Mining and Investment

Minera Andes announces updated NPV for Los Azules - $496M to $2.9 Billion

2010-12-17T09:36:00.000-08:00

I guess Rob McEwan is really giving MAI shareholders a nice Christmas present this year...lotsa lotsa copper!

Our longtime stock pick, TNR Gold Corp, has seen some share price appreciation from this development already but still vastly undervalued giving its paltry market cap of $0.17 x 120M shares = $20.4 Million market cap.

Compared to the meteoric rise of Minera Andes share price of late, TNR is an undervalued play for copper in Argentina and for a potentially large stake in the ever-growing Los Azules project.

Just how amazing is the LA project??

1. Initial capital $2.9 billion expenditure - yes it's large, but read on...
2. Payback in 3 years. THREE!!
3. Mine life of 25 years.

Now, I'm not mathematician and CFA, but 25-3 = 22 years producing copper for hungry China and India tells me this could is going to be an amazingly profitable mine.

The previous NPV was adjusted from $2.2 longterm copper price to $3/lb, indicating a much more realistic longterm projection now that copper is well close to $4/lb.

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN for TNR Shareholders?

In really simple terms, let's take $2.8 billion and assume TNR's portion is a mere 10% of the entire property. Not even including Escorpio IV which the project also needs for waste and tailings.

Using Expected Value of an Outcome (EV) and Probability theory we can infer the value of TNR below. This is with a very aggressive 20% discount on legal risks and 20% additional on copper value, post EV discount of 50% for lawsuit.

I've attached Expected Value theory below for those who has not seen it. I think it's a reasonable way to look at this scenario.

Even in worst case, TNR shareholder should expect at least 400% gain from current share prices.

I'm long TNR - are you?

$ 2,800,000,000	Valuation NPV Los Azules ( 2011+)
10%	Potential TNR ownership
$ 280,000,000	$ Value of TNR claims
$ 140,000,000	50/50 Expected outcome of Lawsuit
-20%	Legal Risks
-20%	Longterm Copper Price Fluctuations
$ 89,600,000
120,000,000	TNR Shares/Out
$ 0.75	$Value/Share (NAV without lithium)
$ 0.17	Current Share Price
439.22%	Potential Gains

Expected Value of an Outcome

Some games are considered more risky than others based on their probabilities of winning and their expected value. The expected value is what the player can expect to win or lose if they were to play many times with the same bet. For example, when playing Roulette, let’s say that a player bets $10 on red, with a payout of 1:1. The expected value of that bet played over and over can be expressed as follows.

The winning amount for one bet is $10

The losing amount for one bet is -$10

Expected value is calculated as follows:

[(probability of winning)(amount won per bet) - (probability of losing)(amount lost per bet)]

We can represent this mathematically using the values from above:

This means that if a player were to make this same bet of $10 on red over and over again, the player can expect to lose $0.53 for each bet of $10. A player has better chances of winning money with a positive expected value.

Minera Andes estimates $2.8-billion (U.S.) Azules NPV

2010-12-16 16:12 ET - News Release

Mr. James Duff reports

MINERA ANDES ANNOUNCES UPDATED PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT FOR ITS LOS AZULES COPPER DEPOSIT

Minera Andes Inc. has released the results of an updated preliminary assessment on its 100-per-cent-owned Los Azules copper project located in the San Juan province of western-central Argentina. It is based on the updated resource estimate announced in Stockwatch in June, 2010, and higher base case metal price assumptions. Amounts are in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated.

Highlights using a copper price of $3 per pound.

Base case pretax net present value is $2.8-billion, and the internal rate of return is 21.4 per cent at a discount rate of 8 per cent.

Life-of-mine cash operating costs are 96 cents per pound of copper, net of gold and silver byproduct credits.

Initial capital is $2.9-billion.

Capital payback is in three years.

Mine life is 25 years.

Rob McEwen, chairman and chief executive officer of Minera Andes, said: "We are advancing the engineering studies on Los Azules to systematically derisk the project. The field season is just getting under way, and we are currently mobilizing the first two of five drill rigs to the project. In addition to continuing the infill and step-out drilling, we will start to test some of the newly identified deeper geophysical targets this season."

Los Azules copper project is an advanced-stage porphyry copper exploration project located in the cordilleran region of San Juan province, Argentina, near the border with Chile. The deposit is a typical porphyry copper system in that the upper part of the system consists of a barren leached cap, which is underlain by a high-grade secondary enrichment blanket, and the primary mineralization below the secondary enrichment zone extends to at least 650 metres, which are the depth of the deepest holes drilled to date. The deposit is approximately one kilometre wide by four kilometres long, and it is open in several directions.

Highlights of the updated preliminary assessment are shown in the attached table. Details may be found in an updated technical report which will be posted on SEDAR following the issuance of this news release.

PRELIMINARY ASSESSMENT HIGHLIGHTS

NPV ($3/lb Cu, 8-per-cent discount rate) $2,826-million

IRR 21.4%

Initial capital expenditure $2,851-million

LOM average operating costs $7.82/t ore

LOM C-1 cash costs (net byproduct credits) $0.96/lb Cu mined

Nominal mill capacity 100,000 tpd

Annual throughput 36 million tonnes

Mine life 25.4 years

Life-of-mine strip ratio 1.37

LOM average annual copper-in-concentrate production 169,100 tonnes

First five years average annual copper-in-concentrate

production 226,500 tonnes

All monetary amounts are expressed in U.S. dollars unless otherwise stated.

The PA is preliminary in nature and includes the use of inferred resources,

which are considered too speculative geologically to have the economic

considerations applied to them that would enable them to be categorized as

mineral reserves. Thus, there is no certainty that the results of the PA

will be realized. Actual results may vary, perhaps materially. The level of

accuracy for preliminary assessment estimates is approximately plus or

minus 35 per cent.

Compared with the previous preliminary assessment released in March, 2009, the net present value discounted at 8 per cent has increased to $2.9-billion from $496-million, and the internal rate of return has increased to 21.4 per cent from 10.8 per cent. In addition, the payback of preproduction capital has decreased to 3.1 years from 6.4 years from the start of production.

The main driver of the improved project economics is that the base case copper price has been increased from $1.90 per pound to $3 per pound. Specifically the higher copper price added approximately $3.2-billion to the NPV, and the increased resources added approximately $2.1-billion.

The benefits of the higher copper price and increased resources were significantly offset by increases in the estimated operating costs ($695-million), capital costs ($100-million), and export retention taxes and royalties ($3.4-billion).

The updated preliminary assessment also incorporates updated property status and ownership information, revised locations for the project facilities, and an updated geological interpretation.

Project economics

The preliminary assessment contains a cash flow valuation model based upon the geological and engineering work completed to date and technical and cost inputs developed by Samuel Engineering Inc., Ausenco Vector and MTB Project Management Professionals Inc. The base case was developed using long-term forecast metal prices of $3 per pound for copper, $980 per ounce for gold and $15.60 per ounce for silver.

This news release has been submitted by Jim Duff, chief operating officer of the corporation. For further information, please contact Mr. Duff, or visit the company website.

Scientific and technical information

The information presented in this press release has been reviewed and approved by the qualified persons responsible for the technical report that presents the results of the updated preliminary assessment. They are: Kathleen Altman, PhD, PE, Robert Sim, PGeo, Bruce Davis, PhD, FAusIMM, Richard Jemielita, PhD, MIMMM, William Rose, PE, and Scott Elfen, PE. All are independent qualified persons as defined by National Instrument 43-101 (standards of disclosure for mineral projects). Mr. Sim, Mr. Davis and Mr. Rose are responsible for the mineral resource estimate. Mr. Davis is responsible for the quality control for the assaying of Los Azules drill core. All samples were collected in accordance with industry standards. Splits from the drill core samples were submitted to the ACME sample preparation laboratory in Mendoza, Argentina, and then transferred to ACME's laboratory in Santiago, Chile, for fire assay and ICP analysis. Accuracy of results is tested through the systematic inclusion of standards, blanks and check assays. Mr. Rose is responsible for developing the mine production schedule and participating in the resource estimate. Mr. Elfen of Ausenco Vector is responsible for information about environmental liabilities, environmental permitting and the geotechnical designs used for the study. Mr. Jemielita is responsible for information about the geological setting, deposit types, mineralization, exploration and drilling. Ms. Altman, Samuel Engineering, is the principal author of the report with specific responsibility for mineral processing and metallurgical testing, the capital and operating cost estimates, and the economic evaluation.

