Savannah Resources Share Discussion Threads

[edgein] 17/5/2019 07:53

Pale,

Good article, we could see a run on some of these metals for sure. Also Manganese too as some will switch from Cobalt when its harder to get hold of and even more expensive.

"Manganese Spinel Structure that is Stable Even with Overcharging. When lithium-ion batteries are charged, lithium ions move from the cathode material to the anode material. Because lithium manganate is a spinel structure with the manganese in a lattice shape, the material remains stable even when charging."

Regards,
Ed.

[edgein] 17/5/2019 07:48

Ged,

Indeed the more pressure there is on the lithium price the better for SAV, the more demand from Portugal for power storage from growing renewables the lower the cost of shipping from our mine, especially if there's a lithium processing plant built in Portugal. We could have customers right on our doorstep. Build one of those lith conversion plants and its quite possible someone will want to build a battery manufacturing plant close by too. Complete the chain within Portugal, we could have 2/3 of that chain and a mid cap. Certainly the growing resource will help debt funding.

GD,

Yes its great to see that the EU are valuing an lith supply in Europe. I'd be surprised if there weren't EU grants in the future for mine/concentrate plant and also processing plant. Even a few million euro would be a start, the bigger the better of course. Exciting times ahead even if the share price doesn't even reflect the early scoping study yet. It started to when it moved to 17p earlier. But perhaps it will again on the upgraded JORC to come. Looking forward to that one, some really good grades and interceps to put into that. DFS is gonna be exciting too after what the SS showed.

Regards,
Ed.

[paleje] 16/5/2019 22:43

Don't think that's been made clear yet HG, but definitely H2.

A piece in today's Times is music to the ears, not just for lithium but battery metals in general:-

Fears that sudden realisation EV revolution is upon us could squeeze metals prices...

thursday may 16 2019

Salinas Grandes in Argentina is a source of lithium, but more supplies are wanted
Salinas Grandes in Argentina is a source of lithium, but more supplies are wanted
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Drivers are being urged to buy clean, environmentally friendly electric cars, but fears are growing that the rush to go green is about to squeeze the supply of metals and minerals that have become vital to the automotive industry.

The alarm was raised in Washington last week by Tesla, the electric car company run by Elon Musk, 47, the billionaire technology entrepreneur. Sarah Maryssael, its global supply manager for battery metals, warned a conference that after years of underinvestment in the mining industry, materials used to make the batteries that power electric vehicles could rapidly be in short supply. That, in turn, could cause their prices to rise sharply.

Elon Musk runs the electrical car company TeslaElon Musk runs the electrical car company Tesla
ROBYN BECK/BLOOMBERG/GETTY
Metals and minerals used in rechargeable batteries include copper, graphite, cobalt, lithium and nickel. Industry analysts worry that the rising interest in electric vehicles, particularly in China, which accounts for half of the world’s demand, could lead to increasing supply problems and higher prices. Lithium is also used in smartphone batteries, putting yet more pressure on demand.

Tesla’s warning has been echoed by experts on all sides of the mining industry. Yuen Low, metals and mining analyst at Shore Capital, said that there was the “potential for a shortage” in some of the metals used in electric vehicle batteries. He said that a lithium shortage was possible, although more companies were searching for the metal.

“There’s probably a bigger structural shortage of nickel,” he said. “You need a certain grade — class one — and that accounts for half of supply. The consensus is that there will be a shortage of supply in a few years’ time, when most people are expecting the price to be driven by electric vehicles.” In the past two years, the price of a tonne of nickel has risen from about $8,000 to more than $12,333.

Analysts at Barclays estimate that producing the rechargeable battery accounts for 60 per cent of the cost of an electric vehicle, even though manufacturing changes involving, for example, the use of less cobalt have brought costs down by 75 per cent since 2010.

“We believe the smarter carmakers have already locked down raw material supply to the early 2020s,” a group of the bank’s specialist analysts said in a recent note. “Based on our analysis, there could be a 112,000-tonne cobalt supply shortage by 2025.” The likely shortfall could drop to 31,000 tonnes if a battery that uses even less cobalt is adopted by all carmakers.

The price of cobalt fell from a record high of $95,250 a tonne in March last year to $34,500 a tonne at the end of last week as traders anticipated falling demand.

Nor are electric vehicles the sole driver of rising commodities prices. The rising prices of other metals has been underpinned, in part, by increasingly stringent vehicle emissions legislation, particularly in Europe and China. These include palladium and platinum, sought after for their use in catalytic converters, which clean up petrol and diesel-powered internal combustion engines.

