Western Lithium’s Positive Scoping Study Results Support Major USA Based Lithium Production WLC.v, TNR.v, CZX.v, RM.v, LMR.v, LI.v, CLQ.v, FMC, SQM

Western Lithium is the largest Canadian company in Lithium space. Just few short weeks ago total market cap of Top Five Canadian Lithium companies was at 190 million dollars. Now with Obama proclaiming Clean Energy focus and funding; auto makers acquiring stakes in Lithium development companies all sector is on the move. Western Lithium is almost like a Major in this sector due to the fact that other lithium players - current producers like FMC, SQM and ROC, are involved in other chemical businesses and Lithium is only a part of their revenue stream. Investors are interested in explosive growth, which could become reality with Electric Avenue in Detroit merging into the American highway.

This opportunity will be provided by focused Lithium development and exploration plays. Today Western Lithium puts Nevada on the map for investment community confirming its Preliminary Economic Assessment. Important note will be to remind that nobody is producing Lithium from clay in the world at the moment and technical challenges will remain until the production, but company will enjoy its valuation growth with investment community recognising the underlining fundamentals.

We expect that it will put all Lithium sector on the investment radar screen and Lithium Juniors will enjoy increase in comparable valuations. Mostly interesting for us will be Nevada Lithium brines plays, with known chemistry and developed production cycle, here discovery of economic deposit will bring a more straight forward road to production development.

TNR Gold TNR.v with its coming spin out of International lithium and Rodinia Minerals RM.v will be the beneficiaries of Nevada Area Lithium play.

As you know, we are investing in the sector and biased, nothing should be taken as an investment advise here.

"Majors like SQM, FMC and ROC are presenting only part of the compelling investment story with high market caps and only part of the revenue connected to Lithium. Rapid expansion will happen with aggressive juniors engaged in Lithium Exploration and Development play and new focused plays will get part of excitement here. We are looking here for the areas driven by Big Investment Trend, but to be small enough, so that money will be squeezed in among a few small aggressive players.
Here is our first investment bottleneck: 190,000,000 Market Cap of Top 5 Canadian Lithium exploration companies."

Western Lithium’s Positive Scoping Study Results Support Major USA Based Lithium Production

January 12, 2010

Reno, Nevada, USA: Western Lithium Corporation (TSX-V: WLC; PK: WLCDF) is pleased to announce the results of a National Instrument 43-101 (NI 43-101) compliant Preliminary Assessment and Economic Evaluation (PAEE) on its Kings Valley Lithium Project in Nevada, USA. The assessment was prepared by a collaboration of several major engineering firms and independent consultants. Highlights• Planned Stage I nominal production of 27,700 tonnes per year of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) and 115,000 tonnes per year of potassium sulphate (SOP).• Stage I average revenue estimated at US$263 million per year.• Stage I pre-tax net present value (NPV) discounted at 8% of US$714 million(1).• Pre-tax internal rate of return (IRR) is 28%.• Cash operating costs estimated to be US$1,967 per tonne (US$0.89/pound) of lithium carbonate, after potassium sulphate by-product credit.• Initial 18 year operating life with potential scalability to expand to multiple stages. • Total capital costs estimated to be US$427 million.• Chemistry and process selection indicative of high quality, low impurity product.• Located near major transportation hubs in western United States.“As we enter this decade, we see considerable momentum behind electric transportation using lithium-ion batteries”, said Jay Chmelauskas , Western Lithium’s President. “Our company is positioning itself to become a USA-based, major global supplier of high-quality lithium to meet the projected growth in demand from the electric and hybrid vehicle sector.”
The PAEE, or Scoping Study, is based on the NI 43-101 compliant Stage I lithium resource and supports a nominal production rate of 27,700 tonnes per year of lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) for approximately 18 years. The proposed production rate compares favorably with the top two global LCE producers, both located in South America, that reported production of 32,600 tonnes and 22,500 tonnes of LCE in 2008, respectively. In addition, the study indicates the potential to produce a nominal 115,000 tonnes per year of by-product potassium sulphate (SOP), primarily used as agricultural fertilizer. The proposed project is expected to compete as a low-cost LCE producer with an estimated cash operating cost of US$1,967 per tonne (US$0.89/pound) LCE net of SOP by-product credit, under base case economics (cash operating costs estimated to be US$4,463 per tonne LCE with cash credit of (US$2,496) per tonne LCE derived from the sale of by-product potassium sulphate). The company notes, however, that no reliance should be placed on its current ability to sell the potassium sulphate by-product, as a result of imprecision in the United States Bureau of Land Management’s (BLM) regulatory process for allowing the company’s sale of the by-product. The company is proposing to pursue a negotiated contractual or regulatory resolution of this issue with the BLM.
For the Stage I development, the base case economic analysis, using a price of US$6,614 per tonne of LCE, and a price of US$600 per tonne of SOP, indicates a pre-tax net present value (NPV) discounted at 8% of US$714 million. The projected pre-tax internal rate of return (IRR) is 28%. Average revenue for Stage I is estimated at US$263 million with pre-tax nominal cash flow (EBITDA) of approximately US$130 million. Capital costs, estimated to be US$427 million, have a payback period of 4 years.
Western Lithium’s Kings Valley property has one of the largest known lithium deposits in the world, based on a historical resource estimate done by Chevron Resources of 11 million tonnes of LCE(2). The NI 43-101 compliant PAEE results for Stage I considers only 8% of the historical near-surface lithium deposit. Successful development of Stage I will allow the company to consider further expansion of production to meet anticipated growth of the lithium-ion battery industry. In December 2009, drilling was completed on the Stage II lithium historical resources and results are expected later in 2010. The company believes that its Nevada property has the potential to become a major USA-based global supplier of high quality lithium carbonate that can economically compete with other global producers of LCE.
Following the positive results of the PAEE, Western Lithium is now planning to proceed with further engineering and pilot plant studies to advance the project to prefeasibility. These studies are expected to be funded from the existing treasury. Western Lithium has approximately US$ 20 million in cash and no debt. The company is in discussions with various major lithium buyers to define product quality specifications, long-term supply requirements and expects to work with these groups through the piloting program. To download the entire news release in PDF format, please click here.
(1) The preliminary assessment is preliminary in nature, and includes inferred mineral resources that are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as mineral reserves, and there is no certainty that the preliminary assessment will be realized. Mineral resources that are not mineral reserves do not have demonstrated economic viability.(2) A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources, Western Lithium is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources and the historical estimate should not be relied upon. The Chevron Resources historical resource estimate of 11 million tonnes of LCE is at average grades ranging from 0.31% to 0.37% Li, March 1985. There is insufficient information regarding the categories used in the historical estimates to make a meaningful comparison to current resource categories under CIM Definition Standards of Mineral Resources and Mineral Reserves."

