Battery powered
Now lithium. Hannans Reward (HNR) already has a nickel-copper project in Lapland and last week managed to see its shares double (only to 0.4c mind you) by reporting it had picked up an historic lithium mine and other projects for that metal in Sweden.
But the market yawned when Enterprise Metals (ENT) unveiled 270sq km of new ground at Yalgoo, WA, that apparently has both gold and lithium potential. Investors resisted the temptation and left the stock unchanged at 1.9c. The previous day’s announcement of a share purchase plan may have dampened enthusiasm. Exterra Resources (EXC) was sold down on large volume for taking an option over a lithium project near Marble Bar, but two days later punters changed their minds and bid up the stock by 20 per cent.
It’s all to do with lithium-ion batteries “swamping the market for mobile power equipment, computing and telecommunication”, as Peter Strachan of StockAnalysis explains. Of the 13 lithium plays analysed by Strachan, only two get a “buy” tag: they are the partners at the reopened Mt Cattlin mine in WA, General Mining (GMM) and Galaxy Resources (GXY), the latter also commissioning a brine deposit in Argentina. Altura Mining (AJM) and its Pilgangoora project in the west gets a “spec buy”. Strachan advises clients to wait in respect of Orocobre (ORE) and its “only breaking even” project in Argentina until it ramps up, and also for Pilbara Minerals (PLS). The latter has a decision-to-mine in its diary for December; wait on financing, says Strachan.
