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Lithium

Samsung’s woes highlight explosive limits of lithium batteries – by Jeremy Wagstaff (Reuters U.S. – October 12, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

Lithium-based batteries have been powering our portable devices for 25 years. But consumer demand for smaller, longer lasting devices is forcing manufacturers to push the technology, battery experts say, testing the limits of how much energy they can safely pack into smaller spaces.

“A battery is really a bomb that releases its energy in a controlled way,” says Qichao Hu, a former researcher at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and founder of SolidEnergy Systems, a battery startup.

“There are fundamental safety issues to all batteries, and as you get to higher energy density and faster charge, the barrier to explosion is less and less.” On Tuesday, Samsung Electronics scrapped its flagship Note 7 smartphone and told customers return their devices after weeks of bruising reports of phones igniting and images of scorched handsets.

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Coal Miner’s CEO Calls Tesla a ‘Fraud’ and Elon Musk Tweets It – by Jonathan Crawford (Bloomberg News – October 10, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The head of the biggest privately owned U.S. coal producer on Monday called electric-car maker Tesla Motors Inc. a “fraud” for failing to turn a profit despite subsidies. Elon Musk, the billionaire chief executive officer of Tesla, fired back at Murray Energy Corp. CEO Robert Murray within hours on Twitter.

In his post, Musk said Tesla gets “pennies” on the dollar in subsidies compared with the coal industry, and that climate science denial is the “real fraud.”

The verbal sparring between Murray and Musk comes as seismic changes in energy policy and competition from natural gas have pummeled coal miners, leading to bankruptcies and record production cuts. Meanwhile, the presidential election has underscored differences between Republicans and Democrats in their approaches to federal energy regulations and spending.

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Lithium boom losing steam as prices drift lower – by Ian McGugan (Globe and Mail – October 11, 2016)

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/

The great lithium rally is losing momentum. Over the past year, the metal found in your smart phone’s battery has become the unlikely centre of an investing frenzy as speculators bet that surging demand from electric-vehicle manufacturers will create a huge new market for the silver-white metal.

Dozens of new lithium miners have popped into existence while the Global X Lithium ETF, which holds a cluster of stocks related to the material, has advanced more than 20 per cent over the past 12 months.

But skeptics note that prices for the metal, an essential ingredient in lithium-ion batteries, have drifted lower in recent months. One observer suggests today’s boom could end as early as next year.

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Friedland a skeptic on lithium, rare earths – by Salma Tarikh (Northern Miner – September 30, 2016)

http://www.northernminer.com/

Robert Friedland, a renowned mining financier and promoter, took the stage at the recent Mines and Money Americas conference in Toronto to highlight the need for platinum and copper, as rapid global urbanization continues. Both are key metals in projects his company Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN; US-OTC: IVPAF) is developing in Africa.

“I am not here to depress the gold bugs in this room. I’m just here to get you excited about copper and other metals that we need in our new society,” Friedland said.

The executive — who sold the large nickel-copper-cobalt deposit Voisey’s Bay in Labrador to Inco for $4.3 billion in 1996, and whose company discovered the large Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold deposit in Mongolia in 2001 — noted that there will likely be a billion more people living in urban environments by 2030. As a result, more people would live in cities filled with “toxic smog,” he said, citing that 6.5 million people die a year from air pollution.

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Electric car revolution brightens outlook for a medley of metals – by Jan Harvey (Reuters U.S. – October 5, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – Electric cars such as the Nissan Leaf may look no different from the standard family runaround. But the new materials that go into them could revolutionize the market for metals used in the industry, opening up a new field for commodities investors.

“We identified electric vehicles as an area where we are at an inflection point for demand,” said Duncan Goodwin, portfolio manager of the Baring Global Resources Fund.

Around 12 percent of the fund’s $378.2 million in assets is exposed to materials that are used in electric vehicles. It has investments in New York-listed Albemarle and Australia’s Orocobre, two companies producing lithium, a key element in electric car batteries. Shares in both companies have risen sharply this year.

