Rio Is Retooled for Battery BoomJanuary 30, 2017-Serbia borax reserve also contains world-class lithium deposit. Two fast-growing markets at a time of commodity-price recovery. Jon Hykawy, president of Toronto-based consultant Stormcrow Capital Ltd. “Jadar could be their lowest-cost source of borate chemicals.” The borate project in Serbia comes amid forecasts of rising global demand for the mineral with a market valued at about $4.9 billion annually, according to researcher IndexBox Marketing Ltd. And Rio, already the second-biggest producer, would stand to benefit if political turmoil disrupts exports from Turkey, the largest supplier, Stormcrow’s Hykawy said. Profit margins on Rio’s borates unit were 34 percent in 2015, better than aluminum and coal operations and in line with returns from copper, company financial data show. Demand for borates is also poised for growth, driven by agricultural, ceramic and glass markets in Asia and South America, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. Rio, which has exported borates to China for more than a century, increased output by 6 percent in 2016, the producer said in a Jan. 17 filing. Boric-acid prices may rise 10 percent from last year to $762 a ton by 2023, Stormcrow Capital estimated in a 2015 report.
“We believe that we are in the bottom of the price cycle,” said David Hall, business development manager at Orocobre Ltd., which produces borates from its Borax Argentina unit, acquired from Rio in 2012. “There are some good opportunities in agriculture globally and in the industrial sector,” including to make glass used in consumer electronics, he said. Rio’s Jadar is among the industry’s key growth projects, Hall said.
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-01-30/rio-unit-born-in-death-valley-is-retooled-to-supply-battery-boom