Palladium is a byproduct of platinum and nickel. Mined mainly in Russia and South Africa, about 80 per cent of it ends up in the catalytic converters to reduce harmful emissions such as carbon monoxide and nitrogen oxide. As with lithium, these metals are also used in other areas. Platinum and palladium are widely used in jewellery and electronics. The price of palladium overtook gold for the first time in 16 years last year as it became clear that production was unlikely to cater for demand.

© Times Newspapers Limited 2019.

[highly geared] 16/5/2019 18:42

When are we now expecting the DFS for Portugal?

[greatfull dead] 16/5/2019 15:20

Ed and Ged,

Thank you for your posts on renewable energy 1813 to 1816. Clarity. EU funding I feel will not be a problem...

ATB,
GD

[ged5] 16/5/2019 14:44

So a double whammy ED. I'm not sure we need other markets for the lithium at Mina do Barroso if SAV are going to be in the European EV supply chain. As Andrew Scott mentioned there are indications pointing towards what many are saying exponential demand requirement for lithium in the not too distant future.

Still any extra use of lithium can only be good. I still feel there could be other options for batteries not used in EVs.

Edit: Thanks for the links.

[edgein] 16/5/2019 14:01

I think its not so much that renewable energy is going to power the mine and plants, its more SAV can supply them with the materials to grow their industry.

Regards,
Ed.

[edgein] 16/5/2019 13:59

I think some of you fellas are missing the point. Power generated by solar/wind needs lith batteries:







Regards,
Ed.

[ged5] 16/5/2019 11:58

Yes. If the power that SAV use is from renewable energy then their products move towards carbon neutral. So yes more likely to get any EU funding perhaps.

[inbrackets] 16/5/2019 11:49

Hi. When DA was talking about renewable energy and the increase from 60 to 80%, I didn't read it that SAV were to be providing downstream energy. I took it that Portugal were moving more towards it as a country and that the holistic beauty of the lithium circle was that renewables would be providing the energy to mine and process itself. This was one of the criteria the Eu were setting for any funding help. Tick box.

[ukgeorge] 16/5/2019 11:44

Thanks for the informed posts guys. I've bought myself a few of these.

Interesting to see the EIB lending Northvolt €350M bodes well for projects in Europe.

[ged5] 16/5/2019 11:23

Thanks deacon for alerting us to the VOX podcast.

John Meyer of share price Angel about 25 minutes in on the macro climate.

Favourite metal commodity 1-10 years is copper. Demands of EV revolution. World will need another 3M tonnes of copper per year by 2030. Thats 15% of global copper supply on an annual basis just to meet the EV demand.

Little damming about lithium at one point BUT:-

Talks a little about SAV at 32 minutes in. SAV came out with a "stonking" great drill hole result. (Made me smile)

Very well placed in Portugal to be one of the next generation of new European mines that are going to feed these gigafactories that are being planned by VW, Northolt and the like. There's going to be a whole new European union battery industry and supply chain created over the next few years.

Not given up on Oman. Things go a little more slowly in Oman. (Now that made me really laugh)

[greatfull dead] 16/5/2019 11:02

Ed,

Obviously the lith processing plant is a no brainer. How good the SAV management will be in discussions/negotiations to be a partner in the building and then running the plant remains to be seen.

I am pleased that DA is also talking/looking at growth of the renewable energy market in Portugal,bodes well for the future of SAV and others...

ATB,
GD

[ged5] 16/5/2019 10:38

Thanks paleje for putting that link in the posts. I did put a link in the header last night. I didn't note the number of views then but this morning it's just 88. Just shows the lack of interest at the moment. I'm sure things are about to change especially if DA's enthusiastic optimism comes to fruition.

Here's my notes on the interview:-

Continue to get really excellent results from our continuing drilling program.

Reported best overall lithium results that we've recorded today.

45m 1.67% Li2O outstanding result particularly high grade component of that intersection 22m at 2% that's a world class intersection in anyone's book.

Continue to expand the mineralised envelope at Aldeia its one of a series of deposits that in aggregate constitute the most significant conventional lithium resource in Europe

Drilling over the last few months the results of that being aggregated at the moment and that will result in I'm pleased to say a resource increase

Good progress with the FS got metallurgical test work going on at the moment

Key thing with this project what we've got is second mover advantage we're learning all the lessons that can be learnt from the first wave of new lithium developments in Australia and looking to apply those lessons to our Portuguese project

Whole series of dialogues going on at the moment with industry partners potential offtakers investors and probably more interestingly in some ways seeing strong interest in the opportunity to potentially develop a lithium conversion plant in Portugal and with that we'd really be able to lock down from end to end the whole lithium value chain in Europe

We think that Portugal is an ideal geography to be doing that.

