Mike Berry - Lithium and TLH mention...
Elton Cairns, a professor of chemical engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, says a manganese-based cathode should indeed help to reduce battery costs. "Most other oxide cells have cobalt in them, which is expensive." If this research (Note: there are many other competing battery research efforts) is scalable, there is the potential for significant cost reductions and performance enhancement in in lithium ion battery production. Please see MIT Review for the article of interest.
We like exploration companies involved such as Focus Metals (flake graphite, up 25% on Friday’s presentation), Talison Lithium, Western Lithium and Rock Tech Lithium all in different Discovery categories. We also note that there is no domestic production of manganese in the US. Next week we will fly to Phoenix and on to Wickenburg, Arizona to visit the only manganese deposit in the US at Artillery Peak. We will report back on American Manganese after our site visit.
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