Image via WikipediaPeak oil! We've debated that term since the 1970's oil shocks. Back then some experts were predicting peak oil by the turn of the 21st century. Some said 2010, others as far out as 2030. However, according to the IEA, we passed the date for peak oil almost 5 years ago, in 2006. According to other distinguished scientists, who peer reviewed the IEA data, in Stockhold Sweden, even the IEA data is somewhat skewed toward the positive, indicating a dirth of oil is already upon us, and forshadowing prices that will make 2011 look like the good old days of cheap oil.
Review the video for yourself and make your own conclusions!
Then, invest accordingly.
Solid oil plays in the medium to long term.( We like SuncorSU and CenovusCVE)
Alternatives like wind, solar, nuclear, fuel cells (we like BallardBLD)
And lithium, (we like TalisonTLH, RodiniaRM and TNRGoldTNR) in the long term!
Image by redgoober4life via FlickrCold weather is the bane of electric cars, or so I've heard from many naysayers (those that don't believe the EV is here to stay). You've heard the arguments! They range from range anxiety to cold weather performance to excessive recharge time etc. etc. These arguments are falling like dominos as the onslaught of electric car manufacturing spreads from California, to China, from Japan to Sweden. Now Volvo, known for making the safest cars in the world, has blasted the cold temperature argument of the naysayers.
Testing it's beautiful, brand new, all electric C30 in artic conditions, Volvo has already knocked down the biggest domino. After this everyone will know that electric cars will no longer be considered the domain of warmer climes. The Artic is a cruel teacher, as this writer can attest from his time spent in the north, but the students at Volvo have learned their lessons very well. 80 to 90 km distance in artic conditions, and that is just the first model.
Click here to watch this northern beauty in action!
All indications are that, by 2020, the production of electric cars and hybrids will outpace the production of gasoline powered cars. Certainly, that is the case in China and India who are expected to "double" their auto production in the next year or two. Europe is also a leader in this race.
America will trail this world changing development. It will eventually be brought into the lithium economy kicking and screaming, but resigned to what the rest of the world is already doing.
Rather than placing bets on which of the hundreds of labs around the world will develop the best battery, best technology or the most stable catalyst in its uses, I have been placing my money on the producers of lithium, specifically, the small and mid tier group that for the past two years have staked the best lithium properties around the world.
All this, and on Friday, it was trading at a measley .17 per share.
Yes it is a penny stock. Yes it is a junior. Yes it is speculative.
However, at only .17 per share this stock has enormous potential.
In these pages, I have written a number of articles about the coming lithium boom, the electric vehiclebattery market, and the companies who are either mining lithium at present, or are rushing to become new producers of what has become known as the Èlectric Metal. In point of fact, lithium is becoming one of the few truly bull markets for savvy investors today.
NEWS RELEASE
VANCOUVER, August 13, 2010 – Salares Lithium Inc. (TSXV: LIT) (“Salares”) and Talison Lithium Limited (“Talison”) are pleased to announce the completion of due diligence and execution of a definitive Arrangement Agreement (“Agreement”) for the merger of their respective lithium assets. For details of the proposed merger please see the joint news releases dated August 9, 2010 and July 15, 2010 which are filed on SEDAR at www.sedar.com.
The execution of the Agreement clears the way for Salares shareholders to vote on and
approve the merger at a special meeting of shareholders to be held on September 16, 2010.
The completion of the proposed merger is anticipated to be implemented by the end of
September, 2010, subject to the parties obtaining all necessary approvals and satisfaction of
other conditions.
A presentation of the transaction highlights can be accessed at the Salares and Talison
websites.
For further information please contact:
Investors
Todd Hilditch
President and CEO
Salares Lithium Inc.
Tel: (604) 443-3831
www.salareslithium.com
Peter Oliver
CEO
Talison Lithium Limited
Tel: +61 8 9263 5555
www.talisonlithium.com
Media
Kim O’Halloran
Vice President, Corporation Communication
FD
kim.ohalloran@fd.com
Tel: (312) 553-6733
Recent articles: Salares shares will double on merger with Talison Conviction stock pick - Salares Lithium Electric metals heat up - 5 stocks to consider.
The United States Department of Energy announced in January 2010, that 24 million hours of supercomputing time at Argonne National Laboratories and Oak Ridge National Laboratories were awarded to investigate materials to develop advanced lithium-air batteries.
This effort, which is utilizing two of the most powerful super computers on the planet to construct a battery that will power electric vehicles over 500 miles on a single charge, is a classic example of how government and private enterprise can work together for the betterment of everyone.