Jon Hykawy: High on Lithium tnr.v, lmr.v, rm.v, alk.ax, sqm, fmc, roc, lit, li.v, wlc.v, clq.v, res.v, ree, avl.to, nsany, f, gm, rno.pa, dai, byddf, hev, aone, vlnc

  "U.S. Hostage to China for Rare Earth Minerals Already and Lithium in The Future. Nothing is changing under the sun in the US Corp. so far - America is under the oil lobby stronghold and if you would like to understand the real situation, just talk to the junior miners in Lithium and REE sectors. Chinese, Koreans and Japanese companies are the only one on the road now, buying all available projects in Lithium and REE space.

  Facebook is great, but how are we going to drive in five years time? What are we going to eat for that matter with Oil above 150 dollars again?

There is almost no money available now in U.S. or Canada to advance the Lithium and REE exploration, apart from few names everybody is talking about now. The rest of the sector will be funded by the Asian interest in the end.

Catalyst 2011: Lithium and REE.

  

  "We have another deal in Lithium space - Rodinia Lithium has attracted strategic investment from Chinese Shan Shan. Last week Canada Lithium has announced investment with Black Rock affiliated company - big money managers and Lithium end users are coming into the sector now.
  Today first GM Volt is rolling off from the factory line and CNBC is on air from the GM to highlight this event all the day. Peak Oil revelations will bring more and more people to the realisation of the fact that Electric Cars are the way forward now. More than 6000 people test driven Chevy Volt during recent promotion sessions and many thousands more attended Nissan Leaf Test Drives all across the country.
  It is the very beginning, but this new trend can be changing our lives very fast - Electric Cars are coming on our drive ways now.
  In this light - of strategic importance of Lithium and REE for the new disruptive technology for the electrification of our transportation system - this transaction shows again that China and other asian countries are again way ahead of any North American corporations in realisation that secure supply of Lithium and REE will be the cornerstone of the post carbon economy.
   We are happy for the company and its shareholders, but only few Lithium projects left out there and majority of them have secured major strategic interests from Chinese, Japanese and Korean companies. Sadly, situation with REE did not provide lessons to anybody. Where are GE, GM, Ford, Corning, Dow, 3M, Boeing and DuPonts of this world? Will we all be at the mercy of Lithium Opec one day?
  On our M&A radar screen here we have left only one company in Lithium space open for strategic partnerships - International Lithium Corp. to be spun out from TNR Gold. We hope that they are dating somebody interesting as well for their IPO.

Lithium Bull: Rest before the Charge

Catalyst 2011: Lithium and REE.

Jon Hykawy: High on Lithium

Source: Brian Sylvester of The Energy Report 01/06/2011

With oil prices edging closer to $100 per barrel, the chatter about electric cars is again on the rise. Jon Hykawy, head of global research with Toronto-based Byron Capital Markets, thinks the time is nigh for the mass adoption of electric cars, all of which will need specialty metals like lithium. But where is that lithium going to come from? In this exclusive interview with The Energy Report, Jon handicaps most of the players in the lithium space and highlights a few that could be takeover targets.

The Energy Report: Jon, tell us why lithium is generating a lot of excitement right now.

Jon Hykawy: It's a case of the general public starting to understand what the electric car might be able to do. As electric cars start to penetrate global markets, that will save the consumer a considerable amount of money, and help develop power infrastructure in the United States, a country now spending $300 billion a year on foreign oil. The electric car will also have a significantly positive effect on the environment—no matter how the electricity is generated. Obviously, lithium batteries will play a critical role because you need a fair bit of lithium per vehicle that is going to be built. I think people are starting to understand that there's going to be a tremendous pull on lithium. That's really what's driving the excitement.

TER: Lithium is not like gold or copper, two of the most commonly mined metals. If someone is investing in lithium companies, what are some lithium basics that investors should know?

JH: Lithium mining is largely dependent on chemistry. The costs really scale with the individual deposit and with the individual chemistry of the brine, if it's a brine deposit.

The first rule of thumb is that lithium is an industrial chemical. There is a defined demand for it. Nobody makes jewelry out of lithium. There's not an insatiable demand for the stuff. You want to find the companies that can produce lithium inexpensively. Frankly, that tends to limit you to looking at brine deposits. You can look at hard rock deposits to the extent that you can look at a company like Talison Lithium Ltd. (TSX:TLH), based in Australia. Talison's ore grade is very, very high. It's really a bit of a mutant in the hard rock space. As a result, there are very few other hard rock projects that we think have any hope of doing anything in the market over the longer term. We tend to tell people to look either at brine deposits or possibly at the clay deposits because some of the clay projects out there, especially Western Lithium USA Corp.'s (TSX.V:WLC;PK:WLCDF) King's Valley lithium project in Nevada, have a shot at coming in at a relatively low cost. And cost is key; on the brine side, you really want what you want in every deposit—high grade. You want a high level of lithium in the brine. In Chile, off of the Atacama Desert, you're going to see grades of 2,000 parts per million (ppm) of lithium. That's at the top of the range. Anything over 800 ppm is a very, very strong deposit. But you also need low levels of contaminants like magnesium and sulfates. If you find all of those things, then you have a reasonable deposit. You just need to couple that with great management and good financing and you have yourself a mine.

TER: Who are the major lithium players at this stage?

JH: At this point, there are four major producers. They've been the four major producers for a significant period of time. Three of them produce from brine deposits in South America. Those are Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA (NYSE:SQM; SN:SQM), which is the Chilean national mining and chemical company; FMC Lithium (NYSE:FMC), which is part of FMC Corporation; and Chemetall, which is part of Rockwood Holdings, Inc (NYSE:ROC). And, as I mentioned earlier, Talison Lithium. Talison really dominates the market for lithium that's used to manufacture glass and ceramics. But they also sell a fair bit of their lithium to companies in China that produce battery-grade lithium.

TER: And most of it comes from the Greenbushes Lithium Operation in Western Australia, and, as you said, that's a hard rock deposit.

JH: Yes, they produce a mineral called spodumene. The theoretical limit on lithium concentration in spodumene is about 8% lithium. They can produce something that is as close to 8% as it matters.

