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Lithium

China plays long game on cobalt and electric batteries – by Henry Sanderson (Financial Times – May 25, 2016)

https://next.ft.com/

Chinese company’s acquisition of Congo cobalt mine has repercussions for car industry

As China Molybdenum announced it was buying one of Africa’s largest copper mines earlier this month one thing was soon clear: the acquisition was about far more than the red metal.

The $2.65bn deal, the biggest private investment in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s history, is instead designed to secure China’s supplies of cobalt, a once niche raw material that is crucial to developing batteries for electric cars.

The purchase of the Tenke mine, which contains one of the world’s largest known deposits of copper and cobalt, shows how Chinese companies are now moving to take a dominant position in battery materials as the country prepares to shift its economy from heavily polluting industries.

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Richest Lithium Nation Risks Being Left Behind in Tesla-led Boom – by Eduardo Thomson (Bloomberg News – May 20, 2016)

http://www.bloomberg.com/

The electric-car revolution is here and Chile is looking to ramp up production of the lithium the industry needs for batteries. Or it would be, but for a bitter dispute between the government and the former son-in-law of a military dictator.

After Chile’s government moved to withdraw its license to exploit one of the world’s largest deposits, Soc. Quimica & Minera de Chile SA opted to invest in a lithium project across the Andes in Argentina and is trying to block a project by Albemarle Corp. in Chile. SQM is controlled by Julio Ponce, the former husband of the late dictator Augusto Pinochet’s daughter.

Demand for lithium is soaring as Tesla Motors Inc. prepares to start production of its mass-market Model 3 battery-powered car and Chevrolet prepares an all-electric “Volt”. The soft, silver-white metal is also used in cell phones.

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What the rise of electric vehicles means for lithium and PGMs – by Prinesha Naidoo (Mineweb.com – May 20, 2016)

http://www.mineweb.com/

Growing interest in electric vehicles is set to shake up the automotive industry and cause ripple effects across commodity markets. Lithium is set to skyrocket, oil is to crash and platinum group metals (PGMs) are said to be safe… for now.

Although the electric vehicle market is still in its infancy, tighter emissions regulations coupled with a research and development-driven decrease in production and sales costs are expected to support demand.

Data from EV-Volumes shows electric vehicle sales made up just 0.6% of global vehicle sales in 2015 – despite rising 70% year-on-year to nearly 540 000 vehicles. The total electric vehicle population grew to one million in September 2015. The International Energy Agency (IEA) expects 20 million electric vehicle to be on the road by 2020.

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Why Lithium Isn’t the Big Worry for Lithium-Ion Batteries – by Jason Deign (Green Teck Media.com – June 23, 2015)

http://www.greentechmedia.com/

Why Lithium Isn’t the Big Worry for Lithium-Ion Batteries – Cobalt and nickel bottlenecks are a much bigger threat.

Lithium-ion battery production is more likely to be constrained by cobalt or nickel supplies than by lithium availability, experts believe.

Li-ion battery makers use both metals in greater quantities than lithium, which has been the subject of significant supply concerns as battery production ramps up. In fact, none of these minerals are worryingly scarce in nature.

What troubles some observers, however, is that cobalt and nickel are susceptible to greater supply-chain risks because of the countries that control the resources.

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OPINION: Jadarite feeds Rio Tinto’s lithium battery-powered future – by Matthew Stevens (Australian Financial Review – May 18, 2016)

http://www.afr.com/

In 2004, a Rio Tinto exploration team went looking for borates in a place called Jadar on the north-western fringe of Serbia. But the drillers found kryptonite instead. Well, but for the lack of fluorine and a green glow, they did.

What Rio recovered is a unique mineral that has since been named jadarite. And it might yet become pretty important to the company because jadarite is rich in boron and, more critically, lithium.

Lithium is, of course, a music anthem of legend by the desperately divine Nirvana. It is also the Earth’s lightest metal and a source of resilience in heat-resistant glass and ceramics. And, increasingly, it is one of the raw materials fuelling the revolution in battery technologies that is already changing the future of automobiles and will probably change the way we use the traditional electricity grid.

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COLUMN-Lithium – the commodity winner you can’t buy – by Clyde Russell (Reuters U.S. – May 12, 2016)

http://www.reuters.com/

May 12 Lithium is the hottest commodity around these days, enjoying spectacular price gains and a blue-sky outlook that’s the envy of the natural resource sector.

