Key Points:
#OFF-TAKE-AGREEMENT #NORTHQLD #COVID-19 #ECONOMY #RECESSION #JOBS #MINING-TAX
#$13.27BILLION
#ETHICAL-COBALT #CARBON-NEUTRAL #NICKEL
This is a massive sign of certainty of what will be next for AUZ holders.Tesla Giga Berlin and Vale-NC Sign Offtake Agreement for supply of Nickel And Refined Cobalt.
Tesla Giga Berlin, has signed a contract with Vale-NC for the supply of intermediate mixed nickel and refined cobalt produced in New Caledonia. The contract was signed in March 2020. This information was confidential and only negotiators had access to it. The purchased volume remains confidential.
Tesla Giga Berlin will use the Caledonian nickel-cobalt from Goro for its European factory in Berlin-Brandenburg, currently under construction. By purchasing nickel and cobalt in New Caledonia for its electric batteries, Tesla will meet future requirements from the European Union. From 2022, metals imported into Europe will require ethical, societal, and environmental production standards. According to German press reports, in 2019, Tesla Europe hired a Caledonian engineer from Vale-NC to facilitate procurement and familiarization with the products of the Caledonian plant: "Tesla has recruited an engineer in a nickel-cobalt refinery in New Caledonia, that of Vale, in order to facilitate purchases for its large European electric vehicle factory in Berlin."
Today, there are more than 100 battery megafactories or larger planned around the world. In order to keep these factories powering their growing numbers of electric cars, increasing extraction of lithium, graphite, cobalt, and nickel is necessary.
AUZ SCONI is in the Tier 1 Mining region in North Queensland, the Pilot plant has proven the product and the plant has successfully produced demonstration Cobalt Sulphate and Nickel Sulphate.
AUZ has an enormous resource of Nickel and Cobalt that is now 100% ready for the next big global off-take agreement for the hundred or more battery mega-factories planned around the world.
TELSA signing with VALE-New Calenodia for their Nickel and Cobalt resource this year in 2020 is a massive sign that AUZ is quite possibly next resource to sign with huge global partners for Nickel and Cobalt.
TESLA's high density, high power, long range EV battery technologies will be incorporate Nickel and Cobalt. Nickel and Cobalt is a long proven, high performance, tried and tested technology with the NCA, NCM batteries, with all engineering, machines and process manufacturing lines setup for these metals.
AUZ is in Australia, their is a stable government and no child labour, unlike the CONGO. I believe Australian Mines will be picked next above any CONGO deals.
Read more of my research and commentaries below.
Everything is predicting AUZ will be going to mine to supply the imminent battery boom that the market analysts have predicted in 2020 for the next decade and till 2040. Nickel, Cobalt and Lithium will be staple metals for this predicted boom for global energy storage batteries for Grid, EV, home, industrial transport and public transportation.
Nickel is popular with EV battery-makers because it provides the energy density that gives the battery its power and range. Increasing the amount of nickel in a battery cathode ups its power/range, but add too much of it and the battery becomes unstable, ie. vulnerable to overheating and a shortening of its lifespan. Nickel is used in both of the dominant battery chemistries for EVs, the nickel-manganese-cobalt (NMC) battery used in the Chevy Bolt (also the Nissan Leaf and BMW i3) and the nickel-cobalt-aluminum (NCA) battery manufactured by Panasonic/Tesla.
Cobalt is a necessary ingredient in the battery cathode to provide stability and to maintain the battery’s cycle life – ie, how many times the battery can be discharged and recharged without loss of capacity.
Battery producers and electric automakers, including Tesla Inc., are concerned over longer-term supplies of nickel, a key material in their supply chain that’s forecast to fall into deficit, according to an Australian miner that’s held recent talks with the sector.
The need for the high-purity material used in batteries, known as class-one nickel, is likely to outstrip supply within five years, fueled mainly by rising consumption in the EV industry, according to BloombergNEF.
“They are getting ready to have the new factory in China, and are at full capacity in North America,’’ Bradford said. “They recognize the biggest risk from a strategic supply point of view is nickel.’’
There’s been a lack of sufficient investment in new mines for materials including nickel, a factor that could spur prices as battery sector demand builds, Tesla’s global supply manager of battery metals Sarah Maryssael, told a Washington meeting in May.
Demand for nickel from lithium-ion batteries is forecast to surge about 16 times to 1.8 million tons of contained metal by 2030, BNEF said in a July report. Batteries will account for more than half of demand for class one nickel by that date.
The battery industry accounts for the majority of global cobalt demand, and that demand is set to soar with more than $60bn (£46bn) of investments in new battery factories during 2019.
Almost three-quarters of the world’s cobalt supply is sourced from the DRC, a country whose rule of law is among the weakest in the world and which consequently has a terrible record on working conditions and child labour.
Musk tweeted his pledge in 2018 but demand for cobalt has since accelerated. Benchmark’s forecasts suggest that global demand for cobalt in 2029 will be 300,000 tonnes compared with an estimated 70,000 tonnes used in 2019. "according to the data firm Benchmark Minerals"
The car industry is by no means the only one implicated: the electronics manufacturers Apple, Google, Dell and Microsoft, as well as Tesla, were named in a US lawsuit last month by families who say their children were killed while mining cobalt used in their products.