Mineral resources are generated using ordinary kriging with a nominal block size of 20 by 20 by 15 metres. Block grade estimates are derived from drill hole sample results and the interpretation of a geologic model, which relates to the spatial distribution of copper, gold, silver and molybdenum in the deposit. There are a total of 114 drill holes in Los Azules database with a cumulative length of 30,997 metres and a total of 15,260 samples analyzed for a suite of elements, including total copper, gold, silver and molybdenum. A total of 58 of the drill holes have some portion of the sample intervals tested for sequential copper analysis. This information contributed to the development of the mineral zone domains. The portion of the new mineral resource that has been defined as indicated is based on a drilling configuration that exhibits the degree of continuity required for higher-level mineral resources. Inferred mineral resources are limited to blocks within a maximum distance of 200 metres from a drill hole. As required by NI 43-101, the possible future economic viability of the mineral resource has been exhibited by restriction within a pit shell derived about the copper content in indicated and inferred class blocks at a copper price of $2.50 per pound, total operating costs of $5.25 per tonne and an average pit slope of 34 degrees. Mineral resources are presented at a cut-off grade of 0.35 per cent copper, which is the same base cut-off grade used in the 2008 mineral resource estimate. These are mineral resources, not mineral reserves.

For further information in respect of Los Azules project, please refer to the technical report entitled, "Canadian National Instrument 43-101 technical report, updated preliminary assessment, Los Azules project, San Juan province, Argentina," dated Dec. 1, 2010. This report will be made available on SEDAR concurrent with the filing of this news release.

We seek Safe Harbor.

Rush for Rare Earth Elements (REE) from Japan and Korea

2010-10-28T15:21:00.000-07:00

Rare earth elements (REE) are hot - and TNR Gold mining junior has one of the biggest carbonatite complex that's similar to Rare Element Resource's project at Bear Lodge.

RES shares (amongst other REE stocks) have returned nearly 20X (that's 2,000% return) over the last 2-3 years. Incredible!

Last month, China put a temporary ban on exports of rare earth elements to Japan, a vital resource to the country's high-tech industry.

Japan is beginning to actively pursue the recycling of e-waste in a new process called “urban mining” to mitigate the country's dependence on China for the metals.

Urban mining is the recycling of obsolete or outdated electronics for metals including precious, base, and rare earth elements. These electronics include computers, televisions, cell phones, printers, PDAs, and thousands of other devices commonly used in offices, homes, and by people on the go.

Urban mining can be a very profitable business. A tonne of cell phones, for example, contains more gold than a tonne of ore from a typical gold mine.

An average gold mine produces 5 grams of gold per tonne of rock whereas cell phones contain 150 grams per tonne or more.

In addition, a tonne of cell phones contains 100 kilograms of copper and 3 kilograms of silver, as well as other valuable metals—all of which have been soaring in price.

In the video clip below, Reuters reports on a new push for the urban mining of rare earth elements in Japan:

Minera Andes hits high grade gold in takeover prime area in Argentina, TNR.v, MAI.to, AND.to, ABX

2010-10-18T09:39:00.000-07:00

Goldcorp's recent takeover of Andean in Argentina marks a sign of things to come with gold hovering at close to historic all-time highs at $1371/oz.

The Argentinean province of San Juan and Salta means other miners in the area have gained the spotlights from investors and media alike.

Ironically, the San Jose project which junior miner Minera Andes hold is a solid grade gold and silver producer that Goldcorp founder Rob McEwan operates (and owns 33%).

If he founded Goldcorp and left, isn't it ironic that Goldcorp is returning to the same area that Minera Andes and TNR Gold have been at all these years?

In addition to that, since the last time we covered MAI - share price has erupted to over $2/share CAD, marking almost a 300% profit for those who averaged down to MAI during the slowtimes of even the summer 2010.

This came about primarily with rumors with MAI takeover and another discovery at San Jose mine that could easily increase production in the coming years. But also we believe it's attributed to copper recovering to its former highs in 2008.

MAIs train might have left the station but you can still play a great investment with TNR Gold - albelt disputedPublish Post they still hold claims to 25% back-in on the large Los Azules project.

We've been right here a few times on Mining101 and this is why we have readers daily who has come here to learn more about investing. Do your own due dilligence - we have, and we have done well during this quiet recovery!

TNR Gold rebounds on Shotgun Million Oz Gold deposit acquisition from NovaGold TNR.v, NG, MAI, CUM, BAJ

2010-10-01T09:14:00.000-07:00

As always, our favorite gold jr miner rebounds back from the slight dip in share price to the $0.20+ range. What's interesting is other investors in TNR have noticed the strange pattern in selling, literally 500 shares every 3 minutes - suggesting someone is trying to artificially keep the stock price down...!?

Another shareholder "257value" from another investment board has noticed this and captured 20 trades the last 2-3 days to document this pattern

It's impossible for someone to be selling 500 shares every few seconds for the last week...!! I know it may sound like a conspiracy theory but...could it be MAI shorting TNR to push the price down and mount a takeover for Los Azules....??

Keep your heads up fellow shareholders - management has re-assured us nothing has changed about their projects and progress - just a large position being liquidated resulting in the drop..look at it yourself!

Recent Trades - Last 10 of 156

Time ET Ex Price Change Volume Buyer Seller Markers

15:42:02 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:39:01 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:36:01 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:33:01 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:30:01 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:27:01 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:24:00 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:21:06 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:18:04 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:15:04 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia

Time ET Ex Price Change Volume Buyer Seller Markers

15:56:16 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:53:27 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:50:38 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:47:50 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:45:02 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:42:02 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:39:01 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:36:01 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:33:01 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

15:30:01 V 0.16 0.00 500 9 BMO Nesbitt 85 Scotia K

When you wonder who might be stand to benefit from this share price fluctuation, especially taking into account many of the shares are bought and sold between the same brokerage (Scotia, for example) - it may be an accumulation of shares by a new group.

What new group will do this and benefit?

Los Azules come to mind. Losing potentially 25% of the northern high grade portion is a huge risk - especially from a junior miner worth less than $25 million market cap.

Rob McEwan has publicly announced his love for gold and copper - it wouldn't be surprising now that the Hoschild Mining lawsuit has wrapped up that he tries to clean up Los Azules. The lawsuit leaves a blemish on his excellent portfolio of projects in Minera Andes.

After all, he holds 33% of the stock himself and proudly advertises it on the front page of the MAI presentation.

Calculating copper at a mere $0.01 a lb, he believes Los Azules is easily worth $125M + 250M (gold and silver) credits.

By the same logic if Los Azules is worth $375M at the top end, a 15% would equate to $56 million, not account for Escorpio IV.

The current market cap of TNR Gold at $0.20/share with 123 million shares outstanding is a paltry $24.6M.

Why pay a higher price if you don't have to?

It'll be very interesting to watch this unfold. All I know is I'm holding onto my TNR shares, they might be onto something here...
To make things even more interesting, with gold above $1,300, TNR has acquired the remaining interest in a million oz. (historic resource) called Shotgun.

Last drill hole in 2007 was 210.5 metres grading 1.29 g/t Au - can you imagine what that will mean for TNR in today's gold market?
__________

Vancouver B.C.: TNR Gold Corp. ("TNR" or the "Company") is pleased to announce an increase to a 100% undivided ownership interest in the Shotgun project in Southwestern Alaska (the "Property") through the acquisition of NovaGold Resources Inc.'s ("NovaGold" or the "Vendor") outstanding 50%.

Key Highlights:
• Acquires NovaGold's 50% interest in the Property to increase it's ownership to 100%;
• 6,000,000 shares and 3,000,000 warrants in the Company for consideration of NovaGold's 50% interest;
• Shotgun Ridge contains a Non NI43-101 historical resource of 980,000 ounces grading 0.93 g/t*;
• 210.5 metres grading 1.29 g/t Au at Shotgun Ridge indicates higher grade feeder zone open at depth; and
• $8 million spent on the project to date by the Company and previous operators.

