Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
American Lithium is up nearly 20% in the last week in Toronto. Tonopah isn't that far from Wikieup. (Or Wikiuep, if you prefer the alternate spelling by management in the RNS. Geologists aren't expected to be proofreaders.)
There's an RNS about this at the TRR board. "A deposit of US$2.5 million (the "Deposit") is being paid by the Buyer, with the balance to be paid upon completion of the Transaction, expected to occur in early-2023 following a favourable resolution of a dispute between the Seller and Bacanora (the "Dispute"). If the Dispute is found against the Estate, Trident's funding is fully repayable by the Buyer."
Because people are still attacking BCN management, now employed elsewhere, for selling out at a 50% profit.
A Sonora newspaper has a lengthy January 6 interview with a geologist who worked for Rio Tinto before becoming an independent consultant. It's in Spanish but translatable online. He has doubts about the process for clay deposits, and adds:
"“Is (Bacadehuachi) an important deposit? Yes, it is a significant deposit . Is it the biggest in the world? It is not the largest in the world. Does it have relevance? Above all, for us and for the region in which it is, it does have relevance.
“Is it going to be a major global competitor? No, I don't think so, there are other more important countries. The giant, the white elephant is still asleep, the largest lithium reserves in the world are in Bolivia ”.
https://www.elimparcial.com/sonora/sonora/Bacadehuachi-a-la-espera-del-litio-en-2023-20220106-0035.html
So this is four-month-old wine in new bottles. And LAC is years away from production -- did they actually buy any land, or are these just mining claims that cost $250 per 20 acres? (Of course, with Covid raging in Sonora, I don't think Ganfeng will make any progress there soon, either.)
The nearby lithium project in Oregon, on state land, probably will start production sooner.
I couldn't find a date on that "interim report" by Ganfeng, but the financials are for the period ending 30 June 2021. To be a leading project in clay extraction these days wouldn't take much, would it? Because it would be the only one in operation.
LAC is not a bad stock, reasonable people can disagree about whether there are better junior lithium miners. I bought BCN because of the Ganfeng involvement (and made a profit). There are those who claim that LAC doesn't know how to extract lithium from clay without Chinese technology controlled by Ganfeng, but I don't think it's that difficult. On the other hand, the Aussies haven't figured out how to get lithium from rocks.
@ mrcautious -- What are you doing with your ZNWD shares? Did you notice that Peter Secker, non-executive director, was just granted an option to buy 150,000 shares for £0.1810 by 15 January 2027?
And of course LAC's major shareholder is Ganfeng. If you can't beat them, join them.
" renowned and trusted North American broker" means, of course, that they are in Canada. I don't understand why a US broker can't be found to attract US investors to US properties, but I'm sure there are good reasons.
Pot calls kettle black. Unlike others, I've never raised funds off this fiasco.
So they need about 16 million more to reach 90%. With more than 200,000 being traded daily for less than 67.5p, it still might take them a while. I'd be embarrassed if I were the British broker industry, with all the reports of shares being tendered but still in accounts. Not to mention ShareSoc, for ignoring the problem.
@ fozdog It's a shame what BHL wants to do in Nevada at Spencer Hot Springs, a perfectly good location for nude bathing and now they want to chase people away. As for the Arizona clay sites, the competing companies are traded in Sydney and Toronto, and it's difficult to predict which has the better prospects. Lots of lithium in that area, but not enough hydrogen oxide.
I wasn’t going to say anything about Tesla because I just classify it under the “Greater Fool” school of investing – you’re a fool to buy it, like Bitcoin, but you can always sell it at a profit to a greater fool. Until you can’t. Like, when Elon Musk has a heart attack. There goes 20%.
But what it has in common with the “Greedy Cry-Baby” investment experience is that people who fall in love with their stocks should just stay away from the markets. I won’t repeat the hypnotized-chicken analogy, but you know what I mean. The market had determined what BCN was worth, in April. Ganfeng offered a 50% premium, which is more than what most takeover targets collect. Cheering for an average team is suitable for football, but not junior miners. Take your profits and invest elsewhere. But make a list of five reasons it could go downhill, and review them regularly. And if the company’s Board is governed by reality, then that’s a feature, not a bug.
@ Merlin49 And where do you suppose Tesla was buying its lithium before it renewed that long-term contract with Ganfeng?
@uncleal I would like to hear from one Ganfeng competitor who could explain why they didn’t make a higher offer if the resource was so valuable. Bidding contests have certainly happened elsewhere in the lithium world. The answer, of course, is that BCN had already sold half the project to Ganfeng. Who wants to be partner with them? But you should have seen that coming. Did you buy BCN before or after the Ganfeng deals? If after, you were warned. If before, what did you say at the time?
Is Jarvis another British broker? Maybe "Jarndyce" would be more appropriate.
I thought there was an organization called ShareSoc, that spoke out for small investors, for example those that are being ignored by their brokers when special distributions and buyouts are involved. Is there not enough fundraising potential in all of these BCN fiascos, to make it worthwhile for them to get involved?
Trading was halted twice at about 11am because of order imbalance -- see the RNS notices on ZNWD. Presumably because the price was advancing too rapidly. The BCN distribution is still being absorbed by the market. Another month and the price may reach the 2021 high.