straight from the horses mouth

Lithium Market Asked by StockHopper on 23-08-2005

Hi Phil,

Have you looked at research using Lithium for the safe storage of Hydrogen?
I have noticed that the U.S Government have a $1.2 Billion fund for research in order to fast track Hydrogen to power vehicles using fuel cells. Have you any idea what would happen to the price of Lithium if it was the only safe viable method of Hydrogen Storage? My own research tells me that Lithium storage would be a viable means of storage around 24 months time as the technology matures.

Response From Phillip:

Thanks stockhopper for this question.

Lexus and Toyota are both spending large amounts of money perfecting lithium boron batteries and in this research i believe they are looking at using lithium for storage of hydrogen so that your car doesn't blow up if you are involved with in an accident.

The world market production for lithium chloride from various sources is about 120,000 tonnes at the moment. I expect that demand will increase seven fold if 1 kilogram of lithium chloride is needed per car for just Japan, asia and parts of Europe.

If oil keeps going to US$80 a barrell (US$68 toay) here comes hydrogen lithium!!!

Iron Ore economic threshold Asked by theflasherman on 23-08-2005

Hi Phil

Thanks for answering my previous question.

The Chile iron ore mines were obviously uneconomic in the past which is why they were shut down. At what price level (per tonne) are the mines uneconomic?

Also, is there any exploration upside in the Chile iron ore operations?
Response From Phillip:

This assumption is not correct.

Prior to Pinocet coming into power in 1973 they were economic when the price of iron ore was just US$8 tonne. CAP CMP were nationalised and all mining of iron ore was done by them for several years. The previous Santa Barbara and Santa Fe operations were closed down due to Pinocet, nationalisation and the drop in ore prices post 1973. When the government changed it attitude in the late eighties things began to free up but our partners father was very sick and hence there was no reactivation of the properties until we came along.

The mines were very hotly contested from South African and Swiss buyers who had bigger cheque books but inferior negotiating skills.

Re upside in exploration read our latest press release re the two 1,500 hectare deposits we have secured, plus we have 19 sq kilometres of tenements with about 2 sqare kilometres drilled. Upside isn't the word for it!!!!

Have a look at the website (www.ady.com.au) and you will see that our breakeven opex is about US$15 per tonne.