TER: What's the life expectancy of that operation?

JH: Longer than you or I are going to care. They have a high-grade core of about 4% lithium that probably can last through the next 20 to 40 years. It's a very rich, long-life mine. That's one of the reasons there are no other major hard rock suppliers because the primary market for that material is glass and ceramics. When you have something that's as inexpensive to produce as the spodumene from that high-quality deposit, it's very, very difficult for anybody else to get into that game.

TER: But what about the lithium Talison produces that is used in batteries?

JH: They sell that same spodumene concentrate that contains lithium and other companies in China turn it into battery-grade material, but it's more expensive than producing it from brine.

TER: You talked a little bit about lithium-ion batteries and, in particular, those being used in cars. There was a press release published in early December about Japan's Sanyo doubling its plant production capacity for lithium-ion batteries. Sanyo has contracts to supply Volkswagen and Suzuki. The company says that the market for lithium over the next 10 years will average $6 billion a year. It's worth about $4 billion now. Do we have enough lithium to meet that demand?

JH: Well, first about the figures that you quoted. Lithium batteries are not used in electric vehicles today. The batteries in the Honda Insight or the Toyota Prius, today, are all nickel-metal-hydride batteries. In terms of automotive use, the use of lithium battery is completely greenfield; it's starting essentially from zero. As far as whether we have enough lithium, if you look at a vehicle like the Nissan LEAF, it uses about 4 kilograms (kg.) of lithium metal or about 21 kg. of lithium-carbonate equivalent. We usually quote the amount of lithium shipped in the world as lithium-carbonate equivalent because it's a nice, benign chemical. Last year, the demand for lithium was about 100,000 tons. You can see that one vehicle using 20 kg. of lithium-carbonate equivalent is not going to stretch lithium demand until millions of vehicles are produced each year.

TER: But at the same time, we're seeing a major increase in the price of lithium per ton. It's around $6,500 per ton right now.

JH: I think that's rather high. Lately, the price of industrial-grade lithium has been around $5,000 a ton. And the battery-grade material has been selling for something like $5,600 or $5,700. The historical high prices do run up to $6,500 per ton, though.

TER: But the price for lithium is not set like copper or nickel prices on the London Metals Exchange. Lithium prices are determined by buyers and sellers working out agreements with each other. How is that dynamic influencing junior explorers with lithium projects?

JH: Unfortunately, it's a more complex question than that. But the critical point at this stage is that none of the four key lithium suppliers want to grant offtake agreements to automotive manufacturers. As far as these suppliers are concerned, there's plenty of lithium on the market and the automotive manufacturers should be happy to go out and buy their lithium through negotiated contracts, just like everyone else.

But you can't ask an automotive manufacturer to depend on the fact that they're going to get 50 or 100 tons of lithium on a given day. Maybe there's only $60,000 or $70,000 worth of lithium coming, but if they miss that shipment they could literally cease production to the tune of tens to hundreds of millions of dollars' worth of vehicles. So carmakers will not depend on a spot contract. They need offtake agreements; they need something that's carved in stone.

To that end, what's been happening lately is that a lot of these automotive manufacturers are doing direct offtake agreements with the junior lithium miners. They're actually going out and tying up supply by buying it directly from the juniors.

TER: What are some examples of those?

JH: Well, there's been a few high-profile ones. For example, one of the better-known names in the junior lithium space is Orocobre Limited (TSX:ORL; ASX:ORE). They signed an offtake agreement and development program with Toyota Tsusho. So Orocobre's program seems to be advancing reasonably well. We expect that sometime in the first quarter of 2011 we're going to hear about the finalization of that agreement and an equity injection by Toyota into Orocobre's Salar de Olaroz lithium project in Argentina.

Another company that has signed two separate agreements is Lithium Americas Corp. (TSX:LAC). They have lithium supply agreements with both Magna International Inc. (NYSE:MGA; TSX:MG) and Mitsubishi Corporation (OTCPK:MSBSHY). Lithium Americas' Salar de Cauchari lithium project is just up the road from Orocobre's lithium project in Argentina.

Another Argentine group that signed something recently is Lithium One Inc. (TSX.V:LI). They share the salar that FMC produces lithium from, Salar del Hombre Muerto, in the Argentine desert. That salar produces about 15% of the world's lithium through FMC. Lithium One's agreement is with the Koreans, via Korea Resources (KORES), to supply a number of potential buyers with lithium. There are certainly some frontrunners in this space.

TER: What is it about these deposits in Chile, Argentina and Bolivia that make them so prospective for lithium?

JH: There are a couple of things that are important. One is that the portion of the world that we're talking about—the desert in South America—has been uplifted. Millions of years ago there were small, relatively salty lakes there due to their proximity to the ocean. Those lakes were eventually lifted into the mountains and set on the leeward side so the evaporation rates have been very high. As a result, nature has done a lot of the work.

The salty brine that was left behind is just below the surface where it's protected from further evaporation. It has a high enough concentration of lithium to make it worthwhile to process. But it also has a low enough concentration of contaminants that those materials don't negatively impact the cost of the lithium. That has made the South American desert one of the least expensive places in the world from which to source lithium.

There are other places in the world where this same sort of thing has happened. It's happened in Tibet. It's happened in portions of China. It's happened in a few other places but in most of those places the lithium concentration is low and the concentration of some contaminants, like magnesium, is relatively high. That, unfortunately, has made those deposits uneconomic to mine at this point.

TER: You mentioned Lithium Americas. It owns the Salar de Cauchari lithium-potassium property in Argentina, where pilot-scale processing is underway. You have a speculative buy rating on Lithium Americas with a target price of $2.50. It's trading around $1.90 now. What sort of catalyst is going to bring it up to that level?

JH: What really matters at this point is that Lithium Americas produces a definitive feasibility study that points out the flow sheet that they're going to use to produce lithium. It's a bit of an interesting deposit. They have a reasonably good concentration of lithium but they also have a relatively high abundance of sulfate, one of those contaminant ions. If you had nothing but sulfate, you'd have a bit of a problem and it would be an expense. But they also have a fair bit of potassium in their brine. Potassium and sulfate together are potash. If you could get the chemistry correct and put the right flow sheet together, Lithium Americas could be a relatively inexpensive producer of lithium, as well as a relatively inexpensive producer of fertilizer. The two of them together would make a very interesting revenue stream. You sometimes see those dual revenue streams from some of the major producers, like SQM in Chile.