"The Shotgun property is a major gold asset and the successful unification of a 100% interest translates into a significant increase in inherent value for the Company" states Gary Schellenberg, CEO -- TNR Gold Corp. "The current economic climate is ideal for the advancement of a project such as this and we look forward to the opportunity to realize its potential"

NovaGold has agreed to sell its remaining 50% participating interest in the Property (the "Interest") to the Company in consideration for receiving an aggregate of 6 million common shares and 3 million share purchase warrants in the capital of the Company. In addition, a 2% net smelter returns royalty from mineral products produced from the Property will be granted to the Vendor by the Company, which can be purchased by the Company for USD 5 million any time prior to a production decision having been made.

Each share purchase warrant shall entitle the Vendor to acquire one common share in the capital of the Company for a period of three years following the completion of the purchase and sale of the Interest (the "Closing Date") at a price of C$0.20 per share from the Closing Date until the date which is one year from the Closing Date, at a price of C$0.25 per share from the date which is one year and one day from the Closing Date until the date which is two years from the Closing Date and at a price of C$0.30 per share thereafter until the expiry date.

Shotgun Project

The Shotgun project is located 175 kilometres south of Donlin Creek within the Kuskokwim Gold Belt in Southwestern Alaska, an area emerging as a world-class gold district hosting more than 40 million ounces of aggregated gold resources. The Shotgun project includes a number of prospects, including Shotgun Ridge and nearby Winchester. Donlin is an intrusion-associated system and represents one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in the world. The Company believes that there are several key similarities between prospects in the Shotgun Project area and that of the Donlin Creek gold deposit as well as other intrusion associated deposits.

Previous work at Shotgun Ridge by NovaGold has estimated a historical resource of 980,000 ounces grading 0.93 gram per tonne (g/t) at a cut-off of 0.5 g/t*.

The Company built on NovaGold's previous exploration work on Shotgun Ridge and a subsequent drill program in early 2006 reported a 210.5 metre intersection grading 1.29 g/t Au, which has led to the identification of two higher grade feeder zones and leaves the mineralization open at depth. This discovery intersection has yet to be followed up and an updated NI43-101 compliant resource has yet to be estimated. To date there has been 4,095 metres of drilling at Shotgun Ridge.

*(Not a NI43-101 compliant resource. A qualified person has not done sufficient work to classify the historical estimate as current mineral resources, the issuer is not treating the historical estimate as current mineral resources and the historical estimate should not be relied upon. This resource estimate is quoted from the Technical Report on the Shotgun-Winchester Project, SW Alaska. 7 March 2008 and available on www.sedar.com).

The Winchester zone is an underexplored intrusion-associated gold prospect situated approximately 16 km south of Shotgun Ridge. The full extent of mineralized sills and dykes at Winchester is unknown since only 1.5 kilometres out of the 8 kilometre long ridge, host to numerous unexplained gold geochemical anomalies, has been explored in detail. Drilling during 2005 and 2006 identified gold-bearing sills in the eastern end of the Winchester zone. To date there has been 1,653 metres of drilling at Winchester.

Although the style of gold mineralization in sills at Winchester is quite different from the quartz-breccia stockwork that hosts the gold at Shotgun Ridge, the two prospects are geochemically very similar and are considered to be part of the same overall system. TNR believes a major structural axis, encountered in several drill sections, is critical to the mineralization and runs parallel to the ridge at Winchester. The next phase of exploration at Winchester will extend into the untested area along the ridge to the west in the direction of the structural axis.

The other two prospects that make up the Shotgun property are Shot and King. Shot contains some of the strongest geochemical anomalies on the Property and needs to be tested for similar mineralization to that found at Winchester. King includes several unexplained geochemical anomalies as well as a drill ready breccia zone.

John Harrop, P.Geo, is the company's qualified person on the project as required under NI 43-101 and has reviewed the technical information contained in this press release

Los Azules gets more attention TNR.v MAI.to CUM.v,

2010-09-21T11:29:00.000-07:00

Copper has rebounded nicely from a demand shock thanks to the confirmation of a boom in China and India (BRIC nations). A well known Investment Banker said it best - you can't beat the desire of 3 billion people in China aiming to improve their lives and infrastructures in their country.

You need copper for the wiring, reinforcements, beams - anything to do with building and electronics.

In addition to surging foreign currency supplies - China has been on a buying spree of Canadian resources - seeing as how TSXV and Canada has only been welcoming China investment (CIC Fund + Teck Cominco anyone?), this is something we only expect more and more.

The Globe & Mail is a well known independent newsprint (outside of the Conrad Black empire of Vancouver Sun, Province, and National Post), so when a copper junior buyout list was summarized, many of the companies on the list surged on just how undervalued many of the groups are.

Specifically, the legal disputed project Los Azules, which had only been growing in resource since we first covered the project as one of the crown jewels in junior miner TNR's portfolio.

MAI and TNR promptly surged a bit the following days after the article - it is good to be ahead of the trend here at Mining101.

We'd also like to note since the security review of MAI - the NI-43101 resource has been upgraded to nearly 13.2 + billion lbs of copper, 1 million ounce of gold, and 10+ million oz silver. This should've certainly placed MAI in a much higher spot.

The recent Andean (AND.to) buyout in Argentina is right nearby - should only indicate these stocks TNR / MAI should have plenty of room to move up.

TNR Gold Corp's current market cap is a paltry $24 million.

At a conservative 15% equity interest in Los Azules, not even accounting for the critical infrastructure property that Escorpio IV brings to the table, using realistic 50% of Minera Ande's current market cap.

Minera Andes (MAI.to)
$1.20/share x 264 million shares o/s = $317 million
at 50% of market cap for Los Azules = $158 million

15% of Los Azules = $23.78 million
Say a small flat fee for rights to Escorpio IV ~ $2.5 million.
TOTALS only to $26.25 million
____________________
This is already more than what the market cap of TNR is telling us its worth, and International Lithium ($15 million value) hasn't been spun off yet either!

This is a great buy IMO and Mining101 is still fully behind the team at TNR Gold Corp. We only hope that they can get ILC public faster as various other groups are beginning to work on their lithium deals in South America again and TNR cannot afford to fall behind further.

____________________
Tuesday, September 14, 2010 7:22 PM

Junior producers likely to benefit from China’s appetite for copper

Simon Avery
What are we looking for?

China has a voracious appetite for copper. Demand for the red metal is traditionally a harbinger of economic strength and is used extensively in construction, transportation, electronics, plumbing and even in the currencies of nations themselves. China consumes 39 per cent of global production but has only about 6 per cent of the world’s reserves.

CIBC World Markets analyst Ian Parkinson has done an extensive review of junior copper producers that trade on the Toronto Stock Exchange, combing through more than 160 companies and more than 200 projects to determine which players are most likely to draw the acquisitive eye of large mining companies and sovereign wealth funds in China, India, Brazil and other developing economies. He says merger and acquisition activity is set to ramp up in the space and investors who choose the most attractive junior players will see substantial returns. “In very simplistic terms, we believe if you’re long what China’s short, you’re in a good position.”

The screen

Mr. Parkinson zeroed in on junior copper producers with “pounds in the ground” that he calculated would be on the radar screens of international investors.

He created a weighting formula to capture how the market values these firms. In the process he looked at historical transactions and total acquisitions costs, and he weighed resource criteria, including deposit size and grade as well as mining methods and proximity to infrastructure and markets. He assessed the grade of projects with the assumption that higher-grade products typically carry lower operating costs, and he calculated cash costs of production as well as capital expenditure required on a per-pound basis.

In terms of valuations, he used enterprise value divided by the amount of reserves. He also looked at market capitalization relative to the required initial capital in an effort to gauge how the market is valuing the likelihood of the companies actually building their projects.

What did we find?

At the top of the list of 25 stands Duluth Metals Ltd., which is in the advanced stages of mineral exploration and has completed preliminary economic assessments on a large underground site in northeaster Minnesota.

