- Electric cars deliver full torque from
a standstill so they have impressive acceleration. They are fun
to drive!
- Electric cars are quiet, there is no
combustion, no muffler.
- Electric cars do not use explosive
fuel, there is no gas tank.
- Electric cars are cheaper to operate,
electricity being cheaper than gasoline.
- Electric cars are also cheaper to maintain than
combustion systems. Having far fewer parts makes the car less complex,
easier and cheaper to maintain – there’s no ignition, exhaust, timing or
cooling systems.
- Electric cars can be plugged in at home and you wake up
with a fully charged battery every day.
- No more getting ‘hosed’ at the gas station, not even the
day before a long weekend when combustion engine car owners are lining
up.
- Road trips have currently been extended to over 400 km
on a single charge.
- A network of charging stations is being built.
- Tesla’s car battery can be guaranteed for a full eight
years. Other manufacturers will follow this achievement.
- Old batteries can and will be recycled. Current
technology saves a minimum of 70 percent on CO2 emissions involved in
creating lithium-ion batteries from scratch.
- Zero tail pipe emissions.
I think that by 2020 battery-powered cars will become a no-brainer
purchase for many of us.
The most recognized name in electric cars at the moment is Tesla Motors
whose goal is to ship 500,000 cars in 2020. To reach that goal would require
the entire battery industry to more than double production. That’s just Tesla
- never mind other existing players and new entrants into the electric car
market.
If ten percent of all cars on the road were to become battery-powered
global battery production would require an astounding 20-fold increase.
JB Straubel, Tesla's chief technical officer, called this a "massive
revolution in industrialization, on a scale that is kind of hard to
imagine."
 
Tesla Motors has plans to build, by 2017, the world's largest lithium-ion
battery factory - a ten million square foot manufacturing and recycling
center it calls ‘Gigafactory.’ Tesla says its Gigafactory alone will
eventually produce 35 gigawatt-hours of battery capacity every year which is
more battery power than was produced globally in 2013.
Gigafactory will lower costs by shifting material, cell, module and pack
production to one spot eventually allowing Tesla to roll off their assembly
lines as many as half a million electric vehicles per year.
There are three essential components to a lithium-ion, or Li-ion, battery:
- An anode which is the negative electrode, it’s made from
graphite.
- A cathode is the positive electrode, it’s lithium with
cobalt based chemistry.
- An electrolyte, lithium salt is used as the conductor.
Lithium is not in short supply, as a matter of fact the market is
currently in oversupply.
The graphite market is a different situation. There is currently a
projected deficit if even just Tesla’s goals are to be met. However there is no
actual shortage of graphite at this time and dozens of junior resource
companies have graphite projects with many of them quite advanced.
That’s not the case for the other critical and strategic component of the
lithium-ion battery – cobalt.
Much more cobalt is used in a lithium-ion battery than graphite. As a
matter of fact LiNiCoAlO3 (Li-NCA) batteries typically have nine percent
cobalt by weight. That equates to roughly six kilograms of cobalt per
vehicle.
According to Robert Baylis, an analyst for Roskill, the Gigafactory alone
will require an additional 6,750 tonnes of cobalt (current global annual
demand 75,000 tonnes) when operating at full capacity. That’s hugely
significant when you consider most cobalt is produced as a by-product of nickel
mining (57%) and copper
mining (37%) - only 6% of our cobalt use is supplied from
primary cobalt operations.
The USGS calculates cobalt reserves are dispersed as:
- Africa 52%
- Americas 17%
- Australasia 24%
- Asia 7%
Some minerals are considered more important than others. A critical or
strategic material is a commodity whose lack of availability during a
national emergency would seriously affect the economic, industrial, and
defensive capability of any country.
“Cobalt is considered a ‘technology enabling’ substance as its at the
forefront of technological developments and innovation, whether for energy
storage systems and catalytic processes, which are so important for the
global green agenda, or enabling greater efficiencies in the operation of gas
turbines. So subtle and essential is cobalt that it also forms the basis of many
established and new biotech applications crucial for human health and
diagnostics. In fact cobalt is so important for industrial development that
the EU has recognised that it is a ‘critical’ metal for the EU in its Raw
Materials Initiative, which was undertaken to help support EU industry from
the effects of possible disruption to the supply of critical mineral
availability.” Cobalt Facts, 2013, CDI
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security, in its most recent report,
classified cobalt as a critical mineral.
The French Bureau de Recherches Géologiques et Minières rates high tech
metals, including cobalt as critical based on three criteria:
- Possibility (or not) of substitution
- Irreplaceable functionality
- Potential supply risks
Demand is increasing for critical metals due to:
- Economic growth of developing countries
- Emergence of new technologies and products
Many countries classify cobalt as both a critical and a strategic metal
because cobalt is used in so many diverse industrial and military applications.
- Super alloys
- Renewable Energy Re-usable energy storage systems
- Wear resistant alloys
- Magnets
- Binder Material
- Thermal spray coatings
- Orthopedics
- Life Science
- Catalyst in de-sulfurizing crude oil and as a catalyst in
hydrogenation, oxidation, reduction, and synthesis of hydrocarbons.
- Gas to liquid technology (GLT)
- Other Uses - Drying agents in paints, de-colorizers,
dyes, pigments, and oxidizers. Promotes adherence of enamel to steel,
and steel to rubber in steel belted radial tires
Super-alloys use to be the largest use of cobalt and their manufacture
still commands a large share of the market. But today the largest market
share and the fastest growing use of cobalt is in energy storage – batteries.
Global Cobalt Corp. TSX.V-GCO
One of the company’s best maneuvering itself to take advantage of the
‘Revolution In Industrialization’ caused by the greening, the electrification
of our land based transport systemsisGlobal Cobalt Corp.
