Matt Badiali – Critical Minerals News; Tesla Breaks Ground On Lithium Factory in Texas, Albemarle Plans To Build US$1.3Bil Lithium Plant
Matt Badiali, Editor of the New Investor Newsletter, Published Under Mangrove Investor, joins us to recap a couple big lithium stories out of the US. Tesla just announced today it is breaking ground on its lithium refinery in Texas. While back in March Abelmarle announced plans to build a US$1.3bil lithium factory. We discuss how these types of large investments support the domestic supply of lithium and how money could filter down to lithium companies.
Tesla’s New Texas Lithium Refinery To Support 1M Electric Vehicles By 2025
Rebecca Bellan – Tech Crunch – May 8, 2023
“Tesla officially broke ground Monday on a Texas lithium refinery, making it the only U.S. automaker to refine its own lithium.”
“CEO Elon Musk said the refinery will produce enough battery grade lithium for 1 million electric vehicles by 2025, which would make Tesla the largest processor of lithium in North America. Tesla will continue to rely on existing suppliers like Albermarle and Livent as it aims to reach its 2023 sales goal of around 1.8 million cars globally.”
“Lithium is the key critical material in lithium-ion batteries that power the electric vehicle revolution. Today, the U.S. produces just 1% of the world’s lithium, with Australia, Chile and China leading the way.”
(KRR) (KRRGF) Karora Announces Agreement With Kalamazoo Resources To Unlock Lithium Exploration Value Through Creation Of Kali Metals Limited
May 8, 2023
“Karora Resources Inc. is pleased to announce it has entered into an agreement with Kalamazoo Resources Limited to create a lithium and critical metals exploration company to be called Kali Metals Limited. Karora and Kalamazoo will vend their lithium exploration projects into Kali with a goal of creating a new, jointly owned but separately run lithium-focused ASX listed exploration company to be led by an experienced board and management team. The proposed transaction will allow Karora shareholders to participate in the significantly enhanced upside potential of a larger, combined lithium-focused investment vehicle that will fund its own exploration and development activities while Karora remains focused on growing its gold and nickel production base at both Beta Hunt and Higginsville.”
Barrick Gold CEO Seeks Takeover Targets, Expects Gold And Copper Will Rally
May 08, 2023 – Seeking Alpha
“Barrick Gold (NYSE:GOLD) CEO Mark Bristow is on the hunt for takeovers and forecasts a market rally in his company’s two key commodities, gold and copper, according to a weekend interview in Financial Times.”
“The CEO’s comments mark a step up in the serial dealmaker’s M&A rhetoric after playing down the need to counter Newmont’s $19.5B non-binding takeover offer for Newcrest Mining.”
Barrick chart. I’ve been purchasing in small tranches everyday.
https://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=GOLD&p=M&b=5&g=0&id=p30442555676&a=1409931684&r=1683668108111&cmd=print
Fed’s Williams Says Inflation Remains Too High, Watching Financial Conditions
Michael S. Derby – Reuters – May 09, 2023
New York Fed President John Williams said on Tuesday it is too soon to say whether the U.S. central bank is done raising interest rates, arguing that if more action is needed policymakers won’t hesitate to act.
“We haven’t said we are done raising rates” and officials have not yet decided what lies ahead with possible increases in borrowing costs, Williams said at an Economic Club of New York gathering.
Trade of Day while they were walking my account backward: Santacruz and some others had failed to submit their earnings report on time. Santacruz said it is because of their recent purchases in Bolivia and it was not ready. Canada put a halt on Santacruz while the OTB kept trading. Of course the shorts attacked the OTB taking the price to .22 from an open of .30, and I was able to pick some up at .23. For whatever reason, Schwab showed a close in my account of .299, and a gain. I have some more pending at .23 as the report may be delayed…or not.
Yeah, that was interesting to see the divergence there in Santacruz off the primary ticker (SCZ) halted today (waiting to file financials from Bolivian assets last year), versus the OTC (SZSMF) 14% fishing line sell off today. I’m going to watch Santacruz carefully as it unhalts to see if we get more retail F.U.D. and if an accumulation opportunity presents itself for scooping up shares on the cheap for the long game.
I expect more delay as they try to get the info. Shorts probably won’t be able to resist doing more damage without knowing or caring whether the information is good or bad. That’s why I left the remainder of my low bid in on the OTC. My main block is with IB in Cad and also may try an add there if they attack the primary tomorrow. Santacruz’s last quarterly report showed a lot of production and if price begins a trip into reality should move things.
