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Galaxy Resources.
Galaxy Resources Limited is a global lithium company listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX Code: GXY).
Undervalued, Price/eps 11x
http://www.galaxyresources.com.au/
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Neometals.
Neometals Ltd (ASX: NMT, OTC: RDRUY) is a Western Australian minerals project developer. Neometals' projects include:

Mount Marion Lithium Operation
High-grade lithium project located 35km south west of Kalgoorlie in JV with Mineral Resources Limited (ASX: MIN) and one of China's largest lithium producers Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co., Ltd (NMT 13.8% | MIN 43.1% | Ganfeng 43.1%).

Kalgoorlie Lithium Hydroxide Facility
Neometals and Mineral Resources have signed an MoU to investigate the production of a high purity lithium hydroxide chemical for sale to the cathode industry for use in the production of lithium batteries. The lithium hydroxide plant is expected to be located near the mine in Kalgoorlie.

ELi Process
Neometals is planning to capitalise on growth in the energy storage market by commercialising its proprietary process for producing high purity LiOH. The process route shows potential to operate at lowest quartile costs for LiOH.

Alphamet
Alphamet's (a subsidiary of Neometals Ltd) "Neomet Process" is an energy efficient and environmentally friendly proprietary process designed to effectively extract valuable metals for a wide spectrum of base, light and precious metal oxides and sulphides, intermediates and waste feeds.

Barrambie
The Barrambie deposit is one of the world's highest grade hard rock titanium deposits. Neometals is currently investigating the potential to use a proprietary acid leach process to produce high purity TiO2, V2O5 and Fe2O3.

Price/eps 2,5 x
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Price Lithium

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Galaxy Resources starts 24-hour production at Mt Cattlin Lithium Project
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07:30 08 Dec 2016
Galaxy Resources (ASX:GXY) has commenced 24-hour production at the Mt Cattlin Lithium Project in Ravensthorpe, Western Australia.
Galaxy Resources starts 24-hour production at Mt Cattlin Lithium Project
Galaxy Resources starts 24-hour production at Mt Cattlin Lithium Project
The company is aiming to produce 5.5% lithium concentrate grade with less than 5% mica concentration.

To date, Galaxy’s product remains on specification for mica concentration, while consistently achieving lithium grades in excess of 5.5%.

This follows the redesign of the processing facility to reduce mica content and the additional concentration to increase the final product grade.

Galaxy began trucking the Mt Cattlin product to the Esperance Port on 5 December 2016.

Over the coming weeks, short term production tests will continue with scheduled maintenance shutdowns to ensure that reliability is sustained through the continued ramp-up.

Part of these short-term production tests are the planned process tests to improve the final concentrate grade to 6%.

Galaxy had restarted lithium and tantalum mining and processing operations at the Mt Cattlin mine in Q1 2016.

In July 2016, it was decided to upgrade the annual throughput of Mt Cattlin from 800,000 tonnes per annum to 1.6 million tonnes per annum of lithium concentrate production.

This decision is expected to deliver substantial operational efficiency and greater capacity to meet the current demand for lithium from the Chinese market.

In September, Galaxy took full management control of the Mt Cattlin project, following the takeover of General Mining Corp (ASX:GMM).
 
Galaxy Resources stocks soar in lithium boom
In mid-December, it announced it had agreed to sell 120,000 tonnes of lithium concentrate it expects to produce in 2017 at a price of up to $US905 ($1250) a tonne. To put that into context, Morgan Stanley analyst Brendan Fitzpatrick had been modelling an average lithium concentrate sale price for 2017 of $US550 a tonne.

They also shape up to be particularly profitable. Hartleys analyst Trent Barnett has Galaxy generating more than $180 million in net profit over 2017 and 2018 *calendar years, while Canaccord Genuity’s Reg Spencer forecasts $200m in free cash flow over the same timeframe.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/bus...m/news-story/0b256f9c2cd1e748f11539a3f027d137
 
Neometals Limited (ASX:NMT) is a project developer based in Western Australia. So we have globally significant resources of lithium and titanium. What we try to do is to bring good human and financial capital to those businesses, a processing technology that can lead to lower Opex and Capex. And attract big partners in to execute our projects. We’re happy taking risk with the drill bit or in the test lab, but when it comes to the execution of monetisation, we try to bring in very strong partners. And we’ve done that certainly with the lithium project and we look to do that with the titanium project.