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Avalon planning for Kenora lithium open-pit mine – by Ian Ross (Northern Ontario Business – October 3, 2016)

https://www.northernontariobusiness.com/

Avalon Advanced Minerals has development plans for a Kenora-area lithium mine

The economics look good so far for Avalon Advanced Materials to begin mapping out their plans for an open-pit lithium mine and processing plant near Kenora. Company president Don Bubar is said to be “delighted” with the positive results coming from a preliminary economic assessment (PEA) of its Separation Rapids lithium project.

Micon International’s report said the minerals in the ground and the rechargeable battery markets look favourable enough for the company is press ahead with a more detailed feasibility study for an open-pit capable of a producing 950,000 tonnes a year with an annual yield of 14,600 tonnes of lithium hydroxide for a 10-year mine life.

The purpose of the PEA is to evaluate the potential mineral recoveries of a lithium product that might be suitable for the rechargeable battery market. Micon reports the company has positive economics and a technically viable process for a battery-grade lithium hydroxide product.

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The lithium supply battle starts to heat up – by Andy Home (Reuters U.S. – September 20, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

LONDON – The lithium rush is on. Not a day goes by without an exploration company telling us about an exciting development on their property, which is now a lithium prospect irrespective of what minerals were originally being hunted.

Today it is the turn of Premier African Minerals, providing “a positive update on its 2,500-meter drilling program at the company’s Zulu Lithium Project near Fort Rixon in Zimbabwe”. Tomorrow it will be someone else.

Everyone, it seems, is trying to jump on the lithium bandwagon, fueled by Tesla and other electric auto pioneers and propelled by rapidly rising prices and the promise of more to come. It is a boom. Whether it turns to a bust is a hotly discussed topic across social media and internet forums.

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What Makes Argentina The Sweet Spot In The Lithium Space – by Matt Slowikowski (Oil Price.com – September 12, 2016)

http://oilprice.com/

Since taking office last December, Argentine President Mauricio Macri has rapidly implemented changes to promote foreign investment in his country, including abolishing export duties and trade controls, and eliminating exchange rate and capital controls. The country’s mining sector is now set to take advantage of this “new” Argentinian market.

With many of the reforms implemented early in Macri’s tenure in December 2015 and January 2016, the increase in foreign investment can already be seen, and many new mines will be required to help satiate the burgeoning demand.

More than 70 percent of the world’s lithium reserves are concentrated in the lithium triangle—an area that covers North-Western Argentina, Northern Chile, and Southern Bolivia. The lithium largesse is split pretty much evenly between the three, although exact estimates are lacking.

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Reality is set to bite for the swathe of ASX junior lithium miners – by Peter Ker (Australian Financial Review – September 12, 2016)

http://www.afr.com/

One of Australia’s biggest mining and energy investors says the lithium boom is reminiscent of previous boom-and-bust cycles in uranium, rare earths and graphite, and he warns that most companies vowing to supply the world with lithium will not convert the price boom into a sustainable business model.

Lithium Carbonate prices in China have more than quadrupled over the past year on the back of stronger demand from traditional consumers in the ceramics and glass industry, and on hopes that modern battery technology, particularly in electric vehicles, will dramatically increase demand.

The price boom has seen scores of ASX-listed juniors switch from developing other mineral deposits to lithium over the past 18 months, but Todd Warren and the global resources team at Colonial First State Global Asset Management (CFSGAM) have not exposed any of the $2.5 billion they manage to Australian pure-play lithium miners.

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The Lithium CEO betting Tesla won’t exist in 10 years – by Tess Ingram (Australian Financial Review – September 7, 2016)

http://www.afr.com/

Lithium hopeful Dakota Minerals’ acquisition of a tenement package in Portugal was in part driven by a surprising idea – chief executive David Frances believes Tesla Motors will not exist in a decade.

Mr Frances said when Dakota, a Perth-based lithium explorer, was weighing up where to make a project acquisition, it was not wooed by the demand prospects of North America, unlike many of the mining companies rushing to peg ground close to the US-based car manufacturer’s Nevada lithium ion battery “gigafactory”.

“The only thing I could see was lots of gas at $2 a gallon and lots of guys driving around in V8 monster trucks and it is hard to see these guys are going to drive Tesla’s,” he said. “There are probably niche markets but predominantly I don’t think the US is going to be the early adopter of electric vehicles.”