Number two ranked PolyMet Mining Corp. is developing a copper-nickel-precious metals project in northeastern Minnesota and owns a crushing and milling facility and other infrastructure nearby. The state government is close to completing an environmental review and the company will begin project construction upon receipt of permits, Mr. Parkinson says.

The third ranked firm is Western Copper Corp., a Vancouver-based entity spun out from Western Silver Corp. in 2006. It holds significant gold, copper and molybdenum resources and reserves in four Canadian properties, he says.

“We would say this group [of 25] represents some of the best junior Americas-focused copper names currently listed on the TSX and a basket approach with the group could be advantageous for investors,” Mr. Parkinson says.

CIBC Junior Copper Rankings

Company Ticker CIBC
Junior
Copper
Score Market
Cap
($-mln.) Overall
Ranking Strategic Partnership

Duluth Metals Ltd DM-T 4.95 218 1 Antofagasta has 40% interest in Nokomis

PolyMet Mining Corp POM-T 6.75 225 2 Glencore owns 6.3% and Cliffs Natural Resources owns 6.1%

Western Copper Corp WRN-T 7.65 105 3

Terrane Metals Corp TRX-X 7.85 639 4 Proposed acquisition by Thompson Creek Metals

Augusta Resource Corp AZC-T 8.75 360 5 HudBay owns 11% (13.6% fully diluted)

Antares Minerals Inc ANM-X 9.55 251 6

Far West Mining Ltd FWM-T 9.85 273 7 Quadra FNX owns 7.9% (14.64% fully diluted)

Copper Fox Metals Inc CUU-X 10.05 211 8

Minera Andes Inc MAI-T 10.85 262 9

Nevada Copper Corp NCU-T 10.95 165 10 Capstone owns 11.1% (14.4% fully diluted)

Coro Mining Corp COP-T 11.55 57 11

Redhawk Resources Inc RDK-X 11.65 49 12

Candente Resource Corp CDG-T 12.65 35 13

Baja Mining Corp BAJ-T 13.55 136 14 25% partner on Boleo with a consortium of South Korean companie

Lithium powered Porsche 918 - faster than Carrera GT to 60 and MPG like the Prius TNR.v WLC.v CLQ.to LI.v LIT.v

2010-08-18T10:10:00.000-07:00

Porsche 918 Spyder will come with an electric plug

Porsche 918 Spyder in a plug-in hybrid version is going into production, promising low emissions and 198 m.p.h.

Part of the Geneva Motor Show, the 918 Spyder concept offered Porsche looks and Prius mileage–more specifically, the plug-in hybrid Spyder was offering quotes of up to 78 miles per gallon–and that got most everybody interested. And now, almost five months later, Porsche is taking the concept car into full-bore reality.

Originally, the 918 Spyder boasted two 109 horsepower motors and a lithium ion battery, with a 500 horsepower V8 gas engine to back things up. Word is that the original concept powertrain won’t be significantly altered, and though no one yet knows when these will hit dealerships, we do have an idea of the price tag. You’ll want to be sitting down for this.

If the $100,000 all-electric and very sporty Tesla didn't get that message across, then maybe a plug-in hybrid Porsche will do the trick.

On Wednesday, Porsche announced it would go ahead with development of a plug-in Porsche 918 Spyder to be built in Germany. The car will be based on the 500-horsepower V8 concept car Porsche showed off at the Geneva Motor Show this spring.

Using its combustion engine and electric motor in racing mode, that two-seater, midengine Spyder had a top speed of 198 miles per hour and could go 0 to 60 in under 3.2 seconds. In economy driving mode, it was capable of 113 miles to the gallon.

The company said it decided to move forward with development because of the "overwhelming response" to its concept car.

The new plug-in Spyder will be built in a limited edition, reflecting the expectation that, while it's a very flashy car, it will be too expensive for the masses.

Although Porsche will announce pricing later, the electric Spyder is expected to cost far more than the Tesla.

The production model is set to cost as much as $650,000.

China may cut Lithium / Rare Earth exports TNR.v ILC.v CLQ.v WLC.v RM.v

2010-08-12T11:21:00.000-07:00

world's top superpowers via aggressive trade pricing and business tactics, you have to wonder what's next. If anything, policies like this suggest a very likely next step - consolidating value-added services back home to continue fueling the growing middle class.

When you have grown to become one of the

The days of cheap Made in China goods are no more.

Today, iPhone 4 and premium products are often entirely finished in Asia.

Instead of merely outsourcing cheap labor, China is now looking at consolidating the entire process, leaving the rest of the world as pure consumers.

As value investors, this is a strong signal that commodities are where people should be focusing their attention.

After all, like the gold story we've all heard before: you can print money and issue treasury bills, but end of the day gold and hard assets will be the ones with true tangible value. You can't make this stuff out of thin air!

With this in mind, there are some lithium stories that we've been longterm followers here that deserve a second look. TNR Gold (TNR.TSX) and its spinoff company International Lithium has been moving up despite summer doldrums.

We expect as the spinoff shares are announced, more upside is to come. Who doesn't like free things? As any companies announcing dividend will see, people generally rush in right before. We recommended TNR at $0.045 at its low point in 2008 - we are saying it's a good buy once again at $0.20's.

___

The Chinese overnment indicated over the weekend at the National People's Congress (NPC) in Beijing that it would curb the export of lithium and other rare earth compounds, opting instead to build a strategic reserve.
Hu'ercha, a deputy to the NPC from north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, said on the sidelines of the legislative body's annual session on Friday that China should set up a national reserve of rare earth resources and work out development strategies for rare earth-related new and high-tech industries "as soon as possible."
"The government should attach greater importance to the purchase and storage of the strategic resources," Hu'ercha stated.
Influencing the Chinese lawmakers comments is the fact that Hu'ercha is also mayor of Inner Mongolia's Baotou city, home to 75 percent of China's rare earth reserve. The Chinese politician urged the country to work out policies to support the development of rare earth-related industries and set up a development fund to strengthen basic research on rare earth.
Though China supplies about 90 percent of the world's rare earth, it has little say on international pricing due to inadequate industrial innovation and slow development of high-end products.
With China's booming growth in domestic auto sales, now ranked as the world's largest, Premier Wen may be listening to Hu'ercha and other Chinese party political backers as demand for lithium batteries and other products grow.
While lithium is not considered a rare earth and readily available, concentrations plentiful enough to mine economically are a different matter. Already companies like Korea's POSCO, the world's fourth-largest steel maker, are moving to build new sources of supply themselves while brine recovery technology lies at the forefront. POSCO recently made a rare bid to invest up to US $5 million in a junior exploration and development company's Mexico brine project if the level of lithium and other metals proved worthwhile. Chile, a hotbed oflithium exploration, is also the world's largest exporter. Pan American Lithium (TSX.V: PL), which entered into the letter of intent with POSCO, is also involved in a 100% company-owned lithium brine property in Chile. The recent earthquake in Chile delayed initial reports on Pan American's lithium property, though the Company continues to see record trading levels despite the delay.

Bad JV partner choices can have worse longterm implications PL.v, LIT.v, TNR.v, ILC.v, CLQ.v, WLC.v

2010-08-12T11:11:00.000-07:00

Mergers and acquisitions are still happening in the lithium space, with companies snapping up quality projects.

LIT.v which is still halted, has updated due diligence extension on their large merger with Talison. It will be interesting to see how this opens after Aug 12.