Mt Marion lithium project is located about 40 kilometres southwest of Kalgoorlie, in Western Australia. It currently has a JORC compliant resource of 78.8 million tonnes at 1.37 per cent lithium oxide. So we are currently commissioning the project with first exports planned for this month. We have an MoU with Mineral Resources Limited (ASX:MIN) for a downstream lithium processing plant, which we plan to locate close to Mt Marion near Kalgoorlie. We are in a stage of doing, planning a frontend engineering design. We hope to have that ready for a final investment decision in the third quarter of next year.
The Barrambie titanium project is located about 65 kilometres southeast of Meekatharra. It has a resource of about 48 million tonnes of TiO2, grading about 20 per cent TiO2. At this stage, we’ve completed a prefeasibility study on that and we’re now in the optimisation phase, before starting a DFS hopefully towards the end of next year. The technology that we are using for the Barrambie project, we’ve licensed from some Canadians. We have the exclusive rights to that. We are going to commercialise that technology with the aid of Sedgman, the engineers. So basically, Sedgman are going to introduce the technology to their clients and they get a point of the exclusive EPC Engineer, for the technology.

The company is in excellent financial shape. As of 30th September, we had about $65 million in cash on the balance sheet and listed investments of about $11 million. No debt, and cash flow commencing from the Mt Marion project, hopefully early next year. So certainly in 12 months from now, we’d like to be included in the ASX 300. That would be one of my short-term targets, to have Mt Marion operating at steady state production and looking at potentially an expansion. The longer-term horizon, we’d like to have a market cap of over $1 billion, to continue to share the money that we make with our shareholders, which is one of our important values.
 
Lithium Australia

Latest ASX announcements
27 January 2017 – Lithium Australia geophysics defines lithium/tantalum pegmatites at Lake Johnston Western Australia in collaboration with Poseidon Nickel Ltd (ASX:pOS) and Lefroy Exploration Ltd (ASX:LEX) 5 pages (1Mb)

23 January 2017 – Appendix 3B 13 pages (922Kb)

17 January 2017 – LIT produces battery grade lithium carbonate 2 pages (500Kb)

16 January 2017 – LIT advances recycling plans 2 pages (334Kb)

13 January 2017 – LIT advises update on Electra lithium project in Mexcio 2 pages (577Kb)

30 December 2016 – Trademark Application for LieNa™ has been accepted for registration 1 page (414Kb)

28 December 2016 – Airborne magnetic and radiometric survey results on LEX Lake Johnston area 2 pages (1Mb)

https://lithium-au.com/



Lithium Australia NL takes advantage of data to identify lithium
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09:30 27 Jan 2017
Lithium Australia NL (ASX:LIT) has used newly acquired airborne geophysics data to identify known and possibly buried lithium-tantalum bearing pegmatites at the Mt Day and Lake Johnston projects, located 420 kilometres east of Perth.
Lithium Australia NL takes advantage of data to identify lithium
Based on the new 50 metre line spaced data, the majority of the known lithium-tantalum bearing pegmatites are coincidental with ring-like, potassium radiometric anomalies.

Pegmatite outcrops defined through satellite imagery interpretation and field reconnaissance, confirm that many of the pegmatite outcrops are circular in outcrop and are possibly related to late-stage ring fractures.

It is further interpreted that the low to moderate amplitude potassium anomalies without any rock expression are related to shallowly buried pegmatites.

Adrian Griffin, managing director, commented: “Lithium Australia continues to develop its outstanding lithium exploration projects to ensure an accessible pipeline of potential lithium feed.

“We are encouraged by these initial Lake Johnston survey results and are pleased with our collaboration with Poseidon and Lefroy.”

The survey was completed in collaboration with neighbouring tenement holders Poseidon Nickel (ASX:pOS) and Lefroy Exploration (ASX:LEX), who also hold some nickel and gold rights in the area.

Lithium Australia shares are trading up 40% over the past month, currently priced at $0.19.

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Lithium Prices Set To Jump As Tesla Doubles Global Battery Production

By Nick Cunningham - Jan 06, 2017

Tesla fired up the gigafactory in the first week of 2017, which could mark a turning point for the energy storage industry.