TER: Has Lithium Americas done studies to determine if they can get the chemistry right?

JH: In theory it's workable. They've worked on it on a pilot-scale basis. What it really comes down to now is finding what the cost is going to be and that's where the feasibility study comes in.

TER: When should that be published?

JH: We're hoping we're going to see something from Lithium Americas relatively early in the New Year. That will give us some comfort.

TER: Well, we'll look forward to that. You also mentioned Lithium One. What's unique about its Sal de Vida Brine Project in Argentina?

JH: Well, one of the geologists who works on the deposit in Argentina had a very good statement about it. We were discussing the deposit's chemistry when he just smiled and said: "God was very good to Lithium One." They have a relatively high abundance of lithium. They have very low magnesium levels. And the sulfate levels are well matched to the two of those. They really have no other contaminants to worry about. It looks a lot like the brine that FMC deals with on the other half of the salar. It's a very good brine. In terms of chemistry, there's very little you could ask for other than even higher levels of lithium. But as far as it goes, Sal de Vida is one of the more straightforward projects that you're going to come across.

TER: You mentioned Western Lithium, too. The company has a clay deposit, the King's Valley lithium project in northern Nevada. Have you been to that project?

JH: I have, yes.

TER: What were some of your thoughts after seeing it firsthand?

JH: Firstly, King's Valley probably contains a never-ending stream of lithium. There are two things that distinguish it. The first is it's in the United States, so the political risk is minimal. The second thing is that there are five lenticular deposits of hectorite clay that effectively contain an inexhaustible supply of lithium. And through the publication of Western Lithium's preliminary feasibility study, the company has shown it can produce battery-grade lithium, or what certainly looks like battery-grade lithium, at a very reasonable cost. The cost outlined in its study would make Western Lithium one of the least expensive producers of battery-grade lithium in the world. That is interesting to us.

The process that Western Lithium is using to recover the lithium looks a lot like the mundane processing of an industrial material like vanadium. While it looks a little like that, it's never been done on a commercial scale. That's still a risk that investors need to keep in mind. This is a novel method for producing lithium. While you can get game-changing results out of novel approaches, you can also get some serious negative surprises once in a while.

TER: What about some other companies with projects that are similar to Western Lithium but perhaps a little further away from production?

JH: There is one. We know this company reasonably well and have visited all their sites. Rodinia Lithium Inc.'s (TSX.V:RM; OTCQX:RDNAF) Salar de Diablillos lithium brine project in Argentina looks like a good one to us. Again, it's one of those deposits that's been blessed by reasonably good chemistry. They've got relatively high levels of lithium. Good magnesium levels. Good sulfate levels. It should be a relatively tractable project. It's not a huge project, but in the larger scheme of things you don't need to be huge. You just need to target the right markets and find some buyers who want to buy the stuff.

TER: With most of these deposits being found in the same part of the world, are we going to see some takeovers?

JH: We've already seen a few. For instance, we've seen Talison take over Salares Lithium and its properties in Chile. The idea of a hard rock player owning brines is an attractive one to me. I like the synergies that come with the two approaches in terms of being able to guarantee delivery to automotive customers, for example. With brine, for example, lithium production is dependent on the weather, so guaranteed delivery can become an issue. Production of lithium from hard rock or clay is nearly certain and independent of the weather. Put the two together, and you can have guaranteed delivery with potentially very low costs.

We're likely to see more takeovers. Lithium Americas' Salar de Cauchari and Orocobre's Salar de Olaroz in Argentina are really side by side. There's a tremendous amount of potential synergy between what Orocobre is doing and what Lithium Americas is doing. You may well see some activity there. If not an outright merger of the two companies, you could certainly see some cooperation on the processing of lithium. That would make an awful lot of sense. Frankly, none of the properties in Argentina are really all that far away from one another, so some sort of regional processing facilities would make sense there, too.

TER: Do you have some parting thoughts on lithium?

JH: As I said earlier, people need to bear in mind that lithium really is an industrial chemical. There is a defined demand for it. The companies that are going to succeed in the lithium space are going to be the ones that put together the right marketing agreements and produce it at a reasonably low price. If you manage to pull those things together, lithium mining is highly lucrative. Nature has done most of the work and the margins in the space can be 50% or more. You don't often see that in the production of an industrial material like lithium.

TER: Thanks, Jon; interesting as always.

Jon Hykawy is currently with the research team at Byron Capital Markets, with a specialized focus in the lithium and clean technology/alternative energy industries. Jon holds both a PhD in physics and an MBA from Queen's University and has been working in capital markets as a clean technologies/alternative energy analyst for the last four years. He began his career in the investment industry in 2000, originally working as a technology analyst. His current area of focus is the lithium sector, ranging from availability and production to lithium battery technology. He has extensive experience in the solar, wind, and battery industries, conducting significant research in the areas of rechargeable batteries, ranging from rechargeable alkaline to lithium-ion to flow batteries. Jon is also fluent in Spanish and Ukrainian.

