lithium news todaymorning everyone.
Lots of things happening in Lithium space today, first of all, TLH and Orocobre getting some exposure on rare metal blogs:
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Down Under REE Report: Lynas, new HREE concepts - and lithium action
Where to start? Perhaps with a storm in a teacup. There was a bit of a flurry on Wednesday in Australia when Nick Curtis, who heads Lynas Corp (ASX:LYC), disclosed he had sold 7 million of his shares in the company. As he said, at 53, you need to diversify your asset base and he still has a big stake in the company. But it got the chat room crowd excited and the stock fell by 8.7 per cent on double the usual turnover.
No one should have panicked: the chances of such a sale presaging some bad news from Lynas was out of the question - no director would do such a thing unless they wanted to put their head in the regulator’s noose. No director would buy or sell stock if any sort of important announcement was imminent. And the market got over it quickly: the stock had risen by 5.57 per cent the preceding day and was up around 2 per cent the day after the fall, so the Lynas price continues to move along in a relatively smooth range. The people who bought those 7 million shares will still own part of Australia’s only rare earth mine when Mt Weld gets up and running later this year. And Curtis still has a large stake through his superannuation fund. Storm over.
Possible the worst aspect of the transaction was that it was disclosed on a day when the Australian market - and many mining shares - roared ahead. Other Lynas shareholders were denied that bump in the value of their shares that probably they would otherwise have got.
So, on to the real news.
Progress is being made with the separate stock exchange listing of what probably can be labelled the No.4 rare earth project in Australia. Gold producer Navigator Resources (ASX:NAV) has now appointed directors and is looking for a chief executive to run Kimberley Rare Earths which is planning to list on the Australian Securities Exchange. Initially, the new company will have a 25 per cent share of the Cummins Range rare earth deposit. After Kimberley spends $A10 million on the project it will move to 55 per cent and control, with the option of going to 80 per cent.
Orion Metals (ASX:ORM) has applied for additional ground for its Killi Killi Hills rare earth project close to the West Australian-Northern Territory border. But the interesting passage in the company’s latest quarterly activities report is that staff are working on what it calls new concepts of the genesis of heavy rare earths, and that it will be testing new theories. No further information was provided but it will be carrying out extensive testing ahead of drilling by mid-year. We'll get back to you when we know more about these new concepts.
Meanwhile, Artemis Resources (ASX:ARV) is waiting for various ground applications to be granted for its Yangibana REE project in Western Australia. It has 7km of prospective strike length but has been able to test only the small portion that lies within exploration permits already issued. But even there the grades have included 0.388 per cent cerium, 0.17 per cent lanthanum with lower values of praseodymium and gadolinium. Artemis owns 60 per cent of the project in partnership with GTI Resources (ASX: GTR).
Two other stories to watch. Impact Minerals (ASX:IPT) is investigating rare earths present at its uranium project in Botswana while Ram Resources (ASX:RMR) has now gained 51 per cent ownership of the Motzfeldt tantalum-niobium-rare earths project in Greenland. Work so far indicates it comprises 85 per cent light rare earths and dominated by lanthanum, cerium and neodymium, 5 per cent HREE and 10 per cent yttrium.
And there’s also Outback Metals (ASX:OUM) which says that it will this year follow up some anomalous REE samples reported in 1985 by the then owner of its Wingate gold project in the Northern Territory, and UXA Resources (ASX:UXA) is also looking for REE in the territory, about 140km from Alice Springs. This company believes the area is highly prospective for europium, terbium and dysprosium. UXA is earning a 75 per cent interest from tenement owner Cullen Resources (ASX:CUL).
For those readers who also follow lithium, they probably know about the three Australian leaders in this sector. There’s Talison Lithium (TSX:TLH) which produces from the Greenbushes mine in Western Australia, and emerging producers Galaxy Resources (ASX:GXY), also in Western Australia, and Orecobre (ASX:ORE) which is operating in Argentina.
Now Reed Resources (ASX:RDR) has received final approval from the state government to start work at its Mt Marion lithium project 40km from Kalgoorlie. This clears the way for earthworks to begin. And Altura Mining (ASX:AJM is drilling its lithium project near Port Hedland, also in Western Australia.
Also, WLC has now graduated to TSX, we got a new kid on the block, and from speaking with them recently at a conference, costs to produce lithium from clay are believed to be lower than from hard rock, production projected to begin in 2014. Good small play with some potential....
Western Lithium Graduates to TSX
Reno, Nev., USA: Western Lithium USA Corporation (TSX-V: WLC; PK: WLCDF) is pleased to announce that its common shares will be listed and commence trading on the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) at the opening of the market on Wednesday, February 2, 2011.
The company’s current trading symbol, WLC, will remain unchanged and the company’s stock symbol in the U.S. will also remain unchanged as WLCDF.
“This listing on the senior TSX board is another milestone in the development of Western Lithium, coinciding with North America’s introduction to electric and hybrid automobiles using lithium-ion batteries,” said Jay Chmelauskas, Western Lithium’s President. “The graduation will open up a broader investor base and expand our access to capital as we continue to advance our Nevada-based source of lithium targeted towards North American and Asian battery manufacturers.”
Western Lithium’s shares will be delisted from the TSX Venture Exchange (TSX-V) upon commencement of trading on the TSX.
Western Lithium is developing the Kings Valley, Nevada lithium deposit into potentially one of the world’s largest(1) strategic, scalable and reliable sources of high quality lithium carbonate. The Company is positioning itself as a major U.S.-based supplier to support the rising global demand for lithium carbonate that is expected from the increased use of hybrid/electric vehicles
Posted by Robin Bromby at 12:08:12 AM in Blog, Editor, Robin Bromby