Gordon Stein, CFO of CleanTech Lithium, explains why CTL acquired the 23 Laguna Verde licenses. Watch the video here.
The pandemic delayed a review of the project by Ganfeng and concentrator design and kiln optimization activities by around three months. The US$420mn capex estimate is unaffected but could change – potentially falling - following Ganfeng’s review.
"COULD CHANGE " -) ... I expect updated CAPEX estimate lastest by End of Q4 ... hoping for a positive surprise (-10%) because of Ganfengs sourcing power & experience
source: https://www.bnamericas.com/en/features/covid-19-puts-a-dent-in-latam-lithium-ambitions
sorry ... lot of information is missing and not included ... cash on hand (->importatn for survival !!), project status, financing, permissions, probability for production ...
short calculation:
hares (M) % gbp Eur MC (EUR)
Shares before 38,84 30% 6,12 0,0669 2598396
BCN cap. raise 90,62 70% 6,12 0,0669 6062478
Shares after 129,46 6,12 0,0669 8660874
So BCN will get appr. 4.71M EUR for Zinnwald ... (6.06M EUR - 1.35M EUR) ... depending on Share price for Erris ...
some kind of a MILESTONE - PLAN and a TIMELINE till production would be "nice" ...
https://www.fastmarkets.com/commodities/industrial-minerals/lithium-price-spotlight
translated from http://elrumbo.mx/2020/09/15/mexico-encontro-oro-blanco-pero-seguiremos-atados-al-pasado-a-decir-verdad/
... Practically the president does not know that Lithium exists, but the senators of Morena do and have worried about resulting in the issue of resource ownership in the hands of the state. The absurd proposal made by the Senate morenists is: "THE NATIONALIZATION OF THE LITIO" The bonanza was over, which was just beginning.
Practically the first investors have arrived and are already frightened by the flag of expropriation. Mexico does NOT have the resources to exploit Lithium on its own. The real task must be to implement all kinds of industry to add Mexican labor and technology to lithium industrial products. The government's mission will be to promote development, legal certainty, and channel the resources of taxes many and many, to the development of a forgotten region of Sonora."
btw. Howard Klein again and again pointed out that investors main focus now is in lithium hydroxide projects because of much stronger demand and better outlook ... most of the new financing goes to such projects ... he also mentioned that MC of BCN is very very low - we all know this fact - and that once the design is finished price & valuation should / will move fast ...
from BCN´s Shareholder Q&A 2020 AGM:
Lithium Hydroxide production
Q5: Bacanora has mentioned that lithium hydroxide samples have been produced at Sonora. Given that a
lot of EV manufacturers are now looking for lithium hydroxide, do you think that it is likely lithium
hydroxide will be produced at Sonora to scale?
A5: At present, lithium carbonate cathodes are still the dominant technology in EV batteries. Sonora will
be a fully integrated downstream lithium facility that would have the capacity to produce a number of
battery-grade lithium products, including carbonate and hydroxide. As lithium battery technologies
continue to develop, and demand for both NMC and LFP cathodes grows in Europe and Asia, Bacanora will
ensure that Sonora will have the ability to produce a number of downstream lithium products that will
ensure flexibility to match future EV demand.
source: https://www.bacanoralithium.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Bacanora-2020-AGM-QA.pdf
... "Days before his disappearance, Francisco Quiroga, who was in charge of the now defunct undersecretary, told this medium that the government has focused on having the new lithium deposits under its control; however, it would also respect and promote those that are in the hands of private companies."
source:
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=de&sl=es&tl=en&u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.jornada.com.mx%2F2020%2F09%2F07%2Feconomia%2F030n1eco%3Fpartner%3Drss&prev=search
IMO very positive for BCN ... discussion about BCN start @ appr. 27min ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ZFyqau3xeg
forget it ... there are existing contracts .... AND
Albores to Lead SEMARNAT, TOLEDO STEPS DOWN
By Alejandro Ehrenberg | Thu, 09/03/2020 - 09:53
President López Obrador declared that María Luisa Albores will replace Víctor Toledo at the helm of Mexico’s Ministry of Environment and Natural Resources (SEMARNAT). The president informed that Toledo stepped down due to stress-related health issues.
A renowned researcher with numerous books and papers to his name, Toledo led SEMARNAT for 15 months. La Jornada reported that his work as minister focused on Mexico’s most polluted regions. He promoted agro-ecology and authorized several federal government projects, including the Transisthmic Corridor and the Santa Lucia airport. La Jornada also highlighted that Toledo suspended glyphosate imports with the aim of eliminating the substance in Mexico by 2024. This confronted him with Minister of Agriculture Víctor Villalobos and with the head of the presidential office, Alfonso Romo, according to the newspaper.
