AVZ Minerals share price rockets 20% higher today before trading halt
The AVZ Minerals Ltd share price went through the roof today, gaining 20% by 3pm when trading in the shares was halted at the company’s request.Today’s run higher is enough to put AVZ’s share price up 56% since 2 January. By comparison, the All Ordinaries is down 7%.
AVZ’s share price reached a 2020 high of 10 cents per share on 21 February before falling 50% through to 17 February during the COVID driven market rout.
What does AVZ Minerals do?
AVZ Minerals is a mineral exploration company with a primary focus on lithium. The company states that its Manono Project may be one of the largest lithium-rich LCT (lithium, caesium, tantalum) pegmatite deposits in the world.
What next for AVZ’s share price after the trading halt?
AVZ requested the trading halt this afternoon as it prepares an announcement in response to the ASX price query it received as well as an operation update announcement.
There is no market information available about what AVZ’s pending operation update may detail.
Judging by the sharp run higher in the share price today the company may have some good news to share.
Whether or not that warrants today’s share price surge remains to be seen.
Longer-term the company finds itself in a good space, provided its Manono project proves successful.
The global demand for lithium, a highly conductive metal, is forecast to grow strongly over the next decade as the transition to electric vehicles and battery storage for energy grids accelerates.
Another tailwind for Australian critical mineral miners came courtesy of US President Donald Trump.
Last week Trump took the historically extraordinary step of greenlighting US government investments into critical minerals projects in Australia.
This comes as Trump continues to work to move the US away from its reliance on Chinese sources.
There’s no indication that AVZ Minerals is already a direct recipient of any US funding.
But the AVZ share price will certainly be one to watch when the company releases its operation update and response to the ASX, expected either tomorrow or before market open on Monday.
Volkswagen says EVs will make up 90% of its Norway new car sales by next year
German automaker Volkswagen has predicted that electric vehicles will make up around 90% of its car sales in Norway, the world’s leading EV market, as early as next year, thanks to the Nordic nation’s stable and ongoing policy support.
The bullish forecast was offered on Wednesday by Harald A. Moeller, the Norwegian importer of Volkswagen cars, alongside a further prediction that VW EVs would completely replace its diesel and petrol car offerings in Norway by 2023.
The comments follow the news last week that Volkswagen’s newly launched ID.3 had become the top selling EV in Norway, where total electric vehicle sales had broken another market milestone, passing the 60% market share of total September auto sales.
As The Driven reported here, the Volkswagen ID.3 sells in Norway for NOK 350,000 ($A52,340 converted) for the base model, or NOK 400,000 ($A59,820 converted) for the first edition “Plus” option, and was released on the Norwegian market on August 28.
With a 62 kilowatt hour battery it offers 420km driving range.
Volkswagen says it will also offer an 82 kilowatt hour battery down the track which would be rated for 550km driving range from 2021.
As well as the ID.3, the Volkswagen e-Golf is also big in Norway, as the second most common car on the Norwegian roads after the Nissan Leaf – there are almost 50,000 of them.
Volkwagen’s confidence that things can only get better for its electric car sales in Norway stems from the release of the government’s 2021 fiscal spending plan on Wednesday, which extended the country’s policy of zero tax on fully electric cars.
“This allows us to be confident in saying we can hit 90% electric car sales next year,” said Harald A. Moeller, as quoted in Reuters.
*Last, but not least, for our friends across the Ditch ( Stevo )
Ardern says New Zealand will buy only zero emission buses from 2025
New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern says her government will require local councils to buy only zero emissions buses – either electric or hydrogen – from 2025 and will eliminate fossil fuel buses from the public transport network by 2035.
The election pledge made in the lead up to the polls on November 17 is the headline measure announced in New Zealand Labour’s climate package, which also includes the elimination of coal-fired boilers from schools and business, and a commitment to 100 per cent renewables by 2030.
Ardern, who drives an electric Hyundai Ioniq, says her government will give $50 million over four years to councils to support the shift to zero emissions buses.
“I have said that climate change is my generation’s nuclear free moment and the work we have done – and plan to continue – demonstrates Labour’s commitment to that,” Ardern says in the new policy statement.
“Transport makes up about 20 per cent of New Zealand’s domestic greenhouse gas emissions and is the fastest growing source.
“This needs to change so Labour will require that only zero emissions buses be purchased by 2025 and will target decarbonising the public transport bus fleet by 2035.”
New Zealand has some 2,600 buses operating in the country, mostly in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.
Some of these councils are making moves towards electric buses – Auckland has two electric buses and will soon have eight more operating, Wellington is adding another 98 to its existing fleet of 11, and Christchurch plans to have 92 e-buses by 2022, or 46 per cent of its fleet.
Labour says it wants to accelerate this shift and says its plans are particularly focused on smaller cities transitioning their fleets.
The Labour policy document notes that the UK’s emissions were 44 per cent below 1990 levels in 2018 and the European Union’s 25 per cent below 1990 levels in 2019. But New Zealand’s gross emissions have increased 23 per cent since 1990.”
“If we don’t take action on climate change, we will be left behind and lose our reputation for being clean, green and internationally responsible,” the Labour policy document says. “Our clean and green image underpins much of our economy and New Zealand needs to be seen to be playing our part.”
Labour also intends to introduce a vehicle fuel efficiency standard for new and used light commercial vehicles (New Zealand and Australia are two of only three OECD countries not to have fuel efficiency standards).
The standard will aim for a target of 105 grams of CO2 per kilometre by 2025 (that target was reached in Japan in 2014), but it says it will save more than $NZ6,000 in fuel costs for the average vehicle over its lifetime and more than $NZ3.5 billion in overall fuel costs.
The fuel efficiency of cars in New Zealand is so bad that New Zealanders pay an estimated 65 per cent more for fuel than the average person in the European Union, even though petrol prices are higher in Europe.
Labour will also increase funding for EV charging stations to $NZ25 million a year – evenly shared by Government contributions and sector levies – to expand the current network of more than 1,000 electric vehicle charging stations.
The Greens, currently in minority government with Labour, welcomed the initiatives but wants the country to go further and quicker. It promotes a “feebate” scheme that will make the purchase price of electric vehicles more competitive, and it wants to put solar panels on every suitable state home.
Labour is currently leading in the polls with around 47 per cent, followed by the Nationals with 33 per cent and the Greens with 7 per cent. National leader Judith Collins has repeatedly pointed out that New Zealand contributes 0.17 per cent of global gross emissions.
