has been increasing, and miners are now charging up to three times as much as they were a year ago for their output.