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• BASF breaks ground on North America's largest lithium-ion cathode plant tnr.v, czx.v, rm.v, lmr.v, alk.ax, tsla, sqm, fmc, roc, lit, li.v, wlc.v, clq.v, res.v, ree, avl.to, nsany, f, gm, rno.pa, dai, byddf, hev, aone, vlnc (sufiy.blogspot.com)
• Lithium Drive: Mitsubishi i-MiEV 12 month trials hailed as a success tnr.v, czx.v, rm.v, lmr.v, alk.ax, sqm, fmc, clq.v, wlc.v, tsla, li.v, lit, nsany, rno.pa, bmw, f, gm, avl.to, ree, res.v, quc.v, dai, byddf (sufiy.blogspot.com)
• Lithium Drive: Test driving Hertz's electric cars tnr.v, rm.v, lmr.v, alk.ax, tsla, sqm, fmc, roc, lit, li.v, wlc.v, clq.v, res.v, ree, avl.to, nsany, f, gm, rno.pa, dai, byddf, hev, aone, vlnc (sufiy.blogspot.com)
• Lithium Charge: Statement by Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Groundbreaking of BASF Advanced Battery Materials Plant tnr.v, rm.v, lmr.v, alk.ax, tsla, sqm, fmc, roc, lit, li.v, wlc.v, clq.v, res.v, ree, avl.to, nsany, f, gm, rno.pa, dai, byddf, hev, aone, (sufiy.blogspot.com)
• Lithium Drive: AutoLine: Electric Cars are in The Best Cars of the Year Award gm, nsany, tnr.v, lmr.v, rm.v, alk.ax, sqm, fmc, roc, lit, li.v, wlc.v, clq.v, res.v, ree, avl.to, nsany, f, gm, rno.pa, dai, byddf, hev, aone, vlnc (sufiy.blogspot.com)
• TNR Gold: Retire Fund: Junior Gold miners could be takeover targets as gold price heads toward $1500 oz. tnr.v, grc.to, ngq.to, sgc.v, mgn, asm.v, ktn.v, epz.v, cgp.v, rvm.to, rm.v, lmr.v, laq.v, gbn.v, bva.v, bvg.v, alk.ax, nup.ax, srz.ax, usa.ax, abn.v, (sufiy.blogspot.com)
• Lithium drive: Seoul Claims Commercial Electric Bus Service A World First tnr.v, lmr.v, rm.v, alk.ax, sqm, fmc, roc, lit, li.v, wlc.v, clq.v, res.v, ree, avl.to, nsany, f, gm, rno.pa, dai, byddf, hev, aone, vlnc (sufiy.blogspot.com)
• Lithium: TNR/ILC Joint Venture Partner Cricket Resources Inc. Completes Forgan Lake Qualifying Transaction TNR.v, CZX.v, RM.v, LI.v, WLC.v, CLQ.v, GM (sufiy.blogspot.com)
• Rare Earths for Dummies - REE sector is getting Hot tnr.v,czx.v, alk.ax, avl.to, ree, mcp, appl, tm, ge, gm, quc.v, mdl.v, nsany, rno.pa, cee.v, lit, li.v, wlc.v, clq.v, fmc, sqm (sufiy.blogspot.com)

TNR Gold TNR.v - Global Exploration Company in Lithium and REE - Lithium: Is it worth the hype? TNR.v, CZX.v, SQM, FMC, ROC, WLC.v, AVL.to, CLQ.v,

"Until now almost everything with Lithium on the web page was making you money and it will continue for a while, but it is time to make your homework right: we will have a roller coaster ride and you need to know what to hold, what to add on the dips and what do not even touch. If you never even called the company you are investing in, do not bother with the whole exercise - you will be burned. Hungry brokers and investors after market collapse will rush into hot very narrow money base Lithium and REE sector with micro caps and the ride could be explosive."

We are glad to see our Global Exploration play in Lithium and REE among the most active companies in the field with acknowledgement by the major industry magazine. Our positive feeling should not be mistaken for investment advise, but article gives all interested a very good overview of the market and active companies involved in Lithium and REE space. Make it your first point of reference even if you are already in the market. TNR Gold TNR.v has addressed the major concern in the article from the very beginning of building its Lithium and REE start up in Lithium and REE space. Credibility of the Team is the most important value in Junior mining space for us. CEO and President Gary Schellenberg has demonstrated ability to attract the best people for his Team during good and bad times.

"CS. In our Junior DD investigation management is always the first check point. Should we try to outsmart Warren Buffett who says that he never did a good deal with a bad people? On another hand he mentioned that business should be so simple that even the dumb person could run it, because one day it will. Our philosophy is to put 10% of our Capital in order to receive 100% return. Few will fail, few will reward handsomely, if we did our homework right. We can not allow in our investments in speculative high leveraged Junior plays anything which will be less then the best available. Too many risks are already in the game. Management is the main competitive advantage in this game: to secure the best deals - properties of merit, to finance the development and to attract industry majors, who are ready to pay the big buck down the road for successfully developed resources. That is why we are following plays with Lukas Lundin or Robert McEwen. Not everything they touch will become Gold, but a lot of things did.
TNR Gold TNR.v attracted Dr Breaks a major expert figure in the REE market with few discoveries behind his belt, junior is apparently betting on Lithium story and moving fast putting properties and people able to develop them together.

More on Dr Breaks discoveries:

The Big Whopper, one of only four giant economic rare metal pegmatites worldwide, is set to become a producer of the highly valued lithium mineral petalite (LiAlSi4O10) used in glass, ceramics and the specialty glass-ceramics familiar as Corningware® and the new ceramic stovetops.

The Pakeagama Lake pegmatite, located 160 km north of Red Lake, is one of the largest and most highly evolved rare-element-mineralized pegmatite systems in the Superior Province of Ontario, Canada. It is a LCT pegmatite enriched in Li, Cs, Rb, Ta, Sn etc."

The Northern Miner, 9/1/2009

Lithium: Is it worth the hype?

