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Hi all was doing some stock trading to day and found this sounds like the batteries might getting smaller again if this goes. you will have to read it all to get the jest of it lol
OLD GUY
yes I got some
we will have to see
1. New Advances Lithium Research
This past Friday Murdock Capital, House Mountain Partners and Discovery Investing hosted a symposium devoted to questions surrounding critical metals. Six companies presented and keynote speakers also presented. The companies were Focus Metals (FMS TSX, graphite), Rock Tech Lithium (RCK TSXV), Texas Rare Earth Resources (TRER PK), Great Western Minerals Ltd (GWG TSXV, rare earth elements) and Medallion Resources (MDL TSXV). Presentations were excellent. Keynote speaker Mr. Mickey Fulp, geologist extraordinaire and editor of The Mercenary Geologist spoke on "What Mining and Mineral Press Releases Don't Tell You."
81 people attended this symposium and another hundred or so watched over the Internet. Many questions were posed and answered and it was an excellent learning experience. Many one-on-one meetings evolved in the afternoon. The Canadian-American Business Council expressed interest in the critical metals (specifically rare earth) aspect of the symposium. The entire webcast is available on the Internet starting today at the following website.
Our joint intent was to highlight the issues that many governments seem to be ignoring. Many metals, in addition to the rare earth elements, are becoming more critical in terms of supply access and strategic usage each day.
This a.m. we learned that a new potential for lithium-ion batteries is evolving. One of the problems with lithium-ion battery performance is the mismatch between cathode and anode performance. Envia, a startup company has received a $7 million investment from General Motors (GM Ventures). GM could be one of the biggest buyers of lithium-ion batteries for cars in coming years.
Envia believes its batteries could lower the cost of plug-in vehicles by reducing the need for costly metals (cobalt), and by cutting the number of cells needed to store a given amount of energy in a vehicle's battery pack. The company's batteries use a cathode that is rich in manganese, which allows it to hold more charge. In current batteries, an imbalance exists between the two electrodes: the anodes are equipped to accept far more charge than cathodes are able to supply. Envia also has a $4 million grant from the Department of Energy (Arpa-E and Argonne National labs) to improve anode performance (by building nano-composite anodes of silicon carbon) to more closely balance the anode and cathode performance. The use of manganese could remove the need for cobalt usage in the cathode.
The company believes it could double the performance of the traditional lithium-ion battery. This could make Chevy's Volt a more likely candidate for driver acceptance. Our point of interest is the importance of research in the lithium battery supply chain, focus on critical metals and most of all reinforce the case for lithium, manganese, cobalt and graphite development.
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.
OLD GUY
yes I got some
we will have to see1. New Advances Lithium Research
This past Friday Murdock Capital, House Mountain Partners and Discovery Investing hosted a symposium devoted to questions surrounding critical metals. Six companies presented and keynote speakers also presented. The companies were Focus Metals (FMS TSX, graphite), Rock Tech Lithium (RCK TSXV), Texas Rare Earth Resources (TRER PK), Great Western Minerals Ltd (GWG TSXV, rare earth elements) and Medallion Resources (MDL TSXV). Presentations were excellent. Keynote speaker Mr. Mickey Fulp, geologist extraordinaire and editor of The Mercenary Geologist spoke on "What Mining and Mineral Press Releases Don't Tell You."
81 people attended this symposium and another hundred or so watched over the Internet. Many questions were posed and answered and it was an excellent learning experience. Many one-on-one meetings evolved in the afternoon. The Canadian-American Business Council expressed interest in the critical metals (specifically rare earth) aspect of the symposium. The entire webcast is available on the Internet starting today at the following website.
Our joint intent was to highlight the issues that many governments seem to be ignoring. Many metals, in addition to the rare earth elements, are becoming more critical in terms of supply access and strategic usage each day.
This a.m. we learned that a new potential for lithium-ion batteries is evolving. One of the problems with lithium-ion battery performance is the mismatch between cathode and anode performance. Envia, a startup company has received a $7 million investment from General Motors (GM Ventures). GM could be one of the biggest buyers of lithium-ion batteries for cars in coming years.
Envia believes its batteries could lower the cost of plug-in vehicles by reducing the need for costly metals (cobalt), and by cutting the number of cells needed to store a given amount of energy in a vehicle's battery pack. The company's batteries use a cathode that is rich in manganese, which allows it to hold more charge. In current batteries, an imbalance exists between the two electrodes: the anodes are equipped to accept far more charge than cathodes are able to supply. Envia also has a $4 million grant from the Department of Energy (Arpa-E and Argonne National labs) to improve anode performance (by building nano-composite anodes of silicon carbon) to more closely balance the anode and cathode performance. The use of manganese could remove the need for cobalt usage in the cathode.
The company believes it could double the performance of the traditional lithium-ion battery. This could make Chevy's Volt a more likely candidate for driver acceptance. Our point of interest is the importance of research in the lithium battery supply chain, focus on critical metals and most of all reinforce the case for lithium, manganese, cobalt and graphite development.
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.