This partnership between government's "super computing" ability, and the private sector, occurred as a direct result of two visits to these Labs by IBM's VP of Research in 2009. A consortium of scientists from IBM, Argonne National Laboratories and Oak Ridge have, at this writing, have developed a break through in Lithium-air technology that is said to increase energy storage by tenfold over today's more ubiquitous lithium-ion batteries. In other words, electric cars will be able to travel farther on one battery charge than most current vehicles, whether hybrid of gasoline powered, can today.
This is only one of the many projects underway to enhance lithium batteries for the coming boom in electric vehicles. At this writing, there are hundreds of scientists, electrical engineers, technicians and lab rats all over the world, from China to Chile, racing to bring their own inventions in energy storage to market, however they all have one element in common, and that is lithium. Whether it is lithium-air batteries, lithium-ion, lithium metal, or whatever catalyst is used, the common denominator is lithium carbonate.
The mining of lithium carbonate, and the rush to secure deposits of lithium brine in Chile, Argentina, Bolivia and China, is the reason that the electric metals market is heating up. Junior miners are getting swallowed by bigger players. Auto companies such as Toyota, Honda and Ford, and auto parts manufacturer Magna International, have all bought in to lithium miners in the past year, so as to secure a future supply of this vital metal.
Isn't it time you considered these investments for your retirefund?
HP
Oil circa 1909, plastics circa 1955 and Lithium in 2010. Lithium will store our power generated from wind and solar. It will power electric vehicles and improve hybrid plug-in vehicles. It is starting to power the mobile web (smart phones, iphones, ipads, note books and laptops). Every battery used for electric vehicles will require 8 pounds of lithium! We are now invested in six lithium mining stocks. Here are some of them, and the reasons why!
From Ford to Toyota, GM to Honda, and Nissan to BYD , from China to Chile and everywhere in between, auto companies are searching the globe and scrambling to secure their future supply of this commodity as the electric car is about to re-emerge after a 100 year hiatus.
Lithium is used in lithium-ion batteries, (and many new forms of Lithium batteries such as Lithium air, Lithium sulfur etc) glass ceramics, greases, steel, nuclear energy and pharmaceuticals, however, it is the advent of Lithium use as the best material for energy storage in batteries made for the Hybrid and electric vehicle market, that is causing one of the big bull markets of this decade. From Buses to cars and trucks, and every type of vehicle in between including vehicles such as fork lifts, ATV's, motorized bicycles (as in the billion or so made in China and India) skidoo's, seadoos, and everything else that moves, companies are building better electric batteries for these vehicles, and the overwhelming winner of the commodity race is, you guessed it, LITHIUM!!
Buying into a good Lithium play today would be like investing in oil at the turn of the 20th century, or plastics in the 1950's. It will have that much of an impact as the electric car and hybrid plug-ins become more and more common. The explosion in batteries using Lithium Ion technology, Lithium air technology, lithium sulfur or any number of other Lithium based materials currently being researched and produced is occurring so fast, that fortunes will be made, and indead, are already being made.
Scientists, technicians, engineers and lab rats all over the world, are developing lithium energy storage products at this writing. Lithium carbonate is the best element for storing electricity, period. When compared to current technology such as nickel metal hydride batteries, Lithium is twice as light, produces 3 times the power and keeps it's charge up to 5 times longer. Lithium won't just be used for electric vehicles, hybrids, cellphones and laptops including tablet computers, but also on a larger scale, for wind farms and solar farms where energy storage is absolutely crucial to the future of electrical grid technology.
China, recently announced it will stop shipping Lithium and rare earth enements (REE's) to other countries. China sees an opportunity to try and corner the Lithium market while America and Europe are still fending off financial problems and to this end, it has been trying to butter up the left wing government in Bolivia which may hold 50% of the Lithium deposits on the planet. Problem is, Bolivia is a quagmire of political problems for anyone trying to enter the Lithium market there as the president is not receptive to international companies. He wants to develop Bolivia's Lithium deposits "in country". another problem is that this Lithium deposit, while very large, will be expensive to develop because of the large amounts of magnesium and other compounds in the brine.
Other locations for Lithium mining are in hard rock formations(Canada-Quebec), clay formations (Nevada) and in Salars or salt Lakes. (Besides the big deposits in Bolivia, Chile (which currently supplies 60% of the worlds Lithium), as well as Argentina) It is the extraction of Lithium and Potash fromSalars that is the easiest, and cheapest way to mine this very "in-demand" resource.
Today, 60% of all Lithium is produced in the country of Chile!
Chile is really the epicenter of the Lithium boom notwithstanding Bolivia and Argentina, the two other countries that share the Puna Plateau.