Vancouver - Lithium demand is on the rise and supply may or may not be able to keep up, according to industry experts, which means that while the recent surge of interest in the light metal has been over-the-top the metal's market fundamentals are strong.
"The outlook for lithium demand is robust in both the short and long term," says Jon Hykawy, lithium analyst with Byron Capital Markets. "It's not as robust as some would make it out to be - we're not expecting demand to triple by 2015 or anything goofy like that - but we do see, just on the basis of continued demand for consumer electronics and continued erosion in lithium battery prices, a 30% to 40% increase in lithium demand by 2015."
Hykawy's forecast is in line with the predictions out of TRU Group, a private lithium consulting group headed by Edward Anderson. Anderson sees demand climbing steadily at 7 to 8% for the foreseeable future, in part because two major new uses of lithium - in electric vehicle batteries and in alloys used in aircraft manufacturing - will have a "strong and sustained" impact on demand, starting within five years and lasting through to 2020 at least. For example, in 2007 batteries accounted for only 14% of lithium use. By 2020 that number is expected to rise to 40%, primarily because of hybrid and pure electric vehicles.
"The astounding hype around lithium is not justified," Anderson says. "On the other hand, there are very few markets that have as much certainty as lithium. Its growth rate is at least double the average and, as far as I'm concerned, there is very, very little risk in lithium demand."
So demand is on the rise, and it is not just because of car batteries and airplane alloys. Lithium's properties have made it an important component in many products or production processes. For example, lithium has the highest specific heat of all solids, which means it resists changing temperature. As such the metal is often used in heat transfer applications, such as the use of lithium stearate as a high-temperature lubricant. And when used as a flux for welding or soldering lithium promotes metal fusing and eliminates the formation of oxides by absorbing impurities. The same qualities give it an important role to play as a flux in the production of ceramics, enamels, and glass.
Organic reagents made from lithium facilitate the formation of carbon-carbon bonds, which means organolithium compounds are used to make polymers. And lithium also boasts a list of uses in the medical world, the most significant of which is the use of lithium salts to treat psychiatric disorders such as mania, depression, and bi-polarism.
As for lithium as a building material, alloys of lithium with aluminium, cadmium, copper, and manganese are now being used in structural airplane components. While lithium alloys at present accounts for less than a percent of lithium demand, by 2020 some analysts predicts the alloys will take up as much as 10% of lithium use.
But lithium batteries are the main talk around town and their usage is also on the rise. There are three mains kinds of lithium batteries. Primary lithium batteries are disposable batteries with a lithium anode. The batteries in more than 60% of the world's cell phones are made with lithium niobate. And the high energy-density batteries that are expected to power the coming surge of hybrid electric and pure electric batteries are lithium-ion batteries.
The reason lithium is so useful in energy storage is that is has a high electrochemical potential, which means a typical lithium-ion cell can generate roughly 3 volts, compared with 1.5 volts for lead-acid or zinc cells. And lithium's low atomic mass means that lithium-ion batteries have high charge-to-weight and power-to-weight ratios.
It is the increasing use of lithium-ion batteries in all kinds of electronics, not just in cars, that will really help lift demand. Use of lithium-ion batteries in digital cameras increased from just 100 kg in 1996 to 19 tonnes in 2005. Lithium-ion batteries are now in many kinds of electronics, from digital music players to power tools, and as Hykawy points out demand for those items grows with gross domestic product.
As for car batteries, Hykawy thinks the impact they will have on lithium demand may be quicker than most people realize. Both the Chevy Volt and the Nissan Leaf will utilize lithium-ion batteries. Assuming each maker will produce between 200,000 and 300,000 annually, and knowing that each battery uses 20 to 30 kg of lithium carbonate, Hykawy points out that is already "thousands of tonnes a year."
"It doesn't take much to make an impact when you're talking about a market that only goes through 120,000 tonnes a year - the impact will be appreciable pretty quickly," he says.
One important point that is easy to lose sight of amidst the lithium madness is that the much-discussed lithium-ion batteries that will power the electric vehicles of the future do not yet exist. Developing an inexpensive, reliable lithium-ion battery has proven challenging, which is why all of the hybrid vehicles currently on the market still use nickel-metal-hydride batteries.
Anderson predicts lithium-ion batteries for use in hybrid vehicles will be ready by 2011, those for use in plug-in hybrid vehicles will be ready by 2014, and those for plug-in electric vehicles will be ready by 2016. Anderson is slightly less optimistic about the batteries than is Toyota, which has already announced a transition to lithium-ion batteries for its Prius cars next year.
And the timeline is important with respect to lithium demand because the amount of lithium used in each kind of battery increases moving from batteries in hybrids to those in plug-in electrics to pure electrics. Hybrid vehicle lithium-ion batteries each use less than 1kg of lithium carbonate. The battery going into the Chevy Volt, a plug-in electric, is expected to use 20 to 30 kg of lithium carbonate. So as vehicle and battery makers move their technologies along towards pure electric vehicles, and as consumers become more comfortable with the idea of driving an electric car, the impact on lithium demand will increase.
Regardless of when, exactly, the battery technology is ready it is already clear that price will be the main battle. The battery is already the most expensive single component of current electric vehicles; the battery pack for the Chevy Volt is expected to cost roughly US$8,000.
The price of lithium is not widely published. According to Hykawy, lithium carbonate is currently valued at US$6,600 per tonne. Ten years ago the price sat neat US$2,500 per tonne.

WHAT ABOUT SUPPLY?

The lithium industry is small, with worldwide annual production averaging just 120,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate. And the market is dominated by four companies - SQM of Chile (SQM-N), Rockwood Holdings (ROC-N), FMC (FMC-N), and privately-held Talison Minerals of Australia - that produce 85% of world supply.
Chile leads the world in lithium production, followed by Argentina. Both countries recover lithium from brine pools. The United States comes in third, based on the output from several lithium brine operations in Nevada, followed by Australia.
So analysts, including Hykawy and Anderson, seem to agree that the lithium demand outlook is strong. It is on the question of supply that opinions start to diverge.
Anderson does not see the need for a significant increase on the supply side. If the current producers expand their existing facilities, that alone would almost meet demand; if one new project comes online the industry will stay in slight oversupply.
And the TRU group thinks that one new project will be Rincon Lithium, a new lithium-brine extraction facility currently under construction in Argentina. Rincon is owned by privately-owned Sentient Group, so it is difficult to know basic production information, but Anderson thinks Rincon production will put the market into slight over-supply at least until 2020. If Rincon, or a similar operation, does not come on line soon then Anderson predicts be a supply crunch between 2015 and 2017.
Hykawy is more bullish on the need for new production, in part because he does not see the current producers rushing to expand their facilities.
"The issues they face are two-fold," Hykawy explains. "One, for most of them lithium is not the focus. SQM out of Chile, for example, is a potash producer; in their operation lithium comes off as a by-product. So are they really going to alter their entire method of production and pump more water for a product that makes up about 10% of their revenue? It's not likely.
"The other issue you have is that brines are living systems. If you start pumping out serious amounts of water - if you double or triple your pumping - you run the risk of depleting that aquifer and then you've lost the potash, the lithium, everything."
Instead of expanding their facilities, Hykawy thinks the producers will bank on the other tried-and-true way for a major to increase its reserves - letting a junior do the work.
"A lot of these companies are likely going to look for juniors to do a lot of the exploring for them, and then they'll come in afterwards and buy the top-producing brines," Hykawy predicts. "It will take some new entrants into the game."
But with dozens of juniors having staked or re-activated lithium projects in the last few months, how is one supposed to know which companies are just riding the share price boost and which actually have a chance of producing the needed metal? Rather than discussing specific companies, Hykawy prefers to point out the attributes of a good project.
The main consideration is the cost to developing a mine and then the price to produce lithium carbonate at the facility. With lithium, brines operations are cheaper to both build and operate. Building a brine facility costs $60 to $80 million, according to Hykawy, whereas building a hard-rock mine usually averages $500 million, and production costs are far lower with brines. And developing a brine facility from permitting through to commissioning can take as little as two years in the U.S., whereas the same process for a hard rock facility takes at least five years.
But even though brines are usually preferable, Hykawy warns that just because a brine contains lithium doesn't mean that it will be cost-effective to recover the metal. The key question when it comes to lithium brines is the magnesium concentration.
"It doesn't take a lot of bad chemistry - and by bad chemistry I mean high magnesium-lithium ratios - in the brine to throw the costs out of whack," says Hykawy. "And that opens up the chance for something like a Western Lithium Canada (WLC-V) with its clays."
It may cost significantly more to develop a mine based on a clay-hosted lithium deposit but once the mine is built it has the flexibility to produce according to spikes in demand or price. Changing production levels significantly is not really an option with a brine operation. And hard rock operations often offer the chance to produce other products, such as potash or hydrofluoric acid.
Another related consideration is the project's location: "On the brine side we prefer to see something that is in a relatively well-known lithium area so that the chemistry is well understood," says Hykawy. "And if you're in a known area, where other producers have been active for a while, then you have a pretty good idea that the hydrogeology works too - that you'll be able to pump at a reasonable rate and not deplete the source."
Those well-known lithium areas, for Hykawy, are Nevada, Chile, and Argentina. Bolivia, which is thought to host 5.4 million tonnes of lithium or roughly half the world's supply, is not part of Hykawy's list because he is concerned about the chemistry of its brines.
"Frankly a lot of the work that's been done there indicates you would more often than not find chemistries that don't work," Hykawy says. "So they may have a lot of the world's lithium, but at what price?"