Salares Lithium extends Talison agreement to Aug. 12
2010-08-09 14:49 ET - News Release
Mr. Todd Hilditch reports
SALARES LITHIUM-TALISON MINERALS MERGER UPDATE
Salares Lithium Inc. and Talison Minerals Pty. Ltd. have provided an update regarding the proposed merger to combine their respective lithium assets. For details of the proposed merger, please see the news release in Stockwatch dated July 15, 2010, and filed on SEDAR.
Amended merger timetable
Talison and Salares have agreed to extend the termination date of the letter agreement that sets out the terms upon which the proposed merger will be implemented from Aug. 9, 2010, to Aug. 12, 2010, in order to allow the parties to complete multijurisdictional due diligence in connection with the proposed merger.
The remainder of certain previously announced dates will remain the same, including the meeting date of the special meeting of shareholders of Salares to be held on Sept. 16, 2010, and the record date of Aug. 11, 2010, for determining which shareholders of Salares will be able to vote at the meeting. The meeting will be held in the Point Grey Room of the Marriott Vancouver Pinnacle Hotel, 1128 West Hastings St., Vancouver, B.C., at 10 a.m. (Vancouver time).
The completion of the proposed merger is anticipated to be implemented by the end of September, 2010, subject to the parties entering into a definitive agreement on or before Aug. 12, 2010, the completion of satisfactory due diligence on or before Aug. 12, 2010, and the parties obtaining all necessary approvals and satisfaction of other conditions.
Private placement
The previously announced private placement of approximately $40-million of subscription receipts of Salares is expected to close on or about Aug. 19, 2010. For additional information regarding the private placement, please refer to the press release.
A presentation of the transaction highlights can be accessed at the Salares and Talison websites.
About Talison Minerals Pty. Ltd.
Talison Minerals Pty. Ltd. is the leading global producer of lithium. Talison mines and processes the lithium-bearing mineral spodumene at the Greenbushes lithium operations in Western Australia. Talison has an extensive, well-established global customer network and a leading position in the growing Chinese market.

It's one thing to announce a strategic partnership, but a misstep here can mean a drastic drop, as in the case of Pan American Lithium (PL:TSXV), which came out touting promised payments from POSCO (Korean Steelmaker).
When payments of the $5M private placement dragged on with extended due diligence periods, the stock started taking a dive, with insiders selling in waves.
Just a fraction of the selling. Let this be a lesson for Li juniors out there, choose your JV partners carefully for if they don't pan out it could hurt you more than not ever having announced the JV/investment in the first place!
Pan American Lithium Corp. (PL)
As of April 7th, 2010
Filing Date Transaction Date Insider Name Ownership Type Securities Nature of transaction # or value acquired or disposed of Unit Price
Mar 10/10 Mar 10/10 Minni, Jerry Anthony Indirect Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -5,000
.780
Mar 10/10 Mar 10/10 Minni, Jerry Anthony Indirect Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -5,000
.800
Mar 10/10 Mar 10/10 Minni, Jerry Anthony Direct Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -10,000
.800
Mar 10/10 Mar 10/10 Minni, Jerry Anthony Direct Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -10,000
.800
Mar 10/10 Mar 10/10 Minni, Jerry Anthony Direct Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -3,000
.800
Mar 10/10 Mar 10/10 Minni, Jerry Anthony Direct Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -7,000
.810
Mar 09/10 Mar 09/10 Minni, Jerry Anthony Direct Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -10,000
.780
Mar 09/10 Mar 09/10 Minni, Jerry Anthony Direct Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -5,000
.800
Mar 09/10 Mar 09/10 Minni, Jerry Anthony Direct Ownership Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -5,000
.800
Mar 09/10 Mar 08/10 Minni, Jerry Anthony Control or Direction Common Shares 10 - Disposition in the public market -15,000
.770

World's First Lithium ETF Index Fund TNR.v, ILC.v, WLC.v, SQM, FMC, RM.v, CLQ.v

2010-08-04T11:42:00.000-07:00

It's only a matter of time, no?

For laymens, ETF (Exchange Traded Funds) have grown leaps and bounds because of smaller investor's need for diversification. Diversification, is explained below.

Diversification in finance means reducing risk by investing in a variety of assets. If the asset values do not move up and down in perfect synchrony, a diversified portfolio will have less risk than the weighted averagerisk of its constituent assets, often less risk than the least risky of its constituents.^[1]. Therefore, any risk-averse investor will diversify to at least some extent, with more risk-averse investors diversifying more completely than less risk-averse investors. Diversification is one of two general techniques for reducing investment risk. The other is hedging. Diversification relies on the lack of a tight positive relationship among the assets' returns, and works even when correlations are near zero or somewhat positive. Hedging relies on negative correlation among assets, or shorting assets with positive correlation.
It is important to remember that diversification only works because you reduce investment in each individual asset. If you start with $10,000 in one stock and put $10,000 in another stock, you have more risk, not less. Diversification requires you to sell $5,000 of the first stock to put in the second. Then you will have less risk. Hedging, in contrast, reduces your risk without selling any of your original position^[2].
The risk reduction from diversification does not mean anyone else has to take more risk. If person A owns $10,000 of one stock and person B owns $10,000 of another, both A and B will reduce their risk if they exchange $5,000 of the two stocks, so each now has a more diversified portfolio^[3].

When you invest in a single equity, say Lithium, you face systematic risk in addition to the company's operational risk. This is mismanagement, errors in decision makings, competition, etc. Systematic risk, on the other hand, is the risk of an entire financial system meltdown - something you can't diversify away entirely.

The CAPM (Capital Asset Pricing Model) strong supports buying the market - but for a typical investor how is it possible to know the entire market?

Enter the ETF.

ETF attempts to replicate the exact market or sector the investors are trying to buy into.

One of the other longer running index so far in this emerging industry of Lithium is Byron's Lithium Index.

It includes some of our favorite equities here at Mining 101.

Western Lithium Corp (WLC.v) - trading, no official deals yet, possibly with US government?

International Lithium (ILC.v) - soon to IPO, no official deals yet

Canada Lithium (CLQ.v) - offtake + marketing deal with Mitsui

Galaxy Minerals ASX - already bought by Mitsubishi / Creat Private Equity group China

Lithium Americas (LAC.to) - deal through Magna / Mitsubishi

Lithium One - deal with Korea Resources

New World Resources - Bolivia. Difficult to work and people want Uyuni.

Salares Lithium - M&A deal with Talison Minerals (one of largest lithium spodumene miners from ASX)

Orocobre Limited - recently listed on TSX with a large $20 million financing, JV deal with Toyota.

As you can see, the non bolded ones are lithium companies already with a JV partner.

There's only a handful of solid lithium developers yet to find a JV or strategic partner - rest assured WLC, ILC, and NW will have some reasonable deals soon, given the way this market has moved so far.

Global X is an interesting index to keep watch on.

Global X Lithium ETF (NYSE:LIT) was listed for trading last Friday (7/23/10). The new ETF tracks the Solactive Global Lithium Index, which is designed to reflect performance of the largest and most liquid lithium battery producing and mining and refining companies in the world. It is not a pure play on lithium, but it’s probably as close as we will get for quite a while.
According to the press release, the basket of lithium-related equities will give investors access to the complete lithium value chain, from mining and refining through lithium battery production. The initial allocations have 51% of the index in lithium battery manufacturers, while 49% consists of lithium mining and refining companies. There are no industry allocations targeted toward pharmaceuticals based on lithium.
The LIT summary page indicates an expense ratio of 0.75% and the fact sheet (pdf) pegs the number of holdings at 20. The five largest are Sociedad Quimica Minera ADR (SQM) 20.2%, FMC Corp (FMC) 16.7%, Rockwood Holdings (ROC) 7.9%, Advanced Battery Technologies (ABAT) 4.9%, and Ener1 (HEV) 4.7%. Lithium production appears to be a small portion of the operations of the largest holdings, which are primarily fertilizer and chemical firms. However, they are the largest players in the segment, making their inclusion appropriate.
The top five country allocations are US 49%, Chile 20%, Japan 10%, Canada 6%, France 5%. Lithium, the lightest metal, is used extensively in batteries and is referred to as a “green” commodity due to its ties to renewable energy. As such, there was a large amount of chatter leading up to the launch date. Carolyn Cui’s Wall Street Journal article (New ETF Charges Up a Niche) of July 18 further fueled the anticipated arrival of this new ETF.
Initial trading activity has been quite heavy for a new product. Let’s just hope that investors understand what they are buying and won’t be disappointed to learn that the fund will not track the price of lithium.

