Category Archives: Batteries
China Restricts Additional Rare Earth Metals
China is continuing on its path of restricting export access to certain metals.
As of August 01, 2023 germaniun and gallium have been added to the list. This is in addition
to restrictions on various rare earth metals which began as export quotas around 2010.
China controls around 90% of the supply of rare earth minerals as well as control of technologies surrounding the manufacture of products using these metals.
China has been enacting a policy of increasing restrictions on exporting these metals and technologies
causing western countries to scramble to put together their own supply chains. A large premium has been put upon getting production into place since these various metals are essential to western defense department This puts them in the category of national security resources. Not to mention the electric vehicle explosion requires these metals as well as many other technologies developed in recent years such as wind turbines, batteries, solar devices and so on.
Here is a link to an article about the latest restrictions of germanium and gallium written by the publication TheHill.com.
TheHill.com article
PDAC Conference 2023 on March 5-8 in Toronto
Prospectors and Developers Association Convention (PDAC).
It is time again for Toronto’s world renowned mining conference to take place for 2023!
Last year (2022) as society in general was still battling the pandemic, the conference was postponed from the usual date and held in the middle of June. Thankfully we are able to attend in March this year, the usual time slot over the years.
Therefore we are able to relay to our readers that the official PDAC date is March 05-08, 2023.
Fortunately for the industry as noted in a recent article on the Canadian Junior Report, the sector seems to have risen from a low in collective market cap/share price since October 2022.
This has certainly cheered on investors and spurred even more intense exploration efforts from participants. Especially important since there seems to be no end to the demand for traditional metals plus a need for various ‘new’ minerals used in the technological society of the modern world.
With the usual blend of exploration companies, service providers, equipment manufacturers and financiers, we expect this years PDAC to be as busy as any previous years with much business transacted.
There will be many talks, meetings, educational events, awards and a refreshing beverage or two will be shared as participants from all over the globe congregate.
We hope to see you there!
The official address is the Metro Convention Center, North Building location located at 255 Front Street West, two blocks west of York Street.
The South Building entrance is located at 222 Bremner Boulevard, one block north of Lakeshore Boulevard, west of York Street.
Canadian Junior Report
Junior Exploration Companies 2023 Update
After experiencing what appears to be a bottoming phase in market cap/share prices prices in October 2023, it appears that the worst may be over for investors in the junior company exploration sector.
The market caps of many of the companies on the junior exchanges have risen 20% to 100% or more and many have held their gains – much to the relief of battered investors.
There are various reasons for the cyclical nature of this sector, some easier to identify than others.
The demand for traditional as well as more exotic minerals is not going away anytime soon it appears. In fact there is incredible demand for some metals and minerals in our current technological society.
-For example the demand for lithium hydroxide seems to know very few bounds and the price has soared to $79,000.00 per ton (U.S).
Lithium Chart- Feb 01, 2023
Lithium is used in batteries for the electric vehicle market and this has spurred a major amount of exploration activity for new lithium deposits around the globe.
-Demand for copper is reportedly going to reach unheard of numbers in the near future as well, although price has not really reflected that as of yet. As seen on the internet, a report from S&P Global forecasts that “global demand for the metal could double by 2035, from 25 million metric tons to 50 million metric tons.”
The report also stated that “by 2030, supply from both existing and projected copper mining activities will meet just 80% of our needs.”
Copper Charts from Kitco.com
-In fact all of the minerals used in electric vehicles such as copper, aluminum, manganese, indium, rare earth elements, helium, cobalt, graphite and potash are apparently much needed in our society moving ahead.
-This is not even mentioning the uranium sector which is really a great solution for a lot of our energy problems according to many experts in the field, as the carbon generation is virtually non-existent with nuclear energy.
-So in speaking for weary investors, we say let the good times return to this sector, it has been a long wait!!
Global Lithium demand continues to Dazzle
LITHIUM! The new oil?
One of the biggest commodity stories of 2021 is the enormous demand for lithium to supply batteries for electric vehicles. Electric vehicle production has grown at a staggering pace for anyone aware that not that long ago all the electric cars made were taken out into the desert and destroyed! Now I wonder who was behind those shenanigans?
At any rate we have a new consciousness which declares that electric vehicles are going to save the planet from overheating and we need them to replace ICE vehicles as soon as yesterday.
For this to occur we need batteries and lots of them! Those batteries take lithium to construct, hence the lithium price has soared to all time highs of approximately $30,000.00/ton U.S. as companies and countries move aggressively to obtain reliable supplies.
Further, according to data from the website MarketsandMarkets.com, (Article Link)the demand by 2025 will increase by more than double:
The lithium compounds market is projected to grow from USD 5.3 billion in 2020 to USD 13.5 billion by 2025, at a CAGR of 20.6% from 2020 to 2025.
A junior exploration company which we own shares in largely because of faith in management is Infinite Ore Corp. (ILI.V OTCQB-ARXRF)
Jackpot Lithium deposit is the name of their established lithium deposit near Thunder Bay Ontario which is high grade although is rather small at present and needs to be expanded by more exploration. Jackpot is approximately 2 million tones of over 1% lithium which is considered high grade.
ILI has very recently closed a financing for approximately $8 million (cad) to expand their lithium holdings although it is unclear at this point where they will focus their spending.
We await further guidance from management, and the prospect has not gone unnoticed as the company valuation has basically doubled recently on the news of financing. The financing was done around 100% below where the share price was trading so that tells you something positive is happening in the sector and the company as well/
Stay tuned for updates and “GO Lithium!”
Disclosure: Editor owns shares of Infinite Ore Corp. and may buy or sell at any time. Infinite Ore Corp. is
-
not
a paid client.