The Salar flats of the Andes on the Puna Plateau, contain millions of tons of Lithium carbonate totaling 84% of the worlds known reserves.This Lithium is also the easiest, and cheapest Lithium to extract, as the sun does most of the work, in this, the driest area on the planet.
According to one of the foremost Lithium experts, R. Keith Evans, "Because Mother Nature does most of the work in producing lithium carbonate in this region, it is the greenest source of lithium we know of".
Any other source requires significantly more energy for processing, thus increasing the price." (read hard rock sources) Add to that the fact that Chile recently elected a conservative government that is very friendly to the mining community, and you have the making of a full blown, 5 alarm, bull rush into the Chilean Salar flats by a number of Juniors. Nevada also has similar, but smaller, lithium resources.
Canadian Juniors are leading the way in this boomand they offer the best investment "bang for your buck" so to speak, as investors wake up to the fact that Lithium will power the future of most automobiles. Currently, the top producer of Lithium from the Chilean "Puna Plateau" is Sociedad Quimica y Minera (SQM). To date, their Lithium production has been a by product of the potash which they mine there, and their stock price is already through the roof. In 2010 they are increasing their production of Lithium to meet increased demand worldwide.
Here are our picks in the Lithium junior miner sector, in order, based on the size of deposits identified, and the purity of the Lithium carbonate to be mined.
PURE LITHIUM PLAYS
1.Salares Lithium (LIT-TSX)owns over 117,000 hectares (288,990 acres approx) in the Atacama region of Chile, encompassing 7 Salars (brine lakes). It is one of the best, pure play Lithium ventures anywhere today with a depth of resource between 170 meters and 300 meters in a region that already produces 50% of the worlds current lithium supply. In fact, SQM, the largest producer of lithium in the world today, may actually be interested in some or all of Salares Lithiums concessions due to their close proximity and the purity of the resource.
Salares Lithium wholly owns 100% of 5 of those Salars, which is unique in the industry and very important in South American mining. Many others "share" deposits on the same properties. Salares now has a giant Lithium footprint, as large as anyone on the planet (read the article: Size matters ) They also have a very focused management team and institutional investors are in on this play.Now SQM may be interested. Analyst opinions on Salares Lithium!
2. Western Lithium (WLC-TSX)owns over 50,000 acres of proven, lithium reserves in Nevada. One of the only Lithium pure plays in the USA with proven reserves. This is one of the worlds largest, proven Lithium deposits at 47 million tons, mine ready, located in mining friendly Nevada with quick access to buyers in North America. Western Lithium should make any lithium investors portfolio. On May 31st Western Lithium will change it's name to Western Lithium USA to more reflect it's intention to supply Lithium to that market. (update- we recently sold our shares in WLC, at a profit of course, to free up cash for the purchase of more Salares Lithium shares)
LITHIUM,GOLD AND RARE EARTH METAL PLAYS
3. The biggest "sleeper" in the space is TNR Gold Corp (TNR-TSX) which is currently flying under the radar of most investors. TNR Owns 16 gold, copper, Lithium, and REE properties in Nevada, Canada, Argentina and Ireland. More importantly, TNR "owns 100% of International Lithium Corp" (ILC) which it will spin off next month in an IPO.
ILC own 9 Lithium brine properties in Argentina, Nevada and Canada, while TNR will retain it's gold, copper and rare earth deposits in Canada and Ireland as well as one Lithium play in Argentina. TNR may actually be the best "short term" play in the sector as it prepares the IPO for International Lithium Corp. as owners of TNR stock will automatically own stock and warrants in International Lithiumwhen it is spun out next month. (one share and one warrant for every 4 shares of TNR) Thereby owning "both" companies after the IPO next month. Institutional Holders of TNR stock include some serious players:
Barrick Gold, Pinetree Capital, Tocqueville Fund, Solitario, and NovaGold.
4. Latin American Minerals Inc. (LAT-TSX)Besides gold, copper and silver, LAT owns a 17.4% stake in Lithium Americas Corp. (LAC) which has a big stake in the Salars on the Argentina side. LAT also owns rare earth properties (REE's). Lithium Americas properties include over 100,000 Hectares encompassing 5 salars (salt lakes) on the Argentina side of the Puna Plateau.You can buy LAT now (currently .20 cents) to own 17.4% of Lithium Americas, (which we have done), or you can buy Lithium Americas (LAC) at the IPO price of $1.80 Strategic Investors in Lithium Americas already include:
Magna International Inc.
Mitsubishi Corporation
PineTree Capital corp.