Rare Metals Limit imposed by China - sign of things to come? TNR.v, AVL.v, RES.v, REE Metals, REM.v, LYC.asx

2010-07-21T16:33:00.000-07:00

Lynas to benefit from China cuts

Rare earths explorer Lynas Corporation Ltd says it is well placed to meet any increase in demand that arises from China's recent tightening of export quotas.
The Chinese Ministry of Commerce has cut the approved export quota of rare earths for the second half of 2010 to 7,976 tonnes, down 72 per cent on last year's second quarter quota of 28,417 tonnes.
The reduction brings Chinese supply for 2010 to 30,259 tonnes compared with 50,145 tonnes last year.
China supplies over 90 per cent of the world's rare earths, which have a wide range of uses, including in mobile phones and car engines.
Lynas says it expects its Mt Weld mine site in WA, one of the richest known deposits outside of China, to commence production in 2011.
"The tightening of supply regulations provides additional opportunity for Lynas to meet the supply deficit outside of China," Lynas chairman Nicholas Curtis said in a statement.
"Lynas owns the richest known deposit of Rare Earths outside of China at Mount Weld in Western Australia and the company is progressing well with plant construction to be in a position to commence supply in the (third quarter of 2011)."

World's largest lithium company? Pegmatite + Lithium Brines - TNR.v, LIT.v, FMC, SQM

2010-07-19T10:48:00.000-07:00

Very interesting development in the lithium space - has the lithium industry progressed far enough for M&A and combination of businesses?

____

Salares Lithium and Talison Announce Merger to Create World's Largest Lithium Production Company With An Accelerated Brine Exploration Program
Salares Lithium Inc. and Talison Minerals Pty. Ltd. have executed a binding letter agreement to combine their respective lithium assets, and create the world's largest publicly traded lithium production and exploration company.

Highlights:

Combination of the world's largest, high-quality, low-cost lithium producer located in Australia, with a prospective, large-scale brine exploration portfolio in Chile;
Unique exposure to both mineral and brine sources of lithium, with the ability to respond to the growing demand for lithium for electric vehicle batteries;
Board and management teams with complementary skills and extensive experience;
Fully subscribed private placement of $40-million to finance growth.

The merger will combine Talison's world-class lithium minerals production in Australia with Salares's prospective, large-scale lithium brine exploration project in Chile. Upon completion of the proposed transaction, the combined entity will be well financed, allowing for immediate expansion of the producing Australian operations to run in parallel with an accelerated exploration program at the Salares brine projects.

Immediate production expansions at Talison's Australian operations are required to satisfy substantial growth in lithium demand from Chinese battery producers for which Talison is the primary supplier. This demand has been driven by government policies encouraging alternative energy vehicles in pursuit of energy security, reduced reliance on oil imports, and environmental objectives. Additional large-scale production expansion is also being pursued by Talison to meet the anticipated global growth in the lithium market.

Salares's chairman David Shaw said today, "The merger of Salares with Talison will create a unique lithium company with exposure to both lithium minerals and lithium brines, building on the strong foundation of both companies to continue growing and delivering value for shareholders."

Talison chairman Peter Robinson stated: "Talison is already the largest lithium producer in the world and the largest supplier of lithium concentrates into the growing Chinese market. The merger with Salares will offer shareholders exposure to substantial growth opportunities for the potential production of lithium carbonate from lithium brines, as well as from lithium minerals, to satisfy the demand for lithium products destined for the global electric vehicle market."

The boards of Salares and Talison believe the benefits of the merger are compelling, with:

An attractive diversified mix of lithium mineral and brine assets in both Australia and Chile:
- Combination of the high-quality, low-cost, Australian-based, lithium minerals production with promising lithium brine exploration properties located in Chile;
Multiple actionable growth strategies, including:
- Expansion of existing lithium mineral production capacity by over 60 per cent (currently in progress) to support the growing Chinese battery market, with demand from existing customers for over 90 per cent of additional capacity;
- Potential low-cost lithium carbonate production from minerals conversion to supply major battery producers and vehicle manufacturers globally;
- Future potential lithium carbonate production from prospective Chilean brines;
Access to an extensive global customer network, established over a 25-year lithium operations history, with the leading position in the growing Chinese battery market;
Board and management teams with complementary skills and extensive experience in the technical and commercial aspects of project development, production and marketing lithium.

The market dynamics for lithium are positive. Lithium demand has grown consistently over the past decade and is expected to accelerate significantly in the near term from increased consumption of lithium batteries, which are a critical component of hybrid and electric vehicles.

The board of directors of both Talison and Salares unanimously support the proposed transaction. Salares management and directors (together representing 7.43 per cent of Salares's shares on a fully diluted basis) have agreed to enter into lock-up agreements to support the transaction.

Merger proposal

Under the terms of the proposed transaction, which is to be structured as a plan of arrangement under the British Columbia Business Corporations Act, it is anticipated that common shares of Salares will be exchanged for ordinary shares of Talison (1) on the basis of 2.81 Salares shares for one Talison share. All outstanding options and warrants of Salares will be assumed by Talison and exercisable in accordance with their terms for Talison shares.

Upon completion of the plan of arrangement, existing Salares and Talison shareholders will own 20 per cent and 80 per cent, respectively, of the combined company (on a fully diluted basis), prior to the conversion of the subscription receipts issued under the $40-million private placement (as described below).

Based on a price of $3.50 per Talison share, the terms of the proposed transaction provide Salares shareholders with a premium of approximately 98.2 per cent (equal to $1.25 per Salares share), based on the trailing 20-day volume-weighted average price for Salares shares on the TSX Venture Exchange.

(1) It is proposed that, prior to the plan of arrangement, the Talison Minerals corporate group will be reorganized to, among other things, separate the tantalum business and to place a new Australian company, Talison Lithium Ltd., on top of the corporate group. References to Talison shares are references to fully paid, ordinary shares in the capital of Talison Lithium Ltd., and references to securities in Talison are references to securities in Talison Lithium Ltd.

Corporate, board and management structure

Following completion of the plan of arrangement, the merged group will be known as Talison Lithium Ltd., and will have offices in Perth, Australia and Vancouver, Canada.

Mr. Robinson and Peter Oliver, the chairman and chief executive officer of Talison, respectively, will be chairman and chief executive officer of Talison Lithium. It is proposed that Mr. Shaw will join the board of directors of Talison Lithium, and will also act as a consultant to Talison Lithium in connection with the supervision of the continuing exploration programs for the mineral properties of Salares. Todd Hilditch, current president and chief executive officer of at Salares, will direct the investor relations program at Talison Lithium.

Anticipated merger timetable and process

The letter agreement sets out the terms upon which the proposed merger will be implemented, and proposes for the parties to enter into a definitive arrangement on or before Aug. 9, 2010. Under the letter agreement, both Salares and Talison have agreed to pay the other party a break fee of approximately $1-million in certain circumstances.

The plan of arrangement is anticipated to be implemented by the end of September, 2010, subject to obtaining all necessary approvals and satisfaction of other conditions.

The proposed merger is subject to a number of conditions, including:

Completion of a $40-million private placement (as described below);
Approval of the plan of arrangement by Salares's shareholders;
Approval by the Toronto Stock Exchange (TSX) to list Talison Lithium, subject to customary conditions;
Receipt of all applicable regulatory approvals, orders, notices and consents, including: in Canada, under the Competition Act: the Supreme Court of British Columbia; the Australian Foreign Investment Review Board; the TSX; and the TSX Venture Exchange;
Completion of satisfactory due diligence on or before Aug. 9, 2010;
Other customary merger conditions.

Private placement

In conjunction with the plan of arrangement, Salares will undertake a $40-million private placement of subscription receipts of Salares.

Talison's current major shareholder, Resource Capital Fund (RCF), has fully subscribed for the private placement, but, at the request of the agents (as defined below), is willing to scale back its commitment to permit subscription receipts to be offered for sale to other investors. RCF has also agreed to a 90-day lock-up period.

The private placement issue price will be based on a deemed price per share in Talison of not less than $3.50; under the terms of the plan of arrangement, this equates to a price of $1.25 per Salares subscription receipt. Upon satisfaction of the escrow release conditions (as described below), subscription receipts shall be exchanged into Talison shares on the basis of 2.81 subscription receipts for one Talison share.

