The Resource Angle

[pz1975]

Thanks for that extensive background Audubon. Great information!

You italicized the word outside in your 4th paragraph. Did you mean that the nickel/cobalt reserves outside the current Sherritt operation are still owned by Sherritt and could be mined in the future, or they are owned by another company or Cuban govt?

 

[AudubonB]

What I know of is that they are Cuban-owned. They might be staked as claims - in Cuba's version of the NoAm understanding of the term - but as far as I once knew when I was very much up on Cuban mineral potential, they exist only as geological understanding, not as 'belonging' to any organized entity other than the Cuban people...aka the Cuban government.

 

[wdolson]

There were cobalt mines on the island before the revolution which I believe were owned by American interests. I think the Cuban government has worked them some since, but production has been a small shadow of what it used to be.

 

[racer26]

Anybody else made a bit nervous by all the large (relative to daily volume) insider trades on eCobalt Solutions?

 

[racer26]

Fortune Minerals (TSX: FT) seems to be on a tear the last couple days - anybody know why? 0.18/share last Wednesday to 0.33 today?

 

[winfield100]

Fortune Minerals (TSX: FT) seems to be on a tear the last couple days - anybody know why? 0.18/share last Wednesday to 0.33 today?

lacdf seems to be (finally) moving nicely (I own a bunch)

 

[Tslynk67]

Cobalt @ 19.28 lb has gone from exponential to SUPER EXPONENTIAL!

Any good cobalt stocks we should be throwing a few $'s into?

 

[racer26]

Any good cobalt stocks we should be throwing a few $'s into?

I'm currently in eCobalt Solutions (TSX: ECS), Fortune Minerals (TSX: FT) and LiCo Energy Metals (TSXV: LIC).

All 3 have rights to Cobalt deposits on North American soil, in various stages of development.

Not sure if they meet your benchmark of 'good'.

 

[ggr]

eCobalt Solutions (TSX: ECS)

This is traded in the US as ADRs under ECSIF. I bought some last week, up 43% since then. Bought some more today.

 

[racer26]

This is traded in the US as ADRs under ECSIF. I bought some last week, up 43% since then. Bought some more today.

Yup. I bailed out about 80% of my position last week at 0.79/share, representing a 0.01/share loss, being skittish about the insider selling, now closed at 1.25. Frustrating.

 

[pz1975]

Yup. I bailed out about 80% of my position last week at 0.79/share, representing a 0.01/share loss, being skittish about the insider selling, now closed at 1.25. Frustrating.

I bought in at $0.67 and sold at $0.80. I was happy with the return at the time...now not so much.

 

[zzziii]

Below is a Financial Times talk on the recent price spike for Cobalt:

What's driving cobalt prices higher? Electric carmakers are on alert

How vulnerable do you think that Tesla is considering the forecasted growth rate for the battery production and will the new battery chemistries still depend on Cobalt?

 

[wdolson]

The new chemistry will probably depend on cobalt. It's a critical component of the highest density li-ion chemistry.

Tesla has been aggressive about locking in contracts for resources before the GF opened. I haven't heard anything specifically about cobalt, but I'm sure they locked in a supply there too.

The price of resources is likely going to spike temporarily. Currently mining production is not up to the coming demand and there is a lot of investors running up commodity prices expecting to make a killing down the line. However most of these resources have artificial limits. There are a lot of known reserves of cobalt, lithium, etc. that aren't in production. As those ramp up, the prices will stabilize. The trick for Tesla is to make sure they have enough supply locked in at a reasonable price until the prices stabilize.

 

[RobStark]

Automotive News is now covering Cobalt.

Cobalt prices soar as investors see increased demand for lithium-ion batteries

Investors are running up the prices for cobalt, an important element that automakers and suppliers use in lithium-ion batteries as they prepare for an increase in electric vehicle production.

The batteries are used in both electric and hybrid vehicles. Investors plan to amass and sit on cobalt until its price rises with demand, Reuters reported last month.

The Reuters report said Shanghai Chaos Investments and Switzerland-based Pala Investments as two of the companies that invested in cobalt last year, although the amount they’ve stockpiled is unknown.

 

[ggr]

Automotive News is now covering Cobalt.

Cobalt prices soar as investors see increased demand for lithium-ion batteries

Investors are running up the prices for cobalt, an important element that automakers and suppliers use in lithium-ion batteries as they prepare for an increase in electric vehicle production.

The batteries are used in both electric and hybrid vehicles. Investors plan to amass and sit on cobalt until its price rises with demand, Reuters reported last month.

The Reuters report said Shanghai Chaos Investments and Switzerland-based Pala Investments as two of the companies that invested in cobalt last year, although the amount they’ve stockpiled is unknown.

ECSIF (eCobalt Solutions ADR) is up 60% since Feb 6.

 

[hcsharp]

The Economist ran an article a week or two ago about undersea mining. Among the minerals that are quite prevalent are Cobalt and Copper. A Canadian firm Nautilus Minerals is testing mining of submarine hydrothermal vents, essentially mineral-rich undersea volcanoes. Several experts are predicting this to be the next gold rush. Here's the article:
http://www.economist.com/news/scien...s-de-mer-plucking-minerals-seabed-back-agenda

 

[RobStark]

Argentina Eyeing Lithium Superpower Status Amid Battery Boom

 

[RobStark]

Charged EVs | POSCO begins lithium production in Korea

POSCO has pioneered the recycling of used secondary batteries by using lithium phosphate from recycling companies as a raw material at the PosLX Plant. In January, tests of lithium carbonate produced from recycled material verified that it was equivalent to existing products in quality standards such as particle size, purity, charge and discharge efficiency and capacity.

POSCO has developed a proprietary lithium extraction technology that it says is much faster than conventional extraction methods – it requires less than one month instead of the usual 12 to 18 months. It’s also more efficient – the recovery rate of lithium has been increased from 30-40% to more than 80%. Lithium can be delivered at a purity of 99.9% or more.

POSCO plans to increase its annual production capacity to 40,000 tons of lithium worldwide.


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A lot of anti-ev advocates want to make the analogy of dependency on foreign oil will turn into dependency on foreign lithium. Not so.

 

[Lump]

The Great Nevada Lithium Rush to Fuel the New Economy
The race is on to get the mineral out of Clayton Valley and into your iPhones, Bolts, and Powerwalls.

 

[neroden]

Cobalt is traditionally colocated and mined 10:1 with copper or nickel, which multiples how much cobalt price has to increase to induce more supply.

OK, so let's think about this. (For fun!) I'm going to assume that you're right about 10:1 nickel to cobalt ratio, though I'd like to see a citation.


Nickel price: $4.68/lb
Cobalt price: $25.40/lb
So with 10:1 ratio, you might get from one deposit, $46.80 of nickel and $25.40 of cobalt? That's over 1/3 of the value in the cobalt! Rising cobalt prices *will* cause the mines to be financed at that ratio!

The catch is really that cobalt prices are much less stable and have been as low as $10 while nickel has been as high as $10.