Good points Lakedweller2, and yeah, I’m sure the shorts will try to push fear, uncertainty, and doubt in Santacruz, to drive the pricing lower, so likely a bit more pain in store in the short-term. However, this will be an opportunity to accumulate into the overreaction, and I may add to my position if the sell-off gets exaggerated. Medium-term to longer-term, SCZ is set up to be a solid mid-tier silver & base metals producer. I like it, and really have done better in it, than most other silver producers over the last few years, trading the extremes of oversold and overbought. There were a few times in years past where it blew away the rallies in all the other silver produces, as a tiny higher cost producer that saw big margin expansion on a percentage basis.
Santacruz Silver has had some epic rallies higher over the last few years in fits and starts, but now that it’s acquired all the Bolivian assets from Glencore, it has fundamentally changed the company. As a result, I’m very curious to see how it moves in this next bullish leg higher in the PMs over the next 1-2 years as a more meaningful mid-tier multi-mine producer. As I mentioned the end of last year, it is going to take them a few quarters to get their footing with all these new assets, but as the Q1 and eventual Q2 figures come in from this year, I’ll be looking at them and the guidance they give with keen interest.
Nice to see some green on the screen today for the Uranium stocks.
Symbol – Uranium Stocks – Daily Change %
AL.V ALX Resources Corp. +20.00%
FIND.V Baselode Energy Corp. +17.72%
AEC.V Anfield Energy Inc. +16.67%
STND.V Standard Uranium Ltd. +16.67%
PBM.V Pacific Bay Minerals Ltd. +15.38%
LTBR Lightbridge Corporation +14.37%
MGA.TO Mega Uranium Ltd. +11.43%
TOE.AX Toro Energy Limited +9.09%
UUUU Energy Fuels Inc. +8.43%
WUC.CN Western Uranium & Vanadium Corp. +8.33%
LAM.TO Laramide Resources Ltd. +8.00%
ISO.V IsoEnergy Ltd. +7.51%
URG Ur-Energy Inc. +6.95%
FMC.V Forum Energy Metals Corp. +6.67%
FSY.TO Forsys Metals Corp. +5.88%
NXE.TO NexGen Energy Ltd. +5.71%
EU.V enCore Energy Corp. +5.61%
LEU Centrus Energy Corp. +5.56%
SYH.V Skyharbour Resources Ltd. +5.13%
DNN Denison Mines Corp. +5.05%
FCU.TO Fission Uranium Corp. +4.92%
UROY Uranium Royalty Corp. +4.62%
URNJ Sprott Junior Uranium Miners ETF +4.60%
UEC Uranium Energy Corp. +4.36%
CCJ Cameco Corporation +3.82%
GLO.TO Global Atomic Corporation +3.23%
URNM Sprott Uranium Miners ETF +3.10%
CVV.V CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. +3.03%
GXU.V GoviEx Uranium Inc. +3.03%
FUU.V F3 Uranium Corp. +2.94%
API.CN Appia Rare Earths & Uranium Corp. +2.50%
U-UN.TO Sprott Physical Uranium Trust Fund +2.47%
YCA.L Yellow Cake plc +2.40%
FOR.V Fortune Bay Corp. +2.33%
CUR.V Consolidated Uranium Inc. +2.22%
URA Global X Uranium ETF +2.22%
NLR VanEck Uranium+Nuclear Energy ETF +1.95%
RDM.AX Red Metal Limited +1.37%
GCL.L Geiger Counter Limited +0.29%
Figures: I moved the last of my uranium to silver last week thinking silver had a chance to move first.
I like Silver stocks and have them much more heavily weighted in my personal portfolio than Uranium stocks. Having said that, part of the advantage of a diversified resource stock portfolio is that some periods of time favor a different commodity subsector of stocks, that can buoy one’s portfolio, as not everything pops or drops at the same time. Those periods of time can be used for rebalancing to scalp gains in one area and rotate into others that are more oversold.
Like in 2021 when some PM purist investors were crying in their beer, there were big pops throughout the year at different times in copper stocks, palladium stocks, lithium stocks, and uranium stocks, that counterbalanced tough periods in gold/silver stocks. Or look at last year in 2022, where having exposure to oil and nat gas stocks offered huge outperformance over most other commodities.