The private placement will be managed by a syndicate of investment dealers led by Cormark Securities Inc. (Cormark and, collectively, the agents), and is expected to close by the middle of August, 2010.

Upon release from escrow (as described below), it is anticipated that the proceeds of the private placement will be used to finance the growth strategies of the merged group, including:

Expansion of the existing lithium minerals operations in Australia to increase production capacity to meet current Chinese demand for lithium;
Acceleration of the exploration of Salares's properties in Chile;
Implementation of a drilling program at the Australian operations, with an objective to increase and upgrade mineral reserves and resources;
Initiation of further feasibility studies into developing a lithium carbonate plant using lithium mineral concentrates from the Australian operations;
General corporate and working capital purposes.

The gross proceeds of the private placement will be delivered to and held by a licensed Canadian trust company or other escrow agent mutually acceptable to Cormark and Salares, in an interest-bearing account (the escrowed funds).

The escrowed funds (plus any accrued interest earned thereon) will be released from escrow to Salares (after deducting certain expenses payable to the agents) upon delivery of a notice to the escrow agent from Cormark, on behalf of the agents, and Salares, on or before 5 p.m. (Toronto time) on Sept. 30, 2010, indicating the following conditions (the escrow release conditions) have been satisfied:

The implementation of the plan of arrangement;
The receipt of all required shareholder and regulatory approvals, including approval by the TSX;
The Talison shares to be issued in connection with the plan of arrangement and on exchange of the subscription receipts not being subject to any statutory hold period in Canada.

If the escrow release conditions are not satisfied on or before the escrow deadline, the escrowed funds plus accrued interest shall be returned to the holders of the subscription receipts, and the subscription receipts will be cancelled without any further action on the part of the holders.

Advisers

Talison has engaged Rothschild and Cormark as its financial advisers, and Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP and Clayton Utz as its Canadian and Australian legal advisers, respectively.

Haywood Securities Inc. is acting as financial adviser to the special committee of Salares. Haywood has provided an opinion to the special committee of Salares that, subject to certain assumptions and limitations set out therein, the proposed transaction is fair, from a financial point of view, to Salares shareholders. Gowling Lafleur Henderson LLP is acting as legal adviser to Salares. McCullough O'Connor Irwin LLP is acting as legal adviser to the special committee of Salares.

A presentation of the transaction highlights can be accessed at the Salares and Talison websites.

ITOCHU Buys into Lithium Developer (Geothermal) in Nevada - Simbol, TNR.v, ILC.v, CLQ.v, WLC.v, RM.v, LIT.v

2010-07-06T10:35:00.000-07:00

The Nikkei reports that Itochu Corp. is participating in a project to extract lithium from the produced water from geothermal power generation at a site in California.

Itochu has taken a roughly 20% stake in Simbol Mining Corp., a company founded in 2007 to produce commodity minerals and metals—specifically lithium, manganese, and zinc—from geothermal, oil and gas, and other brines. Itochu has obtained exclusive sales rights for Asia, except for India, according to the report.

The lithium will be produced at geothermal power facilities near the Salton Sea in the Imperial Valley region of Southern California. The lithium will be extracted from water geothermally heated underground and used for power generation. The lithium will be ready for shipment after undergoing dehydration and concentration processes.

The project will target annual production of 16,000 tons, or nearly 20% of the current global output, after three to four years.

Itochu is also an investor in Li-ion battery manufacturer Ener1.

______

It certainly bodes well for lithium developers, including perennial favorites ILC.v (IPO soon), WLC, RM, CLQ, all of which have not defined a partnership with an end user yet.

Background on ITOCHU, it is again one of the large trading houses in Japan.

Initially founded as a kimono retail store in 1858 by Chūbei Itō, the company later known in English as Itochu gradually evolved from pure buying and selling to manufacturing, supplying, exporting and investments. After various mergers and acquisitions, it was incorporated in 1918 and again in 1949. It now ranks as one of the largest sōgō shōsha companies in Japan and among the world's largest companies; it has 1,027 subsidiaries and associated companies operating in over 80 countries.

Spinout Approved - TNR Gold Settles AGM and International Lithium IPO soon!! TESLA IPO $229 million! TSLA TNR.v, ILC.v, RM.v, WLC.v, CLQ.v, LI.v

2010-06-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

This is very exciting news - time to really see what the ILC can do in the world of lithium juniors!
____

June 25, 2010 TNR GOLD 2010 ANNUAL GENERAL AND SPECIAL MEETING HELD/PROCEEDS WITH SPINOUT OF INTERNATIONAL LITHIUM

Vancouver B.C.: TNR Gold Corp. ("TNR" or the "Company") held its Annual General and Special Meeting on June 22, 2010 and is pleased to announce that all agenda items, as outlined in the Company's information circular dated May 10, 2010, were approved and all directors standing for election were re-elected. The Directors for the ensuing year will consist of Mr. Gary Schellenberg, Mr. Kirill Klip, Mr. Paul Chung, Mr. John Fraser and Mr. Hari Varshney.

Mr. Gary Schellenberg was reappointed President and Chief Executive Officer. Mr. Kirill Klip was reappointed Non Executive Chairman of the Board and will directly support and advise the Chief Executive Officer of the Company. Mr. Paul Chung was reappointed Secretary and Mr. Jerry Bella was reappointed Chief Financial Officer.

The proposed Plan of Arrangement involving the Company and International Lithium Corp. ("ILC") was also approved by the shareholders and the Courts of British Columbia. The purpose of the Arrangement is to spin-out TNR's lithium mineral property interests into a separate public company, ILC. TNR will now proceed with the spin-out and will update on the progress of the spin-out in further news releases. For further details of the spin-out please refer to TNR's May 26, 2010 news release or visit http://www.internationallithium.com

ABOUT TNR GOLD / INTERNATIONAL LITHIUM CORP

TNR and ILC are diversified metals exploration companies focused on exploring existing properties and identifying new prospective projects globally. TNR has a portfolio of 18 active projects, of which 9 will be included in the proposed spin-out of International Lithium Corp.

The recent acquisition of lithium, other rare metals and rare-earth elements projects in Argentina, Canada, USA and Ireland confirms the companies' commitments to generating projects, diversifying its markets, and building shareholder value.

On behalf of the board,

Gary Schellenberg
President
_______________________

On a much larger scale - the fabled IPO for loss leader Tesla has completed this week - who says summer doldrums are here??

Tesla stock soars after $226 million IPO

First U.S. car company to go public since Ford

Shares in upscale electric car company Tesla Motors made big gains Tuesday — its first day of trading.

The stock rose as much as 11 per cent, defying a general downward trend in North American markets.

Tesla Roadsters, shown here, have a number of high profile celebrity owners, including Brad Pitt and George Clooney. (Chuck Kirman/Associated Press)

In the early afternoon, Tesla shares were $1.75 US higher to $18.75 US, after reaching $19 US earlier.

Tesla had launched a $226-million US IPO, selling 13.3 million shares at $17 US each earlier in the day, the first time in more than 50 years that an American automaker has gone public.

The electric car company, manufacturer of the high-performance all-electric Tesla Roadster, originally offered the shares in a range between $14 US and $16 US. The California-based company will use proceeds to pay for factories and possible acquisitions.

On Monday, the company raised the number of shares that would be going public by 20 per cent. The majority of these new shares came from Tesla CEO and co-founder Elon Musk, who sold almost one million of his personal shares in the hopes of reaching the $244 million US figure.

Musk, a graduate of Queen’s University in Kingston, Ont., is Tesla’s biggest shareholder, with a 28 per cent stake in the company. He also co-founded PayPal and is CEO of Space Exploration Technologies Inc., a Hawthorne, Calif.,-based company that builds spacecraft.

Tesla has some high-profile backers. Last month, Toyota Motor Corp. agreed to sell Tesla its shuttered factory in Fremont, Calif., and invest $50 million in the company once its IPO closes. Tesla plans to use the factory to eventually build a sedan.

Electric car technology has also been strongly supported by U.S. President Barack Obama as part of a larger strategy to shift dependence from oil to alternative energy sources.

The Roadster has already garnered celebrity status with purchases by Brad Pitt and George Clooney earlier this year.