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Could A Lithium Shortage De-Rail The Electric Car Boom? – by James Stafford (Oil Price.com – August 24, 2016)

http://oilprice.com/

We’ve gone electric, and there’s no going back at this point. Lithium is our new fuel, but like fossil fuels, the reserves we’re currently tapping into are finite—and that’s what investors can take to the bank.

You may think lithium got too popular too fast. You may suspect electric vehicles are too much buzz and not enough real future. You may, in short, be a lithium skeptic, one of many. And yet, despite this skepticism, lithium demand is rising steadily and sharply, and indications that a shortage may be looming are very real.

It won’t be a shortage in terms of ‘peak lithium’; rather, it will be a game of catch-up with the electric car boom, with miners hustling to explore and tap into new reserves.

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Bolivia makes first shipment of lithium to China – by Henry Sanderson and Andres Schipani (Financial Times – August 17, 2016)

https://www.ft.com/

Cargo worth $70,000 marks symbolic step in ambition to set global benchmark for lightest metal

London and Bogotá – Bolivia has made progress in its aim to become the world’s biggest exporter of lithium with its first shipment of the world’s lightest metal to China. But the impoverished South American country still faces challenges if it is to set the global benchmark for the raw material used in smartphone and electric car batteries.

With a price tag of $70,000, the shipment of almost 10 tonnes of lithium carbonate has been seen by the market as more symbolic than profitable.

Bolivia’s salt flats hold the world’s largest potential resources of lithium and demand has surged in the past five years, with prices spiking over the past 12 months amid a supply shortage. Almost all electric cars, such as the Nissan Leaf and Tesla Model S, use lithium-ion batteries because of their light weight and higher energy density.

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Rally in Super Commodity Strained by Race to Fuel Tesla – by Jesse Riseborough, Thomas Biesheuvel and Joe Deaux (Bloomberg News – August 19, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

Even the mining industry’s super commodity of the future may be unable to avoid the Achilles’ heel of all mineral producers — a recurring habit of busting a boom with too much supply.

As miners of everything from copper to iron ore wrestled with losses driven by global surpluses, prices soared for lithium, the light-weight metal used in rechargeable batteries. It’s easy to see why. Booming demand outpaced production thanks to the faster-than-expected growth in global electric-vehicle sales and the aggressive expansion plans of Elon Musk’s Tesla Motors Inc.

But a lot more lithium is on the way. The four largest producers — Rockwood Holdings Inc., Soc. Quimica & Minera de Chile SA, Albermarle Corp. and FMC Corp. — control as much as 90 percent of the market.

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Bolivia sets high hopes on its lithium industry – by Cecilia Jamasmie (Mining.com – August 18, 2016)

http://www.mining.com/

Bolivia, one of the poorest countries in Latin America, has began shipping lithium to China in what is considered the first step towards fulfilling its ambitions to becoming the world’s No. 1 exporter of the commodity, used in high tech devices such as smart phones and electric cars, as well as in the pharmaceutical industry.

Those first 10 tonnes of lithium carbonate were extracted from a pilot plant at the country’s salt flats, located in the southwestern region of Uyuni, local newspaper EFE News Agency reports (in Spanish).

But with a price tag of barely $70,000, the move is being seen more like a symbolic transaction than a financial breakthrough for the country, which expects to multiply the figure into millions of dollars by 2020.

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The Key Challenge To Tesla’s Growth – by Michael McDonald (Oil Price.com – August 12, 2016)

http://oilprice.com/

Tesla’s increasingly ambitious plans to rule not only the electric vehicle space but also the solar energy space are likely to become more difficult to achieve over the next year. It has been widely reported in recent weeks that Tesla’s gigafactory is facing some challenges in becoming fully operational.

What is perhaps less well understood is the magnitude of the supply chain challenges that will face Tesla and its gigafactory. Tesla’s goal is to produce 500,000 vehicles a year by 2018. The company has accelerated its production time table in large part due to the enormous amount of demand the company saw for its Model 3 sedan.

The firm announced almost 375,000 preorders for the vehicle. To fulfill this demand plus new demand that the company will likely see for its products over the next couple of years, Tesla needs to produce more lithium ion batteries in 2018 than the entire world produced in 2013. That’s not an impossible feat given the size of the gigafactory, but it is challenging.

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