There’s just one problem though. It’s extremely difficult, and somewhat risky, to gain exposure to the sector. Lithium isn’t traded on any major exchange, and doesn’t have futures contracts or swaps, thereby cutting out one of the main ways investors gain exposure to a commodity.

This means the best way to access lithium’s story is through equities, but this isn’t as straightforward as it may seem. But before looking at how to get into lithium, it’s worth asking what the hype is about, and whether it’s justifiable and sustainable.

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NEWS RELEASE: Nemaska Lithium and Johnson Matthey Battery Materials Sign Definitive Agreement for the $12M Up-Front Payment for the Phase 1 Plant and Signs Commercial Offtake Agreement for Lithium Salts

http://www.nemaskalithium.com/

QUEBEC, QUEBEC–(Marketwired – May 11, 2016) – Nemaska Lithium Inc. and its wholly owned subsidiaries (“Nemaska Lithium” or the “Corporation”) (TSX VENTURE:NMX)(OTCX:NMKEF) and Johnson Matthey Battery Materials Ltd (JMBM) of Candiac, Quebec, a wholly owned subsidiary of Johnson Matthey Plc (LSE:JMAT) (www.matthey.com) announced today the signing of the final agreements contemplated in the collaboration, financial support and lithium salt supply MOU previously announced in the press release dated November 19, 2015.

A first agreement (the deposit agreement) contemplates an up-front payment of CDN$12M by JMBM in exchange for services and products of the same value from the Nemaska Lithium Phase 1 Plant. At completion, the total amount of $12M will be deposited in an escrow account and will be disbursed to Nemaska Lithium according to certain milestones.

A second agreement provides for a long term supply relationship for lithium salts between Nemaska Lithium and JMBM. This is Nemaska Lithium’s first commercial offtake agreement.

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New ‘lithium-ion age’ excites Deutsche Bank – by Paul Garvey (The Australian – May 11, 2016)

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

Deutsche Bank has become the latest big investment house to jump on board the lithium bandwagon, although its in-depth analysis of the red-hot market includes some insights that could worry those backing the lithium sector’s less advanced players.

A note from Deutsche Bank, Welcome to the Lithium-ion Age, projects “unprecedented demand growth” for lithium in the years ahead due to the rapid growth in electric vehicles and energy storage using lithium-ion batteries.

The outlook prompted the bank to upgrade ASX-listed pair Orocobre and Mineral Resources to buy recommendations. Both are likely to benefit from a deficit in the lithium market.

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Lithium: the lucky commodity? – by Robin Bromby (InvestorIntel.com – May 3, 2016)

http://investorintel.com/

Lithium seems to be lucky: it has roared into prominence just when most other things are doing badly, which has given it more pronounced (or at least more noticeable) thrust than probably may have been the case if all boats were rising. Call it the after-burner effect. It is the space capsule that keeps on going when the booster rockets fall away after take-off.

In the past, whatever was the latest fashion in commodity investing had surged in unison with the market in general. So when uranium went crazy in 2007, and hit $136/lb, or when phosphate and potash had their moments in the sun, or nickel went to $50,000/tonne, or gold threatened to get to $2,000/oz, they were not the only shows on the road. Today lithium pretty much is the only story in the minerals sector that is stirring the blood.

(However, this needs some qualifications: one, many of the late-starting lithium hopefuls are going to be a disappointment, just as they were in previous bubbles.

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Lithium’s great story: 80 years in the making – by Robin Bromby (InvestorIntel.com – April 29, 2016)

http://investorintel.com/

This is not the first time people have been excited by lithium.

The great mass of the investing public has only been on top of the lithium story for little more than a year yet the story has been there for some time, in one form or another. In 2009, for example, Foreign Policy journal, in an article by David J Rothkoff, had a headline reading “The Great Lithium Game”.

He began: “In Asia, Europe, and the United States, people are getting excited by the electric car – for good reason”. He went on to argue that the ”major fly in the ointment for the electric car is the battery”. Seven years ago there was just starting to be interest in the concept of the lithium-ion battery, then being used in cameras, cellphones and computers, as the solution to electric car storage.

Rothkoff got is right in predicting that lithium was likely to be the commodity in the years immediately ahead. He also raised another interesting point, and one that is becoming a very live issue right now.

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Is A Green World A Safer World? – by David Rothkopf (Foreign Policy – August 22, 2009)

http://foreignpolicy.com/

A guide to the coming green geopolitical crises.

