Warning: This post is more about social media than lithium so you may want to move on to a more productive use of your time.
I am not a big fan of New Year’s resolutions but based on the advice of my more social media savvy family members (my two daughters) I am determined to dial back my level of twitter engagement in 2018 with the growing crowd of lithium investors who seem to enjoy my work if it is favorable to their investment choices but tend to say nasty things about me or my dearly departed mother when I happen to point out the fact that many (read most) of the junior lithium companies on the ASX will never produce.
It is hard to feel too sorry for those foolish enough to invest in projects that are over 2,000 km from a port in a war torn African country with limited infrastructure or those that think they have found a “brine messiah” to resurrect a previously failed project in South America or those who think any company in WA that finds lithium in a drill hole is the rapid way to wealth. In any case for some reason I feel obligated to warn the lambs on their way to slaughter. The majority of these lambs seem to live in the merry old land of Oz.
Bottom line - it seems I have wasted a lot of time in 2017 engaging on social media with this crew.
So I will endeavor to follow the advice of my children which is consistent with my own advice to focus on what matters. In my case this means avoiding the noise on Twitter and paying attention to high quality lithium assets and people who clearly are interested in facts rather than those who blindly throw money at a questionable project and then cry “foul” when anyone challenges the obvious issues like limited or non-existent infrastructure, dodgy off-take agreements, clearly optimistic cost and capital estimates, etc.
The lithium world has been good to me so I have attempted to use social media to advise those with limited experience or access to information. For the most part, my clients (who pay the bills) could care less about what I say on Twitter or Linked In. They value my experience, advice and contacts not how many “clicks” or “likes” I get on Twitter. Unlike many of the newbie “experts”, I do not try to monetize social media nor will I try to get financial benefit from the podcast platform I am just beginning to test as a means to communicate the lithium story. I am trying to use social media to support those who aren’t in a position to pay for perspective in an opaque market.
Long story short, in good catholic fashion, I am writing this to spank myself for engaging with what may be otherwise bright people who are clueless when it comes to the lightest metal.
Several of my more knowledgeable readers have taken me to task for my “quixotic tilting at windmills” vs self-styled “ninjas” or others who say things I know to be false.
For those of you that want to point out to me that I am not always the kindest person on social media, I accept the criticism but will also say that I think CEOs of lithium companies who are clearly disingenuous or outright dishonest in their comments to shareholders or regulators that biased are “fair game”. I will not apologize for my comments regarding ALB’s CEO or Mr. Bitran at CORFO. Of course you are free to disagree with me as many people I respect do. On the other hand, going forward I will do my best not to waste time in meaningless sarcastic discourse on Twitter (the annual Lithium Awards will be an exception).
By most standards my social media following is limited; however by the standards of the lithium world I have a fairly large following. That said, I have blocked ~10% of those who have followed me on Twitter. Of that group, > 95% are Aussies. I guess that tells you something about the Aussie junior investor……. me, or both.
PLS Price at posting:
93.5¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)