re: Ann: Galaxy Increases Ore Reserve by 23 p...
Here is one media article I am referring to: (another from Bloomberg was posted in link reference a few days ago and refers to GXY in positive light)
extract from a recent Alan Kohler article, (Eureka report) on a predicted revolutionary change coming up in the use of electric cars. What effect will this have on PMG demand?
PORTFOLIO POINT: Electric cars will become widespread sooner than you think. They represent a huge investment opportunity. Alan Kohler, 1 Mar 2010
Last week I spent some time with Evan Thornley, the man who started the internet search engine and directory company LookSmart, got rich and entered Victorian state parliament, then quit to become Australian head of Shai Agassis Better Place, a global provider of electric vehicle services mainly the electricity for them.
Thornley gave me two insights that entirely changed my ideas about electric cars, and about how fast and complete this revolution is going to be. Electric motors convert 85% of their energy input into mechanical output and as a result of that plus the fact that electricity is cheaper than petrol the average cost of running an electric car is 3 per kilometre, compared to 1015 for a petrol-powered car.
Thats the simple reason trains were converted to electricity 80 or so years ago and why ALL cars will switch within 20 years. Not just some, but all.
It will be the greatest consumer product transition in history and will create colossal booms in many things:
Most of the worlds car makers (except Australias) are now already producing or working on fully electric cars. Fully electric cars, as opposed to hybrids like the Prius, will start arriving on the Australian market next year. Unless all of these cars are to be imported many of them from China, where BYD Auto is on the way to becoming the worlds largest maker of electric cars with devastating consequences for Australian manufacturing industry, the local industry and policy makers need to get their skates on. (Warren Buffett famously invested $US230 million in BYD for a 10% stake in 2008. Today that stake is worth $US1.99 billion).
Evan Thornleys company, Better Place, is setting up to service electric cars; that is, to provide the electricity for a monthly subscription.
Better Place will have systems that automatically swap batteries under the car, taking about three or four minutes. The companys business model will be based on charging a monthly fee to supply all the electricity for the vehicle from a charging point at home or the office, and filling stations where the battery can be swapped. The monthly plans will be like mobile phone plans, with various usage models according to the customers needs.
The first roll out of charging stations will be in Israel next year, then Denmark and then Australia in 2012. Actually, theyll do a test roll-out in Canberra in late 2011.
Once electric charging stations start appearing on the roadsides, motorists will seriously start questioning whether their next car should be petrol or electric. The resale value issue is likely to kick in sometime in 2012 or 2013, as people realise that those who delay will end up with petrol cars worth nothing. I think this could result in a tipping point effect, with panic buying resulting in a rapid conversion of fleets to electric cars around the world.
The first to change will be the big fleets that do long distances: taxis, Commonwealth cars, couriers, sales reps. Diesel vehicles will take longer because the economics are different, but putting a price on carbon will hurry that along as well.
The key to a full-scale global electric car industry is China, which has already declared that it will build one million of them by 2012. China has an oil security problem, an air pollution problem, no legacy car industry, is already a big producer of lithium batteries for consumer products and is the worlds largest rare earth producer.
GXY Price at posting:
$1.29 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