Greening the world will certainly eliminate some of the most serious risks we face, but it will also create new ones. A move to electric cars, for example, could set off a competition for lithium — another limited, geographically concentrated resource.

The sheer amount of water needed to create some kinds of alternative energy could suck certain regions dry, upping the odds of resource-based conflict. And as the world builds scores more emissions-free nuclear power plants, the risk that terrorists get their hands on dangerous atomic materials — or that states launch nuclear-weapons programs — goes up.

The decades-long oil wars might be coming to an end as black gold says its long, long goodbye, but there will be new types of conflicts, controversies, and unwelcome surprises in our future (including perhaps a last wave of oil wars as some of the more fragile petrocracies decline).

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Is This The Hottest Acreage In The Lithium Rush? – by James Burgess (Oil Price.com – April 27, 2016)

http://oilprice.com/

As our lithium-dependent energy revolution unfolds, prices soar and supply remains euphorically tight, a savvy newcomer is the first to cast a much wider exploration net over America’s ground-zero lithium state of Nevada, hedging smart geological bets that there’s lithium beyond Clayton Valley.

The lithium space is becoming a frantic game of who can get their hands on the choicest new mining acreage and who can launch new production fastest. And in North America, it’s all going down in the state of Nevada, which is the staging ground for a U.S. lithium boom that will feed the manufacturing beasts for everything from EVs, battery gigafactories, powerwalls and energy storage solutions to the long and growing list of consumer electronics that we use every day.

Lithium demand just for electric vehicles is set to rise by 70,000 tons every time EV market share jumps only 1 percent. And this fails to account for the brilliant launch of Tesla’s Model 3 EV on 31 March, which saw 325,000 advance sales worth $14 million in only one week, definitively bringing the electric car into our mainstream.

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Downtrodden mining explorers turn to super-charged lithium – by Tess Ingram (Sydney Morning Herald – April 26, 2016)

http://www.smh.com.au/

A host of downtrodden mineral exploration companies have switched their focus to lithium from out-of-favour metals, such as nickel, which have been battered by a downturn in commodity prices.

A flood of junior explorers have joined the hunt for lithium, picking up prospective ground and knocking on the doors of other miners in an attempt to join the exuberant market. As many as 35 ASX-listed companies have lithium exploration or development plans, with at least a third moving into lithium in the past five months.

“Lithium companies have been keenly sought after by investors in recent times, driven by the rise in demand for rechargeable batteries… and leading to a number of ASX-listed companies turning into lithium-focused companies,” Petra Capital analyst David Cotterell said.

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Lithium juniors outperform on expected future demand – by Henry Lazenby (MiningWeekly.com – April 19, 2016)

http://www.miningweekly.com/page/americas-home

TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – In the wake of Tesla Motors’ introduction of the ‘Model 3’ mass-market electric vehicle (EV), lithium development and exploration company share prices have exploded.

This was despite Tesla not having sold (or even built) a single Model 3 yet. Tesla would also not have it on the road for years, and the company continued to haemorrhage money, according to Chris Berry, writer of the Disruptive Discoveries Journal.

“The $1 000 refundable reservation fee is simply a free option for a potential car buyer and gives Tesla an opportunity to defray dilution,” he stated in a recent market commentary. Berry noted that in the wake of this news, lithium developers were “making hay while the sun shines” through some truly impressive capital-raising efforts.

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IN DEPTH: Tesla electric car demand energizes plans for N.W.T. lithium and cobalt mines – by Ollie Williams (CBC News North – April 17, 2016)

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/

Companies hope to mine N.W.T. for vital elements in electric car batteries

Can the buzz around electric vehicles inject new energy into Northwest Territories mining? As pre-orders for Tesla’s latest electric car surpass 300,000 in a week, owners of N.W.T. lithium and cobalt projects — two elements found in Tesla’s batteries — say their time has come.

Getting these projects off the drawing board would mark an increasingly rare mining good-news story for the territory. But there are unique challenges ahead. Tesla calls it a “gigafactory.” Billionaire Elon Musk’s car manufacturer is constructing a vast production facility for its vehicles’ lithium-ion batteries outside the aptly-named Sparks, Nev.

Tesla boasts this one factory will, by 2020, make more such batteries in a year than the entire world produced in 2013. More factories, serving more companies, are planned. “Now is the time. If there was ever a time, now is the time,” says Adrian Lamoureux, who wants to start a lithium mine in the N.W.T.

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