The gigafactory in Nevada will begin mass production of lithium-ion batteries for the use in both Tesla’s Model 3 electric vehicle as well as its energy storage systems. Tesla, and its partner in the gigafactory, Panasonic, plan on hiring 4,000 people to work at the factory in 2017. By 2018, Tesla predicts that it will be churning out 35 gigawatts of lithium-ion batteries per ear, equivalent to what the rest of the world produces combined. In other words, this single factory will lead to a doubling of global battery production capacity next year.
Tesla has been notorious for missing deadlines, but has impressed the market in recent months. It delivered a 20 megawatt energy storage system for a California utility in just a few months, a project that would have normally taken years. It has also accelerated plans for the gigafactory, hiring people well ahead of schedule and promising to ramp up output years earlier than originally planned. “We believe Tesla battery sales are accelerating," Baird analyst Ben Kallo, told Bloomberg. “The ramp of Tesla Energy and Model 3 production could exceed expectations.” Baird has rated Tesla as one of the best stocks of 2017.

http://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-G...-Tesla-Doubles-Global-Battery-Production.html
 
CARS TECHNICA / ALL THINGS AUTOMOTIVE
Why electric buses may very well be the future of getting to school
Some schools are going electric to get away from diesel buses.
by Erica Cirino - Jan 28, 2017 10:00pm CST

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[​IMG]
An electric school bus manufactured by Motiv.
Motiv
School bus driver Jenifer Chiodo takes a moment to admire the orange-pink sunrise while she gets ready to spend the next few hours on the roads. Then she grabs her clipboard and jots down the date, her name, and the mileage on the odometer before starting up the engine of a Thomas Built Type-A “mini” bus owned by her employer, First Student Inc.

Chiodo drives about 21 miles on her two morning routes and 40 miles on her four afternoon routes, transporting just one or two special-needs children at a time across the suburbs of Rocky Point, New York. A Type-A bus gets just nine to 10 miles per gallon, and Chiodo says she’s come to realize how unsustainable and unhealthy her driving can be.

“I don’t even want to think about how much carbon my bus spews out into the air every day and how it’s warming the atmosphere,” says Chiodo. “Kids are breathing in exhaust, I’m breathing in exhaust... I’m very happy to help get these students to school, but I wish there was a safer and more environmentally friendly way of doing so.”

Too much, magic bus
Turns out, there might be a better way—and it’s being tried out just 40 miles west in another Long Island town. Copiague Public School District bus drivers are test-driving an electric version of Chiodo’s Type A bus. This past August, the district quietly added the all-electric vehicle to its fleet of traditional fossil-fuel-powered school buses, becoming the first in the state to do so. The district says its choice to try electric aligns with its goals of sustainability and safety.

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America’s school buses burn through an estimated 822,857,143 gallons of diesel and gasoline per year. All-electric school buses emit nothing when running, and they have the potential to significantly cut down on the nation’s fossil fuel use and thus its contribution to climate change. Proponents of electric-vehicle technology argue that traditional gasoline- and diesel-powered school buses are far from safe, spewing out toxic emissionswhile relying on a body design that puts them at a higher fire risk than other types of vehicles.


“Compare an electric battery that’s placed low in between the buses’ frame rails, out of the way of impact, to a 50-gallon tank of highly flammable material that’s sitting right under kids for the duration of the ride,” says Jim Castelaz, CEO of California-based Motiv Power Systems, a company that creates the electric power train on which electric school buses and other vehicles are based. “It’s crazy to think we’re doing this.”

According to the National Fire Protection Agency, an average of six buses—including school buses—caught on fire each day from 1999 to 2003, the most recent years for which data is available. Instead of gas tanks, electric buses have batteries. While some lithium batteries have notably caught fire, electric buses use batteries made with a sodium-nickel or lithium material that solidifies upon impact to prevent fires that could be caused by leaking acid.

Thruppence and sixpence every day
The human and environmental health benefits of electric school buses are clear. But electric school buses cost about $200,000 to $300,000 per bus, as opposed to a mere $65,000 to $85,000 for a bus powered by fossil fuels. For many school districts, the only concern appears to be cost-effectiveness.

Driving up the cost of electric school buses is the dearth of companies building them and the parts they need to function. Besides Motiv, only a handful of other big names in the electric school bus business exist in North America: Lion Bus, Green Power Motor Company, Inc., Trans Tech, and Trans Power.

What’s more, many school districts shut down some or all of their bus fleet on weekends and over the summer, in contrast to municipal buses used for public transportation, which often run all day, 365 days a year. So while going electric in high-use municipal buses offers some return on investment, electric school buses have not yet reached that point. They’re simply not used enough to offset their high costs, according to Fraser Atkinson, chairman of Green Power Motor Company, Inc.