If people really do their homework in the Uranium sector, they’d want to at least have a few fishing poles in the water to capture the outsized sector moves, and while there were big moves higher from 2019 – late 2021, the biggest moves haven’t even started yet. It will be hard for most investors to chase them once they really start moving upwards with a vengeance. It is a much wiser strategy just to be in position with a good cost basis and wait for the inevitable pops higher over the next few years and then harvest gains during overbought frothy periods like late 2021, and then reload when they correct hard (like 2022).
Even though it’s not been around that long the (URNJ) Sprott Junior Uranium Miners ETF has quickly emerged as the best ETF for tracking the U-stocks based on just the junior mining stocks. Finally there is a good investing option for people that just want exposure so the uranium miners leverage, without introducing outside companies from the sector or weighting it down with behemoths like Cameco, National Atomic Co Kazatomprom, and the spot Physical Uranium Trust, (which make up 43% of URNM).
URNJ being up +4.60% on the day is the best barometer of the Uranium stocks.
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Here are the holdings in (URNJ) – FINALLY…. a well diversified Uranium junior mining ETF
Paladin Energy Ltd. 12.28%
NexGen Energy Ltd. 12.13%
Energy Fuels Inc. 11.30%
Uranium Energy Corp. 9.94%
Boss Energy Ltd. 6.40%
Denison Mines Corp. 5.16%
Global Atomic Corp. 4.33%
Deep Yellow Ltd. 3.92%
CGN Mining Co. Ltd. 3.84%
Fission Uranium Corp. 3.69%
Encore Energy Corp. 3.64%
Ur-Energy Inc. 2.98%
Uranium Royalty Corp. 2.42%
Lotus Resources Ltd. 2.22%
Bannerman Energy Ltd. 2.00%
Peninsula Energy Ltd. 1.56%
IsoEnergy Ltd. 1.51%
Berkeley Energia Ltd. 1.40%
Alligator Energy Ltd. 1.17%
Consolidated Uranium Inc. 0.96%
Elevate Uranium Ltd. 0.96%
GoviEx Uranium Inc. 0.96%
Laramide Resources Ltd. 0.80%
Aura Energy Ltd. 0.70%
Mega Uranium Ltd. 0.70%
Skyharbour Resources Ltd. 0.63%
Forsys Metals Corp. 0.59%
CanAlaska Uranium Ltd. 0.43%
Western Uranium & Vanadium Corp. 0.42%
Anfield Energy Inc. 0.35%
Baselode Energy Corp. 0.34%
Toro Energy Ltd. 0.32%
If people only wanted 1 Uranium position, without the risk of an individual company, and the increased safety of a diversified portfolio, then (URNJ) is the clear pick of the litter.
It isn’t just the portfolio selection (which is superior to other clunky ETFs like URA or NLR that have other industries mixed it that dilute the picture), but also because of the fair weightings as a legit junior U-stock ETF, without the big weightings to the underlying metal or large conglomerates that take away the desired torque.
In comparison to some metals ETFs that overweight companies that aren’t even the right fit for their target audience, URNJ has done an excellent job.
Their top 15 holdings actually make sense and you can tell whoever is managing this fund “gets it.”
My 7 personal uranium portfolio holdings are all in their top dozen positions, and I’m tempted just to roll everything into URNJ instead as it is quite an impressive ETF. (and those familiar with my perspectives know I rarely praise the portfolio construction and weighting inside of most sector ETFs, generally more in favor of a #BuildYourOwnETF strategy).
URNJ is a breath of fresh air as far as a true junior mining stock ETF, and is a good model for how more supposedly “junior” or “sector” ETFs should be constructed, cutting out the bloated big caps, cleansing it of uncorrelated companies, and actually being a focused on the quality junior miners in the space.
URNJ…appreciate you taking the time to post this Ex…right up my ally…
Sure thing Larry. May your trading be prosperous.
Hi Ex, I only have one uranium stock and it went down today, LOL! I have a few natural gas plays and one biotech stock, but the rest of my holdings are in precious metals. I am thinking of buying some Denison because it will be a better bell weather for uranium stocks than what I presently hold. I have been looking at a few silver plays in Bolivia as I like the jurisdiction. Oh, by the way, are you planning on having Jayant Bhandari on soon, I like his read on the markets. DT
Hi DT. Yeah, I saw Kraken was down today, and so were a few other earlier stage explorers, but most of the Uranium developers, producers, and ETFs were up on the day. Maybe it plays catch-up tomorrow.