WHO'S OUT THERE?

The list of companies exploring for lithium has been growing daily of late. Here are a few of the more active members of that list.

TNR Gold (TNR-V) is exploring a handful of lithium projects. At the Mariana project in Salta province, Argentina, TNR recently contracted advisors to help guide an exploration program. Mariana is a road-accessible lithium-boron salar, or salt lake; salars host some of the world's largest known lithium and boron resources. The advisors' work will inform a National Instrument 43-101-compliant report on the project; once TNR has a project report it can complete its previously-announced spin-off of International Lithium.
TNR also owns eight exploration licenses in Ireland's Leinster pegmatite belt, which it says are prospective for lithium, tantalum, and other rare earth elements. The company recently acquired the Maximoose lithium property in the Northwest Territories from a private owner and is exploring two lithium projects in Nevada as well as three lithium properties in Ontario.
TNR's share price hit a low of 2¢ in December but by mid-August rallied to a high of 35¢ and currently sits near 27¢. The company has 85 million shares outstanding.

Canada Lithium (CLQ-V) is primarily focused on the Quebec Lithium project that it bought for 6 million shares and $350,000 in spring 2008. The property hosts a lithium spodumene deposit that supported an underground mine for ten years in the mid-1900s. When operations were suspended in 1965 the reserve count stood at 15 million tons grading 1.14% LiO2 down to the 150-metre level. Canada Lithium is currently advancing metallurgical studies and recently produced lithium carbonate within battery industry specifications. Canada Lithium has already signed a marketing agreement for the Quebec Lithium project, inking a deal giving Mitsui of China sales rights to lithium production.
The company also owns 75% of the Paymaster lithium brine project in Nevada, where partner and project operator Gold Summit (GSM-V) has recently recommenced fieldwork. The partners are planning to drill a test hole targeting an aquifer, once permits are received.
Canada Lithium's share price has gained as much as 394% since May, climbing from 17¢ to a high of 84¢ in mid-August. The company's share price is currently near 60¢ and it has 114 million shares outstanding.

Western Lithium's Kings Valley project is one of the larger and more advanced lithium projects around. Located in Humboldt County, northern Nevada, Kings Valley is home to 48.1 million indicated tonnes grading 0.27% lithium and 42.3 million inferred tonnes at the same grade. The resource is hosted in five lenses that stretch along 30 km.
The company envisions a staged development approach at Kings Valley, wherein Phase I would potentially support the production of 25,000 tonnes lithium carbonate per year and subsequent phases would increase production. Western Lithium is expected to release a scoping study for Phase I very soon.
In August Western Lithium's share price jumped from a spring-summer average near 65¢ to a new hover just over $1. The company has a 52-week trading range of 10¢ to $1.33 and has 62 million shares outstanding.

Lithium One (LI-V) is advancing its Cyr lithium prospect in northwestern Quebec. The spodumene, or lithium aluminum silicate, project has seen sporadic exploration since the mid-1960s but does not hosts a defined resource. The company is working through an 11,000-metre drill program and recently released the program's first set of results. All 17 holes intersected significant pegmatite; highlights include 10.5 metres grading 2.38% Li2O and 22.5 metres of 1.51% Li2O.

Channel Resources (CHU-V) is taking a different approach to lithium exploration by essentially letting someone else do the work of drilling. The company's Fox Creek property in west-central Alberta includes some 113 oil and gas production wells, of which some 44 area currently active. Most of these wells penetrated one of Channel's targets - the Beaverhill Lake aquifer - at roughly 3,200 metres depth; active wells are producing significant volumes of brine along with petroleum products. At present the brines are separated from the petroleum products and injected back into the aquifers.
In mid-August Channel kicked off a sampling program at Fox Creek designed to verify the concentrations of lithium as well as of potential by-products such as potassium and bromine in the brines.

And New World Resources (NW-V) is exploring for lithium in that well-endowed country, Bolivia. The company has a 125-sq. km property covering a large salar, which it sampled in July. Results from the sampling program, which was designed to verify and expand historic resources, are expected this month.

New entrants into the lithium scene include First Gold Exploration (EFG-V), Mineral Hill Industries (MHI-V), and Habanero Resources (HAO-V).
First Gold just picked up two lithium exploration properties in the Quebec Eastmain greenstone belt adjacent to and along strike from Lithium One's Cyr discovery. The company's share price soared 50% on the news to 15¢ but has since settled back to 11¢.
Mineral Hill is now also looking for lithium in Quebec greenstone. The company acquired two lithium properties over the summer in the Abitibi Belt, known as the Chubb and International properties, and recently commenced exploration efforts.
Once its 13 applications are processed Habanero will be one of the largest land holders in Alberta's South Leduc Formation, where the company plans to explore for lithium.
So there is no shortage of lithium explorers; there are even a few companies with potential production on the horizon. But Anderson wanted to spread a word of caution.
"I gotta tell you - there are a lot of juniors out there and most of them know absolutely nothing about lithium, so be careful," says Anderson. His key concern regarding the lithium exploration rush is a lack of geologists with training specific to lithium.

