An important aspect of Pilbara's development was that in early...

An important aspect of Pilbara's development was that in early 2015 they were looking at a tantalum mine at Tabba Tabba, and further tantalum at Pilgangoora..

When drilling results showed plenty of spodumene, they were talking in terms of glass and ceramic grade uses for the spodumene "with their use in rechargeable lithium batteries representing a relatively new growth area". (The last bit quoted from PLS announcement 25/5/15).

With lithium, there had been one main mine being Greenbushes that was supplying all the world's hard rock supply of spodumene, with other lithium coming from brines in South America.

I was in PLS because I could see that lithium batteries were going to be big for the 'sustainable future' as govts got behind EVs. It sort of worked out OK...

I suspect the Niobium use in batteries for charging times as well as longevity of batteries will take off like wildfire as well. Adding $1/kWh to battery cost to shrink charging times will be a huge winner for every EV manufacturer. If you can charge your batteries in 10mins, compared to the other mob's 30 mins, it's a huge competitive advantage, plus the wait at public chargers will be a lot less.

Likewise for offgrid applications. You could have a huge solar array that all the charge goes into the batteries, oversizing the solar array. Currently, the solar and battery arrays need to be matched for size, as the batteries can only be charged at limited rates, so if sun is only out for 2 hours, you can never fully charge a battery from near flat. However if the battery can accept 10c (charging rate) safely, then an oversized solar array will help every offgrid use massively..

Think new mines in isolated locations, how about ours!!!??

We have a high grade mineral resource with an element that has the potential to be massively disruptive in the near future, making EVs just like ICE in 'filling time', plus a longer lasting one at that!!