But he suggests that this shouldn’t deter school districts from buying electric school buses, especially in cases where a particular bus or group of buses will get a lot of use. For example, school districts often utilize Type-A school buses more frequently than the long “classic” Type-C buses. Like Chiodo, their drivers often run multiple routes a day to transport just a few students at a time, such as special-needs students who may go to separate schools. When an electric bus is driven as many routes as possible, school districts reap a higher return on investment.

Although the finances are iffy, rebates, which lower the overall cost of purchasing electric school buses, are a major deciding factor in whether or not districts will adopt them. California and Quebec are seeing electric school bus popularity rise because local lawmakers have developed a suite of rebates, regulations, and infrastructure that’s made the technology more cost-effective.

I want it, I want it, I want it
Yet school districts in New York and Chicago, the latest regions to adopt rebates for electric school buses, have been slow to embrace them. This concerns environmental and health advocates who want to see gasoline- and diesel-powered school buses replaced as soon as possible. But transportation experts say the only way for electric school buses to see more widespread adoption is if school districts push for rebates.

“Electric school buses have the potential to reduce the harms of pollution to school children and communities while reducing the exposure to the volatile price of petroleum fuels that can wreak havoc on municipal budgets,” says Luke Tonachel, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s Clean Vehicles and Fuels Project. “School districts should seek to work with their local utility to create programs that can make electrifying their buses a cost-effective solution.
 
Lithium Carbonate Market Research Statistics 2016-2020 Opportunities
Friday, January 27th, 2017 - China Market Research Reports
Global lithium resources are primarily concentrated in Chile and China. However, as the Chinese lithium carbonate manufacturers are restrained by production technology, the supply of capacity is limited and Chile and Australia hold the lion’s share of global capacity. The world’s top3 players- SQM, FMC, and Rockwood together seize more than 56% market share, which give them a strong bargaining power over downstream companies and powerful pricing power and allow them to adjust prices according to market supply & demand and changes in production costs. Global lithium carbonate companies have successively expanded capacity so as to meet ever-increasing market demand in recent years. Meanwhile, a large number of newcomers outside the industry build new capacity and get involved in lithium carbonate business, thus reducing the concentration of the industry.

The booming sales of new energy vehicles worldwide will boost lithium carbonate consumption significantly. According to estimates, every 100,000 new energy vehicles (electric bus (40%), electric sedan (20%), hybrid bus (25%), and hybrid sedan (15%)) will create a demand of 5,000 tons to 8,000 tons of battery-grade lithium carbonate, about a rise of 5%-8% in global demand for battery-grade lithium carbonate.

Driven by a surge in sales volume of new energy vehicles in China, the upstream material- lithium carbonate was in short supply in the fourth quarter of 2015 with soaring prices. Global lithium carbonate output increased by 12.3% year on year to 202,800 tons in 2015 and is expected to arrive at 244,200 tons in 2016, 288,900 tons in 2017, and 341,000 tons in 2018, a rise of 20.4%, 18.3%, and 18.4% from a year ago, respectively.

Complete Report Spread across 135 pages with 154 Charts Now Available. Inquire more at http://www.chinamarketresearchreports.com/contacts/inquire-before-buy.php?name=115299

The price of lithium carbonate in China has been going straight up since Oct 2015 with that of industrial-grade and battery-grade lithium carbonate rising substantially (to RMB120,000/t and RMB150,000/t in Jan 2016, respectively, when battery-grade lithium hydroxide was quoted at RMB140,000/t, compared with the bottom price of lithium carbonate standing at RMB50,000/t). It is expected that global demand for lithium carbonate will outpace supply during 2016-2017, leading to a continued price rise during this period. As new lithium carbonate capacities are gradually released after 2017, the price will tend to stabilize.

Chinese lithium carbonate suppliers can be principally divided into two categories: salt lake providers represented by Tibet Urban Development and Investment, spodumene providers represented by Sichuan Tianqi Lithium Industries and Galaxy Resources. The exploitation of salt lakes in China is still in its infancy with small capacity, while spodumene providers represented by Sichuan Tianqi Lithium Industries are relatively competitive.

In 2014, China produced 43,000 tons of lithium carbonate, a year-on-year rise of 16.5%, 23,000 tons of lithium hydroxide monohydrate, up 4.5% over the previous year and mainly concentrated in Sichuan, and 2,600 tons of lithium metal, an increase of 13% from a year ago, compared with global output of around 4,000 tons. An output of 49,000 tons and apparent consumption of 74,000 tons caused a supply gap of 25,000 tons in 2015, and the gap is expected to reach 31,400 tons in 2020, creating brisk demand for imports.

