PLS - August charts, page-222

It certainly augurs well for PLS.

The striking thing about ORE's result is that they ONLY produced a 19m profit from nearly 12m tonnes in sales. As ORE is a brine producer in Argentina they are supposed to have the lowest in production costs.

Reference:
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/arti...gets-trickier-as-electric-revolution-quickens

"With demand expected to keep rising as electric cars gain a bigger share of the global auto fleet, Argentina and Chile are attracting interest from mining companies because it costs about $2,000 to $3,800 a ton to extract lithium from brine, compared with $4,000 to $6,000 a ton in Australia, where lithium is mined from rock."

The big negative seen for PLS, is that brine producers will eventually dominate due to lower production costs.

Reference:
http://www.copyright link/business/...hium-hopeful-pilbara-minerals-20160624-gprl60 - June 2016

According to Deutsche Bank, about 76 per cent of global lithium reserves are brine-based deposits, and while they are more capital-intensive and slower to respond to market conditions, brine projects have inherently lower costs and greater economy of scale.

As a result, Deutsche Bank believe brines will "reclaim market share after 2018 and spodumene pricing will be linked to the marginal cost of a brine asset producing lithium carbonate, not the other way round".

Douche Bank were wrong!

I've made money from ORE before. They have always been riddled with production problems. They have been around for ages (in Lithium producer relative terms). If ORE and their results demonstrate anything , it is that producing Lithium from brine sources are currently undercosted.

The Pilbara Lithium producers have the lowest cost hard rock resources with established infrastructure and close to market. The Lithium price is going on a ride for the next 5 years (at least) but will eventually rationalise with improvements in recycling.

The African resources will be lucky if they're ever developed. There was a time when many said Iron Ore production in Africa would destroy Australia. It didn't happen. Lithium will be similar.

Recent references to Super volcanoes as a source for Lithium are similarly unfounded. The engineering specifics would be too costly.