This is the first part of my Lithium stock tracker.
There are currently 98 companies on this list which is not updated daily, so I'm sure there would be 20-30 more since this was created.
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Company |
| 1 |
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Albemarle Corporation |
| 2 |
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Allkem (was Orocobre Ltd) |
| 3 |
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Gangfeng |
| 4 |
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IGO Limited |
| 5 |
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Lanke Lithium |
| 6 |
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Jintai Lithium |
| 7 |
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Livent |
| 8 |
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SQM |
| 9 |
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Tianqi Lithium |
| 10 |
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Zangge Lithium |
| 11 |
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Acme Lithium |
Without question, the TIVAN technology is why the decision was made to invest in this company.
One of my favourite visual graphics which appeared after Jon Fisher arrived on scene is the one below, so at least in my mind, this was his doing.
Ever the more remarkable as additional value add streams post these high purity outputs are not factored in. Ferro Vanadium, VRFB electrolyte, Titanium metal powder additive printing. With the worldwide focus on decarbonization (look at FFI), a single process has the potential to make significant contribution to that effort.
Another graphic shows what 1kg of Vanadium has on 1 Tonne of steel, doubling it's strength.
1,337 million tons
In 2021, China produced nearly 1,337 million tons of steel, a slight increase of 0.9 percent compared to 2020.
It takes around 770 kilograms of coal to make one ton of steel
The processing of 2Mtpa of lower grade titano-magnetite ore would have produced 6,000,000kg of Vanadium - as an additive to steel & using the ratio above, that is 6Mtpa less steel needed -> 4.62Mtpa less coal used.
Now do the sums in your head when 1.6 tonnes of Iron ore is required to produce 1 tonne of steel @US$100 per tonne, 770kg of coking coal @$230USD per tonne. 6Mtpax1.6x$100 + 4.6Mtpa x $230 - one TIVAN plant would save an expanding economy US$960M + $1.058B in raw material costs if they had to import all their coal & Iron Ore for the same level of strengthened steel.
That is a net value per TIVAN plant, of US$2B per year as a result of steel production not required.
That is just the Vanadium BTW.
High-Strength Steel Solutions
High-strength quenched and tempered steels offer design engineers a number of advantages that can be used as solutions to everyday and difficult or unusual engineering problems. In some cases, mass savings of up to 30% or more are possible for specific types of primary structural steel work. Longer spans, greater load-carrying capacity and net weight reduction to reduce foundation loads are all possible through the use of higher-strength (up to 690 MPa yield strength and beyond) steel plate.
One plant making a small contribution however many would multiply this quickly.
Titano-magnetite deposits also appear fairly evely distributed around the world - this is an extremely basic map, but paints the picture.
Unlike a Cobalt, Manganese, oil/gas/coal, even Nickel, Lithium Brines, hard rock Lithium, throughout every continent with the exception of South America (based on this map) a titano-magnetite processing facility using this technology would be able to be sited next to the ore body.
Instead of mining Heavy Mineral Sands (lots of water), or an ore body for the 1 or 2% of Copper, Nickel, Lithium, or in the case of gold, 1 or 2 Grams per tonne, from, 2Mtpa of rock around 606ktpa of this is able to be used in modern & tomorrow's technologies.
And it's profitable.
That is why the realisation of a fully functioning process facility, complete with production & quality guarantees from SMS is such an important outcome, worth hanging around for. Because the flow on benefits will be realised in many different ways & globally, if the process plant meets it's design nameplate.
Otherwise pick any one of likely 120/130 Lithium stocks, where demand certainly is there, but the potential as outlined above, to be part of something like this & make a few bucks, is not.
And as I've noted earlier, these very big challenges remain, but they are not insurmountable.
CLC->water->NTEPA->FID->Funding
So abandoning the technology to chase something which 100+ companies, boards & shareholders are already pursuing, certainly in my view, would be a less than optimal outcome.
As a long term shareholder, & there are many of us, we deserve better.
Our offtake partners deserve better. (Proving this out in Australia & then seeing the next plant being built somewhere like India would be mint.)
Countries growing their infrastructure, industry & urban footprint at lower cost with higher grade steel a contributing factor, deserve better.
Being an enabler to a number of high tech industries through reliable supply of high grade commodities, I'd go as far as saying the future deserves better.
It is important to at least try..
(20min delay)