Global Cobalt Corporation is a critical/strategic metals company focused
on the development of a new mining region in the Republic of Altai, a mineral
rich pro-mining region of southern Siberia, Russia. Global Cobalt’s goal is
to bring on stream a number of highly prospective projects and establish a
new mining jurisdiction focused on cobalt and other strategic metals.
Global Cobalt's flagship asset is the world-class Karakul Cobalt Deposit
which has the potential to be the largest known primary cobalt asset outside
of Africa. The Karakul option agreement was a milestone accomplishment and
positioned Global Cobalt as a first-mover into the Republic of Altai.
The most recent results from the Winter 2013 diamond drill program at the
Karakul Cobalt Project continue to duplicate and support a metal zonation
geological model that demonstrates the Karakul Cobalt Deposit includes higher
grade cobalt, higher grade copper and higher grading tungsten and bismuth
zones than previous work had indicated. To date results correlate very well
with, and verify historic Soviet-era drill hole results. Most importantly
GCO’s results have confirmed the validity of the Karakul Cobalt Project.
Also, new mineralized zones were discovered and promising silver and tungsten
values were returned. Plans have been outlined to accelerate completion of a
NI 43-101 compliant resource and fast-track development of the project to
supply the growing demand for cobalt.
"Each release of assay results continues to confirm the validity
of the historical drill and technical data but more importantly, we are
gaining an understanding of the unique high grade sections for each metal
group within the Karakul Cobalt Project which is key as we initiate on mine
planning activities."Erin Chutter, CEO of Global Cobalt
One of Global Cobalt's strategic advantages rests in the Altai Sister
Properties, a collection of assets that covers prospective ground in a
westerly arc north of Karakul. Although the primary development focus remains
the Karakul deposit, the Altai Sister Properties offer tremendous upside
potential and, in some cases, extensions of known mineralization. Initial
analysis of the historic drilling results, along with a geophysical review
indicates that the Altai Sisters have the potential to add dramatically to
the Company's future resources.
Global Cobalt has an agreement with China's top battery material supplier,
Beijing Easpring Material Technology Co., Ltd. The Agreement provides GCO the
right to sell to Easpring up to 100 percent of the total crude cobalt
hydroxide, cobalt concentrate or cobalt carbonate production from the Karakul
Cobalt Project for an initial term of 10 years from the commencement of
commercial production at competitive market prices. In addition, the
Agreement also allows for Easpring to participate in future mine project
financing. Global Cobalt has also awarded a Feasibility Study to Beijing
General Research Institute of Mining & Metallurgy, a leading global
mining consultancy.
Speaking to Global Cobalt’s activities in the Russian Federation, Mr.
Georgiy Mamedov, Russia's Ambassador to Canada commented in a written
statement on March 14, 2014:
"I would like to reiterate that Russia is committed to inviting
Canadian companies to invest and work in Russia. We welcome foreign
investment and will work closely with mining and exploration companies as
part of that strategy. Global Cobalt Corporation is the type of company that
we encourage to be active in Russia and we are very supportive of the
Company's efforts to be successful in its activity."
Conclusion
Tesla is highlighting the revolution in industrialization currently
underway - the electrification of our land based transport systems and energy
storage affordable for everyone.
Global Cobalt Corp., with its highly qualified management team has the
exploration, development and production expertise to enable timely, skilled
development of their impressive asset portfolio.
Global Cobalt is the first-mover into a new mining
region, the mineral rich, pro-mining Altai Republic of Russia’s southern
Siberia. GCO is the pioneer, the first foreign, investable, publicly traded
mining company to advance the mineral resources in the entire region.
Global Cobalt Corp. TSX.V: GCO, cobalt and the revolution in
industrializationshould be on all our radar screens. They are all definitely
on mine, are they on yours?
If not, they should be.
 Richard lives with his family on a
160 acre ranch in northern British Columbia. He invests in the resource and
biotechnology/pharmaceutical sectors and is the owner of Aheadoftheherd.com. His
articles have been published on over 400 websites, including:
WallStreetJournal, USAToday, NationalPost, Lewrockwell, MontrealGazette,
VancouverSun, CBSnews, HuffingtonPost, Beforeitsnews, Londonthenews,
Wealthwire, CalgaryHerald, Forbes, Dallasnews, SGTreport, Vantagewire,
Indiatimes, Ninemsn, Ibtimes, Businessweek, HongKongHerald, Moneytalks,
SeekingAlpha, BusinessInsider, Investing.com and the Association of Mining
Analysts.
Please visit www.aheadoftheherd.com
If you are interested in advertising on Richard’s site please contact him
for more information, rick@aheadoftheherd.com
***
Legal Notice / Disclaimer
This document is not and should not be construed as an
offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to purchase or subscribe for
any investment.
Richard Mills has based this document on information
obtained from sources he believes to be reliable but which has not been
independently verified.
Richard Mills makes no guarantee, representation or
warranty and accepts no responsibility or liability as to its accuracy or
completeness. Expressions of opinion are those of Richard Mills only and are
subject to change without notice. Richard Mills assumes no warranty,
liability or guarantee for the current relevance, correctness or completeness
of any information provided within this Report and will not be held liable
for the consequence of reliance upon any opinion or statement contained
herein or any omission.
Furthermore, I, Richard Mills, assume no liability for
any direct or indirect loss or damage or, in particular, for lost profit,
which you may incur as a result of the use and existence of the information
provided within this Report.
http://www.thecdi.com/cobaltnews.php
http://www.mining.com/tag/cobalt/
http://www.metal-pages.com/metals/cobalt/metal-prices-news-information/
http://www.tradingeconomics.com/commodity/cobalt
|
