Lithium - Tesla - alb - min : Howard Klein, page-29

Hi Simon ..
It’s always good to read your perspicacious perspectives.
And in the month since you posted above, iron ore has continued to climb but spodumene has been on rocket fuel.

What does this mean for MIN?
Something surely !

I was intrigued by the AFR story last month on IGO buying into Tianqi’s Greenbushes and Kwinana lithium operations.
It was published on 14/12/20 [read full story here], and concludes with a talk to Chris Ellison where he clearly intimates that he and ‘partners’ are considering backing ‘another hydroxide plant in WA’

..... “The Wodgina lithium mine in the state's Pilbara has been on care and maintenance since the day in November 2019 that Mineral Resources finalised the sale of a 60 per cent stake to Albemarle.

Mineral Resources has continued to operate the Mount Marion mine in WA where its partner is Chinese battery materials heavyweight Ganfeng.....

Ellison told shareholders at the recent AGM that lithium was "sort of the poor man at the moment".
"A couple of years ago, we were all standing here and applauding and doing bows, because we were heroes. But now, we're in the gutter with it," he said.

"But not totally, because if you look down the track over the next 10, 15 years ... just notice the countries up in Europe that are saying come 2030 and 2035, there will be no more combustion engines on the road.
"So we're going to have to power them somehow. Right now, lithium is one of the frontrunners of it. You can feel the demand is incrementally coming back now month by month."

Ellison says Albemarle is making excellent progress on the 50,000 tonne-year hydroxide plant at Kemerton that will be 40 per cent owned by Mineral Resources with corresponding off-take rights.
"They tell us that they have all of their product taken care of. They're in charge of the marketing," he says.
"And they say that they have all that spoken for. So about June next year, train 1 comes online, about October-November, train 2 comes online."

Ellison suggests there is little value in producing spodumene without downstream capacity to turn it into hydroxide and raises the prospect of Mineral Resources and its partners backing another hydroxide plant in WA.

"We're certainly actively looking at how to turn our spod into hydroxide. We're looking at that jointly with our partners," he says.
"And we've been working on that for three or four months, and we hope to get a result in that shortly. We have an awful lot of lithium in the ground."..........

Perhaps a deal with WES and SQM, who are progressing their Covalent JV, with positions vacant on Seek plus confirmation from an SQM announcement [ref]?
(But not yet officially announced by WES.)

Or something else again ?

..... And hello @Saragian, and I hope - if it is not too troublesome - you might say whether - according to your readings - any logical technical entry points to MIN appear on your charts as my policy of not being in a hurry and waiting for a retrace has not served me particularly well thus far.
.. And best wishes : )

and cheers to both and all