PHOENIX – Gold is grabbing headlines, but it is the element lithium that is snagging cash and raising eyebrows.
In the wake of a global meeting of bankers and geologists at a lithium conference in Chile, one whose attendance was more than half Japanese, lithium worthies are lining up road shows.
I met with one lithium CEO on her trek through California the other day. Over breakfast at the Dipsea Café in Mill Valley, Judy Baker filled in some pieces regarding her Canada Lithium (TSX: V.CLQ, Stock Forum).
Judy, in her mid-40s with bright blue eyes and dirty fingernails, is what I might call “the people’s CEO.” She is a miner from Ontario with a geology degree from Queen’s University. She speaks Canadian, as in – “so and so is full of piss and vinegar, ain’t he?”
At breakfast, she vowed to take Canada Lithium from penny-ante stock and wanna-be lithium producer to an operation capable of producing 5% of the global demand for the element by year 2015. (By the way, Judy at breakfast had “the usual,” the café’s massive eggs, bacon, sausage, griddle cakes and so on; I had my usual ‘blubes,’ or blueberry wholewheat pancakes.)
“Half the world’s lithium comes from brine and half from hard rock or clay,” says Ms. Baker. “Our deposits are in Quebec for starters and in the Great Basin (Nevada brine).”
Baker said nearly all of the Japanese execs at the Chile conference were there to line up future lithium producers for their lithium rechargeable automobile batteries. Demand for lithium that is used in batteries, weapons, lightweight aluminum alloys, ceramics and pharmaceuticals will rise to 400,000 tonnes or more across the planet, studies from the Chile conference reported. The gain is roughly 400% from 2007 usage levels.
Baker acknowledges she is under pressure to get her company’s shares to a level where she can raise cash for further exploration and feasibility studies in Quebec. Her main North America competitor for lithium, Western Lithium Canada Corp. (TSX: V.WLC, Stock Forum), is five or more times Canada Lithium’s size and has the backing of heavyweights in mining, geology and banking.
Western Lithium Canada’s CEO, Jay Chmelauskas, hails from the Ivanhoe Capital network of companies in China, Mongolia. A high-profile director of Western Lithium, which is pursuing clay deposits in Nevada that appear ripe with lithium carbonate, is geologist and banker R. Edward Flood, another Ivanhoe Capital graduate and currently an influential banker at mining merchant bank and brokerage Haywood Securities in London.
Judy this week scored a minor coup in the current stingy market by wiping out a $28,000 debt, most of it linked to longtime owners of her company’s predecessor and other dealings, by issuing and selling shares of the 20-cent Canadian stock.
Backers of the transaction, Judy says, believe the company’s 100%-owned Quebec property, a deposit that produced some 270,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate and related spodume concentrates, will be a winner. Canada Lithium bought the property rights from IAMGOLD, which still holds six million shares of Canada Lithium, along with Kinross.
A ton is a tonne is a ton
Now, Canada Lithium’s issuance of about 200,000 shares to settle debts does not sound like a ton, or tonne, of shares. But with about 90 million shares fully diluted, the company can ill afford to dilute shareholders at the extremely low levels of the shares (about 20 cents Canadian).
Technically, the new shares have a four-month hold period for the purchasers. Judy recently issued several million options grants to executives and employees as well.
In defense of the debt-erasing transaction, Judy today (Friday, as I head to Phoenix for the big metals show), tells me this: “I took a portion of my 2008/2009 salary in shares. The corporate secretary for the company also does the company legal work. We usually pay cash but after I took salary in shares he said we could settle his Dec/.Jan bill in shares as well! We rent office space from CGX Energy. Again, after they saw I took salary in shares they said we could pay them in shares as well!”
Judy, ever ready with facts, also told me, “I put a small $469,000 financing in the company in December. Our burn rate is low but I am being conservative with cash.”
Both Judy’s company and Jay’s Western Lithium Canada hope that political sentiment for North America-produced lithium is a big plus for their ventures. Few legislators in Quebec, Nevada or anywhere else in North America want to purchase lithium carbonate from anywhere except home-sweet-home these days.
Western Lithium, we must note, is a spin-off of assets once owned by Western Uranium Corp. (TSX: V.WUC, Stock Forum). Western Uranium still owns about a third of Western Lithium. (And we here at home own Western Uranium shares.) Western Lithium tuned up its paragraph factory this week when it hired Cindy Burnett of Vancouver ($75,000 for six monthsof public relations) to spread the L-word.
Burnett ran investor relations for Ivanhoe Energy (NASDAQ: IVAN, Stock Forum), yet another Ivanhoe company whose CEO is also the chairman of the Ivanhoe group, Mongolia miner Robert M. Friedland.
Back to Judy, who plays her cards right out where everyone can see them. At breakfast, just as we sat down at the cozy Dipsea, she laid out a dealer’s flush of calling cards from her current road show of fund managers, bankers and corporations. Let me say now that some of the names were mega headliners, Oscar winners in their fields.
“All of these people have been freaking awesome with me,” she said between bites.
That is all for now. See you in Phoenix.
Road shows: Small exploration companies in North America are on the road, trying to get bankers and fund managers interested in levitating their penny share prices. That is good news for cab drivers at airports. Some of the companies are – not in precious metals – but elements such as lithium, molybdenum and in base metals. Stay tuned, especially if you subscribe to www.tickertrax.com.
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Phoenix this week
We will be presenting at the Cambridge House metals show in Phoenix this weekend. The show, at the Renaissance Hotel in Glendale, just a mile or so from spring training baseball, will feature a silver summit. It is free for those who register now. Lots of Ticker Trax friends will be there.
Please see:https://www.cambridgehouse.ca/ch_phoenix2009.html to register.
THOM’S STORY: Thom Calandra during 27 years of road work has helped his audience find value in a quagmire of investment choices. Thom co-founded CBS MarketWatch, MarketWatch.com and FT MarketWatch in Europe. As the voice of Thom Calandra's StockWatch and The Calandra Report, Thom fancied $300-ounce gold before that metal became an investment rage. Thom visited bioscience companies, metals mines and energy companies in a search for reliable sources and fine planetary prospects. (He was imperfect in at least one regard, having settled a U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission complaint in 2004.) Thom's novel PABLO BY NUMBERS was completed in 2008.
HOLDINGS: Thom’s cosmos of holdings is listed for free Stockhouse members on www.Stockhouse.com under the “portfolio setting” for user TCALANDRA. He and his family own recently minted gold coins. They have no interest in Canada Lithium and receive no compensation for these reports. They own shares of Western Uranium. They have no interest in any publicly traded Ivanhoe company. For the free ThomWatch, please click here. For subscription service Ticker Trax, please visit www.TickerTrax.com. Thank you!
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