This is why sourcing Cobalt from AUZ in Australia or New Caledonia will be the only OFF-TAKE Agreements on the table for the Hundred or more battery Mega-factories currently in construction and planning globally. (NOT THE CONGO!) (as mentioned) the European Union From 2022, metals imported into Europe will require ethical, societal, and environmental production standards.
NORTH QLD ECONOMY (COVID-19 recovery plan)
$13.27 Billion (Life of Mine Total Revenue).
$1.5 Billion construction mine site to stimulate local jobs and suppliers.
$2.2 Billion in downstream local North QLD economy stimulus over the life of mine for the local communities.
AUZ BATTERY METALS FOR NCM & NCA BATTERIES FORECAST
Other battery technologies outside of Li-ion do exist and are being developed in laboratories but are unlikely to make a difference in the EV market. These include zinc-air, aluminium-air, Na-ion and Li-air, LMO, LFP and LTO.
There remains fundamental technological differences and issues that have failed to be resolved with Li-Ion NCA and NCM battery alternatives.
High Performance, Long Range NCM, NCA batteries containing Nickel/Cobalt metals remain to the future of EV production compared to current alternatives. this is why Tesla Berlins future Battery Gigafactory has signed a Nickel and Cobalt off-take agreement in New Caledonia.
Cobalt: The world’s main producer of cobalt is the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), By 2025, the DRC will account for 80 percent of global
cobalt production. It is expected that demand will triple to more than 300,000 tons by 2040, likely increasing the price for this resource.
Nickel: Nickel manganese cobalt (NMC) strong nickel demand coming from these new batteries is already leading to an increase in price. The price of nickel has increased more than 20 percent in 2019, as stocks held in warehouses around the world registered with the London Metal Exchange fell to multiyear lows. The nickel market is worth over $30 billion annually. The global supply of 2.2 million tons per year is mainly produced in Indonesia (23 percent) and the Philippines (18 percent) — with a slew of 30 other countries accounting for the remaining 59 percent.
NCA, which is predominately used only by Tesla, has approximately 80% Ni, 15% Co, 5% Al whereas the most common EV battery used by all other OEMs is a NMC622 which is 60% Ni, 20% Mn, 20% Co. Recently NMC811, (80% Ni, 10% Mn, 10% Co) has been developed and is considered to be the technology of the near future.
AUZ SCONI MINE HAS LARGE RESOURCES OF NICKEL & COBALT TO SUPPLY THE BATTERY MARKET FROM AUSTRALIA.
NICKEL IS A MAIN COMPONENT OF BOTH NCA AND NCM Li-ion BATTERIES.
AUZ has current resources to supply the battery grid storage and EV indusries which will be multiplying in demand over the next 10 years.
AUZ is also targeting new resources in the field to expand the portfolio, further updates will come soon.
SOLID-STATE BATTERIES
Solid-state Li-ion has been a developing technology over the past few years. The term solid-state simply means that the electrolyte is not liquid but rather a solid or jell-like, ionically conductive material. The idea is to create an energy storage system with increased safety due to the non-flammability of the electrolyte.
The highest energy density technology will still use a high nickel cathode. AUZ has the resources within the Tier 1 QLD mining district to supply this future demand with full support from the QLD state government.
SUMMARY
- Hundreds of Battery Megafactories are in the planning or construction phases globally.
- Enormous metal resource off-take agreements will follow this energy storage boom.
- NCA NCM Batteries dominate the future.
- Alternative batteries fail to compete with NCA and NCM batteries. Scientists are failing to solve issues with other battery technologies.
- Battery storage manufacturing industries are set up for NCA and NCM production lines.
- NCA and NCM are commercially proven successful battery technologies.
- Tesla show support and commitment to Cobalt and Nickel by signing the resource mining off-take agreement in New Calendonia for NCA and NCM batteries.
- AUZ is 100% ready with a successful proven product from the pilot plant.
- Stable Australian government, No child labour, meets the European Union From 2022, metals imported into Europe will require ethical, societal, and environmental production standards.
- Annastacia Palaszczuk is actively trying to support and fast tract the AUZ SCONI mine. Herself and other QLD politicians are describing AUZ Sconi mine as a post COVID-19 economic recovery solution for North QLD. Through media releases the QLD state politicians have confirmed they will remove any red tape and fast the SCONI Mine also.
- Annastacia Palaszczuk has $175 Million initial funding available that she can use for the SCONI Mine assistance along with other financial incentives and projects to assist AUZ as per the media releases.
- $13.27Billion life of mine turnover
- $5Billion free cash flow
- In my opinion AUZ sitting at a $67Million market cap is a multi bagger in the short term building upto an off-take agreement this year and a Disallowed or higher as soon as an off take agreement is signed.
- I believe in my opinion that a Nickel and Cobalt off-take agreement will happen within the mid term. I use Tesla Gigafactory Berlins 2020 OFF-TAKE agreement in New Caledonia to Nickel and Cobalt as proof. Their factory is in construction. I will repeat "Hundreds of Megafactories are in the planning or construction phases globally."
My honest opinion. Everyone's opinion is welcomed. Good Luck.
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