5. Rodina Minerals (RM-TSX) Besides it's recent acquisitions of Diablillos, Centenario and Ratones in the Salars of Argentina on the Puna Plateau, RM owns a substantial lithium property in Clayton Valley Nevada Rodinia has 100% mineral rights to 50,440 acres in Nevada’s lithium-rich Clayton Valley in Esmeralda County and is currently in the process of assessing the size, quality and processing alternatives of its Lithium Brine Project. Early estimates put the valley’s lithium deposits as high as 700 million kg, ranking it second only in size to the deposits found in Chile.. RM is one of the top Lithium picks of Byron Capital Markets analyst, Dr. Jon Hykawy who is, arguably, one of the foremost Lithium experts in the market today! RM is also a favorite of the gold report.(theaureport.com)
At this writing, all of these stocks can be had for under $1 per share.
There is truly a "fire sale" on these market go-getters who have staked their claim in the Lithium rush of this decade and stand to reap huge rewards for their efforts.
You can invest in the battery companies, (who are battling it out in the technology department) the electric car companies, or the mobile web device makers like Apple, and they are indeed good bets. However, they all need the raw product, and that is Lithium, specifically it is lithium carbonate. The companies listed above with properties in Chile and Nevada, are in the drivers seat as these deposits are already known, are enormous, and will be processed at the lowest cost, because the sun provide most of the energy needed for production, in the driest, most arid places on earth.
The lithium boom will last for at least the next 10 years. As many investors make their fortunes from this 21st century boom, I hope that you are one of them. I certainly intend on being one. Here's to your retirefund!
Lithium (Li), the first of the alkali group of metals, was discovered (1817, Sweden) by Johan August Arfvedson and named for the Greek lithos, “stone.” A soft, silvery metal, it has many uses, including the production of glass, lithium batteries, and a strong, light alloy with aluminum for airplanes. Lithium carbonate is used in the treatment of mental illness, and an unknown amount is used as lithium hydride in the production of nuclear weapons.
Besides being used in most mobile web smart phones, laptops and ipads etc, Lithium Ion Batteries are the best technology for electric, plug in cars according to industry insiders and mining companies are now rushing to fill a void in an industry that is still in it's infancy, but is about to explode. That is the electric car industry.
As Warren Buffet points out, "In 20 years all cars will be electric"! Obviously that is one of the reasons Warren invested last year in Chinese car maker BYD.
However, the story here is Lithium mining, where it is mined, and And how it is mined. The Nickel Hydride battery, currently used in many hybrid vehicles, is grossly insufficient to power electric plug in vehicles (EVs) and, until now, this has been a major road block in developing EVs that can compete with the gasoline engine or Hybrid technology. If you review all of the battery blogs, and science and energy sites, it becomes clear that thousands of scientists and technicians around the world are working on Lithium batteries. Whether it is lithium vanadium phosphate that BYD Company Ltd. (BYDDF.PK) in China is researching, Lithium Ion, Lithium cadmium, Lithium Manganese, Lithium polymer or Lithium iron phosphate, the keyword in new battery technology is overwhelmingly, "Lithium"!
Lithium is also currently used in a number of applications including as a power source for mobile web devices (smart phone batteries - which are expected to triple by 2012), heat resistant glass and ceramics, Health care (Lithium based mood stabilizing drugs), and Lithium batteries for EVs, which may outdistance their closest competitor, Nickel Hydride batteries, in pure power, by a factor of 10. Lithium is also used nuclear energy and lithium hypochlorite is used extensively in cleaning swimming pools. There are truly many, varied uses for this valuable commodity.
Lithium is soft enough to be cut with a knife, and it is the lightest of the metals of the periodic table. It also has a low density (approximately 0.534 g/cm3) and thus will float on water, with which it reacts easily. It is most easily mined from Salar or salt lakes, mostly found in Bolivia and Chile.Lithium salts are extracted from the water of mineral springs, brine pools and brine deposits. It can also be mined from rock but that is more difficult and more expensive. Canadian and American companies are currently ramping up their exploration for this products which sells for between $4,000 and $5,000 per ton. That price is "today's price" before the electric car boom has even started!
Major car manufacturers including Toyota and Magna International have already invested in Lithium plays so as to secure future supply. Panasonic, which is Toyota's supplier of Nickel hydride batteries for it's successful Prius, recently bought Sanyo, the worlds foremost developer of Li-ion batteries. That should have huge implications for the industry.
The Chevrolet Volt, due out next year, will run on lithium manganese oxide batteries. These developments, however are just the beginning of what looks to be one of the great bull markets of this decade, and beyond. Lithium Ion Batteries, and eventually, Lithium Air batteries will require the world to seek out as many Lithium deposits as can be developed, and the quicker, the better.