We believe that as the Chinese government scales up its support for new energy vehicles, the demand for battery-grade lithium carbonate will be a tipping point. China’s demand for battery-grade lithium carbonate was about 27,800 tons in 2015 and is expected to exceed 100,000 tons in 2020. The country’s total demand for lithium carbonate will increase at annual rate of 20% over the next couple years, higher than the global average and approximating 167,000 tons in 2020.

The report focuses on the following aspects:

Global and China’s lithium carbonate supply and demand, supply gap, the demand for lithium carbonate from downstream sectors, especially new energy vehicles, energy storage, and consumer electronics.
Global and China’s competitive landscape, including market share of foreign and domestic companies, capacity planning, market pattern, etc.
China’s lithium carbonate imports and exports, covering import/export value, prices, sources, destinations, etc.
China’s production costs of lithium carbonate with lithium extracted from ores and from salt lake brine, price trends, etc.
China’s lithium battery industry, including shipments, technology routes, market pattern, etc.
Operation, technology, development planning, and output & sales of 8 lithium carbonate players in the United States, Chile, Australia, etc.
Operation, technology, development planning, and output & sales of 14 Chinese lithium carbonate companies.
Order a Copy of This Report at http://www.chinamarketresearchreports.com/contacts/purchase.php?name=115299
 
Tesla’s Battery Plans Could Push Lithium Prices Even Higher


The global lithium market is now projected to reach US$1.7 billion by 2019, and the hunger for this decade’s most precious commodity is set to intensify further now that America’s first battery gigafactory is online and ready to start pumping out batteries to support the mass production of electric vehicles—just for starters.

Against this backdrop, there is nowhere more exciting to be than on the ground floor of a new lithium development, and the general consensus is that 2017 will lend critical acclaim to small-cap lithium companies hitting up the U.S. state of Nevada or the Latin American ‘Lithium Triangle’.

Lithium has become such a high-demand material driven by rapid expansion of the battery industry, Freedonia Group Global projects demand to rise 8.9% through 2019, which in dollar value for lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) is roughly $1.7 billion.

Lux Research, a leading independent research and advisory firm, believes the electric vehicle market will grow to $10 billion within the next four years, while Navigant Research forecasts sales of electric vehicles to increase from 2.6 million in 2015 to over 6 million in 2024.

According to Deutsche Bank, demand for lithium will rise from 209,000 tonnes in 2016 to 534,000 tonnes in 2025.

Tesla Motors (NASDAQ:TSLA) is leading the market for now because competition is all about lithium-ion batteries. But German and Chinese competitors are racing to the finish line as well. This is a heated battle for new market share, and the key weapons are lithium and batteries. Tesla is ahead of the competition because it’s got its own battery gigafactory. And it’s only a lack of battery supply that could give its competitors—like BMW (NASDAQ:BAMXF), Volkswagen (NASDAQ:VLKAF), and Daimler’s (NASDAQ: DDAIF) Mercedes-Benz—a chance to cut in.

Still, there’s a way to go before anyone starts catching up with Tesla. By 2018, Tesla predicts it will churn out 35 gigawatts of batteries per year. It’s a massive amount that surpasses more than what the rest of the world combined produces. In other words, one of Elon Musk’s many claims to fame will be doubling global battery production capacity as early as 2018.

And while the mass production of Tesla’s Model 3 electric sedan is one of the more exciting and visible drivers of demand—with 370,000 vehicles already ordered—there are other major drivers, such as massive energy storage systems, that will push demand exponentially higher.

What it all means is that we’re set for one of the biggest bull runs of since the shale boom thanks to limited lithium supply availability. If lithium grows at its expected rate of 16 percent annually, it will be the fastest-growing commodity of the century. With this in mind, small-cap lithium companies—the heart of new supply—are where the smart money is going.

With Tesla looking to “absorb the entire world’s lithium production”, in the words of Elon Musk, and seeking “American lithium sources first”, there’s no better place to start looking than Tesla’s own back yard—Nevada.

And when there are only a small number of lithium companies listed on the TSX.V., it comes down to picking the one that’s got the right resources and the right management team. For that, we follow the money and the mining legends behind Lithium X, which has just popped up on the radar again thanks to its phenomenally fast-paced growth strategy. This time, it’s acquired a 100% interest in yet another major project in Argentina, in one of the world’s largest and least-explored lithium hot spots.
 
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