El Universal informed that Toledo’s decision to quit SEMARNAT was in fact a consequence of a leaked audio where he criticized the Lopez Obrador administration. In the audio, Toledo says that the interests of several cabinet members are contrary to those of SEMARNAT. Furthermore, he pointed out that there is disarray within the government and that the Ministry of Agriculture promotes agribusiness in detriment of environmentally-responsible development.
President López Obrador commented that the contents of Toledo’s leaked audio are normal in a transformative political process, according to Excelsior. The president remarked that in his administration there is room for diverging opinions and that his role is to harmonize points of view for the benefit of the Mexican people.
Toledo also questioned the mining industry, particularly pointing out Grupo Mexico’s less than stellar environmental accident record. Additionally, the former minister attracted attention due to his stance over Mexico’s potential as a lithium producer. He underlined the battery metal’s strategic importance in the transition to a low-carbon economy, going so far as christening lithium as “the new oil.”
Controversially, Toledo proposed nationalizing lithium. The proposal, which did not lead to any action, baffled Mexico’s mining industry, as it evidenced Toledo’s shaky grasp on the law that regulates the nation’s mineral resources. It is worth remembering that the Constitution states that Mexico is the owner of all mineral deposits within its territory. The concession system’s point is to allow companies to explore and extract these resources on behalf of the country, in exchange of taxes and royalties. Put differently, lithium is already “nationalized.” Whether Toledo’s actual intention was to create a public company to exploit Mexico’s lithium deposits was never made clear.
source: https://mexicobusiness.news/mining/news/albores-lead-semarnat-toledo-steps-do
I expect (hope) that once Ganfeng moves from Lithium Americas project to Sonora by end of this year (?!?) BCN SP finally will rise too ...
https://stockcharts.com/h-sc/ui?s=lac
desperately waiting for any news or progress from Bacanora - what are they doing all the time ? they should be in production already !! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3yTED79Dhg&feature=youtu.be -))
The price for the delay(s) is very high ... burning cash, selling part of company and project, still have no time schedule or project financing. MISSING FOCUS. & MGMT LEADERSHIP ! No qtrly activities report, no milestone plan, nothing ... supervisory board looks on helplessly ... but as long as everybody gets paid there´s no need to put pressure onto the project ... they all should move to Sonora and should pe paid with shares till this project is in production ...
IMO Ganfeng´s focus now is on LAC, BCN will be their next project ... but who knows maybe at some time TESLA itself will buy the whole project ... pls. read following article
Source: https://www.globalxetfs.com/can-lithium-keep-up-with-the-ev-boom/
OEMs, Battery Producers, and Miners Seek Solutions
OEMs may have some options to avoid a lithium crisis. Offtake agreements, where downstream manufacturers lock in future feedstock supply by financially supporting upstream operations, have been common in the industry. However, it hasn’t yet incentivized miners to ramp up capacity expansions as lithium prices remain under pressure.
One option could be to buy into the lithium market directly, in order to control the long term supply chain. Some speculate that Tesla could be the first OEM to take full operating control of a raw material mining interest. If Tesla were to buy a lithium mine, estimates hold that the company could produce lithium at $5,000–6,000 rather than the current average selling price of $8,000–12,000, by leveraging their cheap cost of capital and cutting out middle men. In that case, Tesla could lower the price of a battery by approximately 4% through lower commodity prices.7
Elsewhere, VW and Daimler appear to be poking around the lithium mining world, commissioning studies in Chile’s Salar de Atacama, home of leading lithium miners Albemarle and SQM. The studies seek to address environmental concerns and spur measures for sustainable lithium mining for the long term.
Miners could also be interested in taking on battery production responsibilities. Leading Chinese miner Ganfeng and its unique, vertically integrated business model is an example. Ganfeng has operations along the entire lithium supply chain, including upstream lithium extraction, midstream lithium compounds and metals processing. Downstream efforts include lithium battery production of its own and recycling.
THEIR 2018 report started the long decline in Li Price ... NOW bullish !! MUST READ !!
https://twitter.com/LithiumIonBull/status/1272647782269100034
anyone also noticed that in the last days / weeks there were many trades with higher volume in the middle between bid and ask ? IMO this is a typical sign of accumulation over a longer period ... any other explanation ?
Many countries will take a chance to push E-Mobility and improve climate protection ... from Global EV Outlook 2020
"The impact of the crisis on electric car sales in early 2020 The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic also brought about a dramatic decline in electric car sales. In China, the drop followed that of overall car sales. The decline was largest in February, with electric car sales falling to 16 000 vehicles, a plunge of around 60% from the same month in 2019. Sales rebounded strongly in April, reaching around 80% of the level they were at a year earlier. In the United States, electric car sales in April more than halved from a year earlier to about 10 000 vehicles.
Electric car sales in European countries bucked the trend of the overall car market for a variety of reasons. 2020 is the target year of the European Union’s CO2 emissions standards, which limit average CO2 emissions per kilometre driven of new car sales. In addition, Germany increased electric car purchase subsidies in February, and the impacts of the system introduced in Italy in 2019 to encourage electric cars started to affect the market.