Yeah, I own Denison as well, and own it for a number of reasons (most likely next junior producer in the Athabasca Basin – will be doing ISR mining though… never been tried in that area before; they are former producers in the last uranium cycle = real experience, exposure to African assets they spun out to GoviEx, 25% exposure to the McClean Lake Project and McClean Mill which processes Cameco’s Cigar Lake ore). They also used to be the custodians of the Uranium Participation Corp before Sprott took it over to covert it into the Sprott Physical Uranium Trust, but their knowledge of the U308 markets still far exceed most other companies.
As for Nat Gas, I’ve just recently added 2 positions as well… (Comstock Res. and EQT Corp). Not off to a great start in them (my positions are down 10% and 2% respectively), but I may add another tranche in both if they pull back further to average down into a good cost basis for the medium to longer term move back higher I anticipate in natty gas. I expect to see it double in price over the next year, so the stocks should respond.
As for Jayant, he has been busy with family business, but yes, I’m sure we’ll be reaching back out when he is ready, and I also value his unique take on the markets and on investing.
Tues Eve……. in US Midwest
Gold looking good over seas…………. JMO
Lobo……….. was a good listen at kitco yesterday….. on uranium….
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwcWNLK5N10
The above was deleted…………….. Lobo…….. on uranium….
Hi OOTB. Found it in the moderation cue, and released the Lobo link.
Cheers!
Good interview, and I agree with his points that outside of gold/silver stocks, that the only other resource stocks he is really focused on are the uranium stocks. He is saving putting on more exposure in most of the other commodities for after the recession plays through. That is similar approach that I’m taking but I do have some other base metals and energy stocks exposure (but those are about 7% of the trading portfolio, where as Uranium stocks are around 13% of the portfolio, and then PMs are about 80% of the portfolio).
He made the cogent point that nuclear power is baseload power and uranium demand is much more recession-proof than something like copper or zinc or tin, and really it has such a solid fundamental thesis backing it, regardless of what happens to economic conditions or if we see a stagflation or a recession.
EX………… thanks for finding…… and commenting
(ORE) (ORZCF) Orezone Reports First Quarter 2023 Results
9 May 2023
Patrick Downey, President and CEO, commented:
“Earnings from mine operations exceeded $39 million in Bomboré’s first full quarter of commercial production and have provided a strong start to the Company’s net earnings and free cash flow for 2023. Gold production of 41,301 oz was helped by excellent performance of the process plant with mill throughput at 13% above design and recoveries at a steady 92.2%. Our operational efficiency and stringent cost management assisted in offsetting cost pressures from a stronger local currency and high in-country diesel prices. With robust gold prices, AISC margin was $966 per oz sold or an impressive 51%.”
https://ceo.ca/@globenewswire/orezone-reports-first-quarter-2023-results
GOLD looking good this morning…. nice spike up………. after London….. JMO
CPI Increase + 4.9% and reported as a decrease because the increase in inflation was less than expected. As a result, the lesser increase was good for bitcoin and bad for gold. I assume under that logic that a greater increase in CPI would also be good for bitcoin and bad for Gold. In addition, I would assume a sale in bananas at a grocery store in Ecuador would be good for bitcoin and bad for gold. (Looks like most of the offshoot data of CPI was also equal to or slightly less than expectations, but still “increases”.)
“bananas….. in Ecuador.'”…….. and Banana Republic for us……..
gold is a good in either way…… 🙂
The numbers are all fake ….. the sheeple feel good about the bananas
Picked up a few more Santacruz @ .25 US. Since looks like algos sense a down day, it is possible Santacruz could go lower yet. Canada still a halt and will be until they submit their financial report. OTC still trading. Shorts still shorting.
Things that make me go “Hmmmm ….”
Tether Reports $1.48B Profit in Q1, Reveals Bitcoin, Gold Reserves
Stablecoin “for the first time broke out bitcoin (BTC) and gold holdings detail in its consolidated reserves report. As of March 31, Tether held $1.5 billion of bitcoin on its balance sheet – or about 2% of roughly $80 billion in reserves – and $3.4 billion of gold, or about 4% of reserves.”
Allkem and Livent merging
That‘s massiv – will create a new lithium major
Should be in the same league as Albermale and SQM
Had I realized we’d be talking about Lithium today, I’d have waited to post this blog. Repost from yesterday.
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Lithium Markets Have Hit A Turning Point –Morgan Stanley
Mining.com – May 08, 2023
“The lithium market has reached a turning point at least for now, according to Morgan Stanley. Lithium carbonate prices in China, which tumbled 70% since hitting a record in November, have rallied in recent days on renewed optimism over EVs….”
https://www.mining.com/lithium-markets-have-hit-a-turning-point-morgan-stanley/