One of the great appeals of Portugal is the use of renewable energy Some 60% of power production is renewable sources That will go up to 80% by 2030 We're really looking to produce a product that has inputs that are as carbon neutral as possible

VW CEO yesterday quoted as saying that they are targeting productions 22M EVs over the next 10 years. Rolling out 70 electric vehicle models over the 12 brands within the VW group

Daimler ambition 2039. That's their target to produce a carbon neutral EV fleet

Really a tectonic movement towards electric vehicles in Europe. Going to have a wonderful impact in terms of reduction of greenhouse gas emissions reduction in pollutants especially in cities will be transformational to the quality of life in European cities

Further resource updates in terms of expanding the overall project resource
Updates on FS
Updates on commercial and corporate developments around offtakes and partnerships and more broadly news of the development of the industry within the continent.

[edgein] 16/5/2019 09:44

GD,

Yes given the numbers in the scoping study from a smaller lower grade resource than SAV currently have they were impressive. If the lith processing plant makes its way into the DFS it'll be mouthwatering stuff. Folks just need to look back at what the LoM revenues were for the lith concentrate route. Hopefully these discussions with multiple parties will lead to the right deal for the end product plant in Portugal (hopefully a short distance from MdB). Interesting too that DA is looking at the growth of the renewable energy market in Portugal, its not all about the rapid EV growth expected. Portugal must be looking to expand their solar production, they sure do get plenty of rays over there!

Regards,
Ed.

[greatfull dead] 16/5/2019 09:27

Ed,

You beat me to it on the lith conversion plant. Talk about added value!!!

ATB,
GD

[greatfull dead] 16/5/2019 09:08

topping up when i can...

gla,
gd

[paleje] 16/5/2019 00:14

DA on proactive this afternoon -

[the deacon] 15/5/2019 16:12

SAV discussed on Vox markets today. SP Angel analyst covers

[edgein] 15/5/2019 09:21

Ged,

Either will do, lith carbonate is still more common than hydroxide, but both require 6% lith concentrate that SAV plan to produce, the value of which will be driven by demand. It'll be one of the large battery manufacturers for the offtake imo, but if one of those large car manufacturers want control of the European value chain SAV will be the place to start. We've a rapidly growing resource, we'll all be looking forward to the next JORC upgrade here and a revised NPV as the last one was highly impressive. I bought in for the world class mineral sands project not realizing we would have two tier 1 assets. I cannot see SAV going beyond the lith concentrate part of the chain as it would likely add another $150-250m to deve costs to get to lith processing plant level. Obviously economics are totally different at that level. Hopefully Portugal will push hard for the development of a plant in their country as that would greatly reduce transport/export cost of the concentrate. SAV will do really well to get this to production rather than being taken out. RoM revenues were significant on a 16-19Mt resource, well its not that anyone and continues to get bigger. With the three projects here and the current cash balance I'm surprised more institutions aren't all over these. Seems a bit like sleeping at the wheel given expected EV demand.

Regards,
Ed.

[ged5] 15/5/2019 09:04

Agree IB. For me the results will be more or less meaningless although we will need to keep our eye on the cash available. I think we should still be OK.

Ed, you mention lithium carbonate but isn't lithium hydroxide the more favourable option? Lithium hydroxide is easier to process I think from hard rock spodumene.

[ged5] 15/5/2019 08:56

You haven't bought enough! :)

[rjmahan] 15/5/2019 08:38

Why isn’t the share price up more?

[inbrackets] 15/5/2019 08:26

FQR, they are not late, just a month later, so far. Last date for the AGM is end June and that needs 3 weeks notice, so we should expect the announcement over the next week or so.Don't forget the accounts are historic info and we are not producing any income so in many respects are not enormously helpful. The main thing is the opportunity to give an update on what has been happening since. Last year we had had 26 RNS up to now and this year up until 2 days ago, a total of 6, now 8.This might be due to being wrapped up in NDAs and negotiations, but hopefully as the consortiums bigger players start to deliver on their plans, now happening, it will mean that our place in the great scheme of things can also be announced.That would mean the AGM and the update report will have something to say.