The result: in the largest European car markets combined (France, Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom), sales of electric cars in the first four months of 2020 reached more than 145 000 electric cars, about 90% higher than in the same period last year. In Norway, the country with the highest share of electric cars in overall car sales, the number of electric cars sold between January and April 2020 was about the same as in the same period in 2019 (IEA, 2020b). "
Source (p.52): https://www.connaissancedesenergies.org/sites/default/files/pdf-actualites/Global_EV_Outlook_2020.pdf
other great articles ...
https://www.electrive.com/2020/06/04/germany-doubles-ev-subsidies-no-more-diesel-support/
https://www.mobilityhouse.com/int_en/magazine/e-mobility/corona-economic-stimulus-package-reduces-prices-for-electric-cars.html
https://english.elpais.com/economy_and_business/2020-06-16/spain-to-provide-up-to-4000-in-subsidies-for-purchasing-a-new-car.html
IMO the start signal (and most visible sign) for the next Li-Boom may be the "first uptick" in Li prices ...
-> https://www.fastmarkets.com/commodities/industrial-minerals/lithium-price-spotlight
... "In the upstream, Tesla seems to be following a similar approach as that for the downstream with Ganfeng Lithium (OTCPK:GNENY) as its spearhead. As time passes, China’s largest lithium compound producer and one of the world’s largest lithium producer is likely to become Tesla’s only lithium supplier. Ganfeng’s recent movements make us think that the offtake agreement they both agreed upon back in 2018 was not a typical one. It probably meant going beyond supplying a given amount of lithium at certain times. One indication of this seems to be Ganfeng’s decision to capitalize on Bacanora Minerals (OTC:BCRMF) in Sonora, Mexico, in October 2019. As I reported in 2017, Bacanora was one of the two lithium companies with which Tesla had signed offtake agreements in 2015."
Source: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4352962-why-tesla-should-be-aware-of-new-holy-grail-in-lithium-batteries
RNS is another disappointment ... just to remember .... from RNS Number : 9795W from 07 AUGUST 2018 (!!!)
WTF are they doing all the time since then ?? Someone should ask them on the next AGM about this fact !! WHY does these delays have no consequences to the managament & PS ?
Project Development
· The Front End Engineering Design ("FEED") for the Li2CO3 processing facility is currently scheduled to be completed in H2 2018 and the ongoing design scope includes the following critical areas:
o Pre-concentrator
o Roaster/Kiln
o Crystallisers/Evaporators
o IX and packaging
o Energy supply contracts
o Infrastructure and access
· The Company continues to build its Owners Management Team to work with and manage the FEED engineering groups
o The Company now has over 50 employees based in Hermosillo working on the FEED and being trained in the pilot plant
· The pilot plant continues to produce samples of battery grade Li2CO3 for distribution to potential end customers in Asia in addition to the ongoing metallurgical flow sheet optimisation work and other testwork
o Significant effort is being placed on training local personnel in all operational aspects of lithium process plant operations
· Modified environmental site permits ("MIA") were granted in May 2018 allowing the location for the Li2CO3 plant to be optimised for future production
· Once the FEED has been completed and all designs, cost estimates and process guarantee scopes are in place, orders for long lead items can be placed and earthworks can commence, subject to funding being in place. Subject to completion of funding discussions and FEED, the Stage 1 project commissioning target at Sonora is likely to be in H2 2020.
very attractive pricing and IMO we´ll see many governmental subventions for e-mobility again and very soon to boost the economy...
Source: https://www.zerohedge.com/technology/many-volkswagen-evs-are-already-sold-out-second-half-2020
Sonora, Mexico, holds one of the world’s largest lithium resources and benefits from being both high grade and scalable.
The mine is being developed by Sonora Lithium (SLL) a joint venture of Bacanora Minerals (77.5%) and Ganfeng Lithium (22.5%). It’s thought to hold proven and probable reserves of 243.8 million tonnes containint 4.5 million tonnes of lithium carbonate-equivalent.
Sonora will be an open-pit operation being developed in two stages, with the first having a production capacity of 17,500 tonnes per annum of lithium carbonate. Stage two will double the production capacity to 35,000tpa. It’s estimated the initial mine life will be 19 years.
Engineering work was due to be completed in Q1 of 2020, but Bacanora reported that the impact of Covid-19 was delaying the project. They now expect engineering work on stage one to be complete in Q3 of the year.
"Administrative staff, based in Hermosillo, are now working remotely. The pilot plant will continue to operate on day shift until the next batch of kiln and lithium samples are shipped to the USA and China, or until the company is required to temporarily close its operations following a government directive," the company said in a statement.
Source: https://www.fircroft.com/blogs/5-mining-projects-to-watch-in-2020-01276154427
source: https://bacanoralithium.com/cms/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/BCN-Presentation-April-2020.pdf