Lithium M&A: Who Will Be Next? Battery demand fuels Rockwood's Talison Lithium buy

  

  

  As we have mentioned before, in this mega trend of Energy Transition driven by Peak Oil multiplied by Inflation - it is very important to cut all the noise fueled by Oil lobby and look what people with money and vision are really doing and not only what they are talking about.  China, Japan and Korea are all over the place making investments in Lithium developers for the last few years. There are only few credible companies left now for this consolidation stage and with every next deal the strategic nature of crucial supply of Lithium to fuel the Green Mobility revolution will be more and more apparent. By that time, when general public will be chasing everything with the word Lithium again - it will be the right moment to Sell. 

  Now, when lithium developers are  only trying to get their heads up from the Sell Off dust - it is time to study the story and pick up your own collection of lithium juniors. As usual, it will be very important to separate pump and dump from the real players. NRs about OTC traded "Lithium Companies" which are issued almost every day just to hit the search engines with the right key words will be the very good indications about what NOT to touch even with the very long pole. 

  What to look for? It is the same old values - Projects, Management and Partners to develop the next Lithium Targets. Capital is very scarce now for the juniors and who is backing the companies will be the most crucial at this stage.

  Just a few years ago, when we started to write about the Next Big Thing we had three major producers on our radar screen: SQM, FMC and Rockwood Holding. All of them are diversified chemical companies with majority of revenue coming from Potash and other fertilisers and speciality chemicals and some lithium. They were all quite a stretched proxy to play the Lithium game. Then Talison joined our party - as the most advanced pure lithium play with its hard rock lithium production in Australia. Juniors enjoyed the first crazy run in 2009 - 2010 with major industry players taking positions in the most promising projects.     

    

  We are writing here only about what we are following and do not have the intention to cover the comprehensive history of the lithium sector with all its investment opportunities. 

  Canada Lithium and Western Lithium were on our radar screens for a while - Canada Lithium has attracted interest of Japanese Mitsui, but management issues in that company at that time and Western Lithium's untested production from clay as source of Lithium moved our attention to Brines in Latin America and, particularly, Argentina. 

  We were not alone in our interest - Orocobre has secured investment from Japanese Toyota Tsusho; Talison has bought Salares Lithium to get Lithium Brine exposure;  Lithium Americas had investors from Japan - Mitsubishi and Magna from Canada; Lithium One had investment from Korean Kores and later J/V with Galaxy Resources from Australia; Pan American Lithium has attracted POSCO from Korea, Rodinia Lithium sold a stake to Chinese Shan Shan and then International Lithium was launched by TNR Gold with Ganfeng Lithium from China as Strategic investor.

  Now, after all major producers have increased Lithium prices lately, this acquisition of Talison by Rockwood Holding opens the doors to further consolidation among our junior lithium developers. From our personal collection Lithium One was taken out by Galaxy Resources this spring already.

  We are looking at the smaller players which could be subject to the M&A activity - we have a total disconnect between the asset value and the market valuation of these companies now. The risk is that they will never get enough capital to develop their project - the reward is the price multiple on those who can make it.

  Out of our favorite: International Lithium, Rodinia Lithium, Lithium One and Orocobre - Lithium One is taken out by the Galaxy already. Orocobre could become the consolidator in this junior development space and International Lithium and Rodinia Lithium could become the forgotten darlings for M&A dreams. Rodinia Lithium is more advanced with resource estimation, small stake from Shan Shan and recent creative financing of its Potash side of story. International Lithium enjoys increased stake of its strategic partner - Ganfeng Lithium, has found the highest in Argentina Potash grade on its Mariana Lithium-Potash Brine and announced financing and J/V LOI on its Ireland Lithium project. Talison buyout brings new angle on Lithium hard rock mining and can create the new opportunities for International Lithium with its projects in Ireland and Canada.

International Lithium Corp. Options Blackstairs Project Further Strengthening Ties With Chinese Lithium Producer Jiangxi Ganfeng ILC.v, TNR.v

Consolidation Potential for Lithium Juniors GXY.ax, LI.v, ILC.v, ORE.ax, RM.v

Lithium M&A: Galaxy/Lithium One merger completed

Reuters:

Battery demand fuels Rockwood's Talison Lithium buy

By Maneesha Tiwari and Bhaswati Mukhopadhyay
(Reuters) - Chemicals producer Rockwood Holdings Inc (ROC.N) agreed to buy Talison Lithium Ltd TLH.TO for C$724 million ($729 million) to expand in Asia and boost its output of lithium used in batteries for electric cars and cellphones.
Demand for lithium batteries has risen in recent years as they are more efficient and help cut carbon emissions. The rising popularity of smartphones, which need longer-running batteries, has also helped.
Talison supplied about 80 percent of lithium demand in China, the world's biggest autos market, the company said in January.
"The rationale for everything we do in lithium is to be ready for expected growth in electric vehicles that run on lithium batteries. There is also power tools like power drills and pharmaceuticals," Timothy McKenna, a spokesman for Rockwood, told Reuters.
Rockwood, whose peers include Kronos Worldwide Inc KRO.N, Sensient Technologies Corp SXT.N, WR Grace and Co (GRA.N) and Valhi Inc VHI.N, has said it expects battery-grade lithium products to show double-digit sales growth this year.
Lithium business accounted for 14 percent of Rockwood's June quarter sales of $905.6 million. Perth, Australia-based Talison's sale of lithium concentrate rose 8 percent to 365,545 metric tons (402,944 tons) in the fiscal year ended June 30.
Rockwood will control 55 percent of global lithium supply once the deal closes, David Davidson, an analyst at Paradigm Capital wrote in a note to clients. Talison had a 32 percent share of the global supply market, he said.
Princeton, New Jersey-based Rockwood said on Thursday it will pay C$6.50 per Talison share, a 53 percent premium to the stock's Wednesday close on the Toronto Stock Exchange.
"The premium reflects the quality of Talison, a pure-play lithium concentrate producer with a strategic asset and customer base, that either met or exceeded our own modeled expectations on essentially every metric quarter on quarter," Davidson said.
Talison shares rose 52 percent to an 18-month high of C$6.47. Rockwood fell about a percent to $47.09 in noon trade on Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange.
Rockwood plans to finance the acquisition -- its biggest deal till date -- using cash on hand and new debt financing.
Lazard advised Rockwood while Talison was advised by Macquarie Capital in Australia and Canada.
(Editing by Joyjeet Das and Sriraj Kalluvila)"

Please, do not forget, that we own stocks we are writing about and have position in these companies. We are not providing any investment advise on this blog and there is no solicitation to buy or sell any particular company