The oil boom of the early 20th century is about to be replaced by a Lithium boom and if you are a Canadian investor you may be able to get in on the ground floor of some of these Junior miners currently busting their buts to stake claims in Lithium from Northern Canada to Bolivia, (which, incidentally, has about 50% of the worlds known deposits, but is one of the more hostile political environments in which to invest.)
However it is the country of Chile which actually produces the most Lithium currently and Juniors are crawling all over the Chilean Salar flats and staking their Lithium Mine claims at this writing. The majority of the world's lithium production comes from salars, or salt lakes, where prospective lithium mineralization is generally hosted in brine horizons. One of the Lithium pure plays in Chile is actually a Canadian Junior. Salares Lithium, (TSX-V LIT) The company has a large land package in the most prolific lithium brine reserve region globally - controlling 119,227 hectares in the Puna Plateau.
The area has extensive regional infrastructure. The main access to the Cauchari-Olaroz properties from San Salvador de Jujuy is via paved national highways. These highways carry significant truck traffic, transporting borate products from various salars in northern Argentina. Access to the interior of the Cauchari-Olaroz properties is possible through a gravel road, which skirts the west side of the salars and is used by borate producers.
"Salares Lithium is an exceptionally rare opportunity for a pure play exposure within the Chilean lithium exploration arena. The company represents one of the largest land and pure salar concession packages in the lithium exploration sector and has historic sampling returning lithium and potassium in all seven of its salares with grades up to 1,080 ppm lithium and 10,800 ppm potassium. A unique value proposition for this company is that it controls 100% of five salares clustered within 155 km’s, resulting in no severed ownership, as is quite common in the Argentine lakes."
This from the Energy Report:
Although the lithium space, in general, got a little bit too excited, there are a few gems. Salares Lithium is a great story. - The Energy Report with Marin Katusa (03/04/10) "Salares Lithium Inc. is currently on our watch list as it has one of the largest brine lake concession packages in Chile, which is the world's largest lithium producer. They have five brine lakes clustered within 155 kilometers, of which they control 100% of the interest with their Chilean partner." - The Energy Report Interview with Siddarth Rajeev (02/25/10)
This from Byron Capital Markets report:
. . .This is one of the most promising land packages we have seen; the claims were obtained for what we believe to be reasonable consideration, and, most importantly, Salares Lithium holds 100% of the land on the most promising lake beds." -JON HYKAWY, BYRON CAPITAL MARKETS (03/05/10)
Salares recently appointed Dr. Ian Hutcheon, PHD, to their advisory board. He is a professor Emeritus in Geology and Geo physics at the University of Calgary and retains an active research program.
According to the Salares website,
"His research has focused on water--rock reactions, geochemistry, monitoring field recovery processes, and diagenesis of clastic and carbonate rocks. Past research has included the study of the effect of diagenesis on reservoir properties. On-going research integrates chemical and isotopic data for shallow ground water to understand the controls on the distribution of elements and minerals in near-surface environments."
Salares is only one of the companies in the chase, but for me, it has the most interesting story. It's claim encompasses 7 Salars or salt lakes covering 120,000 hectares. The first of these, Isla de la Isla, encompasses over 16,000 Hectares. On March 8th the company reported that Geodata completed a transient electromagnetic survey ("TEM") on the northern portion of the Salar de la Isla, the results of which are posted at Marketwire. It is only one of the 7 Salars owned by Salares. As a side note, I am told that some heavy hitters in the Vancouver investment community are backing Salares Lithium.
In other Lithium news, Lithium Americas Corp is planning an IPO on the TSX in the coming months. It received private investments from auto companies Magna International Inc. and Mitsubishi Corp., which are looking to secure lithium supply because of its use in hybrid car batteries. (Disclosure: no position)
The Lithium chase is becoming a serious bull run as companies are pulling out all the stops to ensure a piece of this growing, 21st century pie. The pie is still hot, and hasn't been cut yet. That will come when some of the front runners begin producing and get swallowed up by larger players.
In the interests of disclosure, I wanted a small piece of that pie so I bought some LIT yesterday and again today. It is speculative, but the upside potential is staggering!!
Image via WikipediaPeak oil! We've debated that term since the 1970's oil shocks. Back then some experts were predicting peak oil by the turn of the 21st century. Some said 2010, others as far out as 2030. However, according to the IEA, we passed the date for peak oil almost 5 years ago, in 2006. According to other distinguished scientists, who peer reviewed the IEA data, in Stockhold Sweden, even the IEA data is somewhat skewed toward the positive, indicating a dirth of oil is already upon us, and forshadowing prices that will make 2011 look like the good old days of cheap oil.
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