////////////////

The Asian Rush for Lithium - TNR.v, Li.v, SQM, FMC, GXY.asx, ORE.asx, LMR.v

2010-06-10T08:46:00.000-07:00

What's happened in recent months is very obvious.

The offsetting investment strategy when your country's currency becomes higher valued against other currencies around the world - is to make investments overseas.

The logic is simple especially when compounded on the fact that many of these countries have very little local resource. Japan, Korea, even China (despite local pegmatite lithium production - more is always needed).

Prediction: More joint-ventures and acquisitions.

Here's an overlay of recent acquired/JV'd companies return year to date (YTD). Investors would do very well to invest now in companies with good lithium brine assets.

Out of the graphed juniors - we are anticipating some interesting deals from TNR Gold Corp and junior lithium developer International Lithium Corp once their portfolio is more developed.

It's no coincidence - some of the biggest JV's so far have been based in Argentina (South America) where 70% of the world's lithium carbonates is being produced every year.

Why re-invent the wheel? Here at Mining101 we would not be surprised at all if we see more deal in the lithium space in the coming months.

Past JV Announcements:

1) Orocobre - Toyota Tsusho JV.

BRISBANE, Australia, Jan. 19 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Orocobre Limited (ASX: ORE) , "Orocobre") today announced that it has reached agreement to establish a joint venture with Toyota Group Company, Toyota Tsusho Corporation ("Toyota Tsusho"), to develop its flagship Salar de Olaroz Lithium-Potash Project (the "Project") in Argentina.

The agreement sets out the terms under which the parties will develop the Salar de Olaroz project. In the current feasibility study phase, Toyota Tsusho will provide US$ 4.5million to fund the completion of the Definitive Feasibility Study and other associated pre-development activities. This is expected to be completed in the third quarter of 2010.

Subject to the finalisation of the terms of a joint venture operating agreement on completion of the Definitive Feasibility Study, Toyota Tsusho will acquire a 25 percent equity interest in the joint venture at a cost based on the NPV estimated from the Definitive Feasibility Study.

2) Lithium One - Korea Resources Corp (KORES)

Canadian exploration company Lithium One Inc. said yesterday it has signed a joint-venture agreement with South Korea's state-owned mining company, Kores, to partner on the development of the Sal de Vida Lithium Brine Project in Argentina. Kores has the option to earn a 30% interest in the project by funding and delivering a definitive feasibility study within a period of about 15 months. Vancouver-based Lithium One said Kores will provide full funding up to a limit of US$15-million. The two companies will form a joint venture through an Argentine company, following the delivery of a definitive feasibility study. They also plan to enter to a marketing agreement, whereby Kores may market lithium products produced from the project to China, Japan and Korea, while Lithium One will market potash products from the project worldwide.

Read more: http://www.financialpost.com/news/economy/Lithium+Korean+state+miner+deal+develop+Argentine+project/3115352/story.html#ixzz0qTJ1CZ6y
The Financial Post is now on Facebook. Join our fan community today.

3) Galaxy Minerals - Mitsubishi Motor Corp (MITSUB)

Galaxy Resources Ltd has signed agreements to sell its battery grade lithium carbonate product to 13 major Chinese lithium cathode producers.
The offtake agreements, when added to a previous sales agreement with Mitsubishi Corporation, mean Galaxy's total output of 17,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate per year is committed, the Perth-based company said on Monday.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Galaxy managing director Iggy Tan said the agreements "locked in the future growth potential of the Chinese and Japanese battery grade lithium carbonate market for the next five years".
"Almost all of the lithium cathode producers Galaxy has engaged with are significantly increasing capacity in the coming 12 to 24 months," Mr Tan said in a statement.
"By signing up for our product, these foundation customers are acknowledging the strength of the Galaxy project, particularly as it provides security of supply for battery grade lithium carbonate needed to underpin their expansion plans."
Supply will begin in 2011, the company said."

Resource Capital Research on TNR Gold (TNR:TSXV) Copper and Pending Lithium IPO - TNR.v, MAI.to, CLQ.v, LAC.to, WLC.v, RM.v, DAJ.v

2010-06-09T09:54:00.000-07:00

Resource Capital Research (RCR) is an Australian-based firm from their website. Offering paid subscription for their premium service, these guys are one of the most credible sources for commodity information - so much that investment bankers, fund managers, and high net-worth investors trust them with big dollar recommendations.

They specialize in Gold and especially Uranium. Many traders in the crazed Uranium day can attest that RCR gave them excellent research material and valuations.

To our surprise, one of our favorite mining juniors has just been covered by them. Read the report in PDF format below - I think you'll agree with us the amount of quality projects for TNR certainly justifies more than a $0.20/share stock price...not to mention the exciting International Lithium IPO and share dividend for TNR shareholders.

RCR’s company reviews on Globe Metals & Mining and TNR Gold
Resource Capital Research (RCR) has put out a company research report on Globe Metals & Mining Limited and another on TNR Gold Corp.
Globe Metals & Mining is listed on the ASX with the code “GBE”. Please find below a link to the report:
http://www.rcresearch.com.au/pdf/GBE_June_2010.pdf
TNR (TSX-V: TNR) is focused on early stage exploration for gold and high-demand minor metals. A planned TSX spin-out, of International Lithium Corp, should add value to its Li and REE assets, and leave TNR with a portfolio of highly prospective, porphyry copper-gold targets.
Click here to view TNR’s report.
Resource Capital Research provides equity research for junior and developing resource companies – typically those with a market value of less than $200m, though up to several billion dollars, with a focus on the gold, uranium, iron ore and rare/minor metals sectors. They provide company research reports for investors and companies. RCR also offers mining companies additional financial services.
Please refer to RCR for details on: www.rcresearch.com.au or call +612 9252 9405. Email: johnwilson@rcresearch.com.au

The Lithium Junior List - May 2010

2010-06-08T12:43:00.000-07:00


.	Name	Primary Exch.	Symbol	Price Jan 15/10	Market Cap
.	AKA Ventures Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	AKA	0.22	7,136,970
.	Arianne Resources Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	DAN	0.15	3,548,042
.	Ashburton Ventures Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	ABR	0.09	1,785,248
.	Avalon Rare Metals Inc.	TSX:Toronto	AVL	2.97	256,755,034
.	Canada Lithium Corp.	TSX-V:TSX – V	CLQ	0.52	85,981,331
.	Canadian Orebodies Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	CO	2.97	5,525,336
.	CanAsia Industries Corporation	TSX-V:TSX – V	CAJ	0.15	15,117,303
.	Candorado Operating Company Limited	TSX-V:TSX – V	CDO	0.07	3,626,104
.	Champion Bear Resources Limited	TSX-V:TSX – V	CBA	0.26	9,167,978
.	Channel Resources Limited	TSX-V:TSX – V	CHU	0.08	5,661,644
.	Consolidated Abaddon Resources Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	ABN	0.08	3,718,529
.	Consolidated Spire Ventures Limited	TSX-V:TSX – V	CZS	0.05	2,924,294
.	Cornerstone Capital Resources Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	CGP	0.18	14,146,782
.	Dianor Resources Inc	TSX-V:TSX – V	DOR	0.07	14,918,491
.	Dios Exploration Inc	TSX-V:TSX – V	DOS	0.16	6,493,739
.	Etna Resources Inc	TSX-V:TSX – V	ETN	0.56	6,059,609
.	Everton Resources Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	EVR	0.25	21,881,698
.	First Gold Exploration Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	EFG	0.19	6,586,984
.	First Lithium Resources Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	MCI	0.14	4,337,446


.	Globestar Mining Corporation	TSX:Toronto	GMI	1.15	128,300,228
.	Gold Summit Corporation	TSX-V:TSX – V	GSM	0.15	2,048,632
.	Golden Dory Resources Corp.	TSX-V:TSX – V	GDR	0.11	3,739,915
.	Gossan Resources Limited	TSX-V:TSX – V	GSS	0.20	6,119,134
.	Houston Lake Mining Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	HLM	0.27	10,579,110
.	Latin American Minerals Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	LAT	0.27	19,444,350
.	Linear Metals Corporation	TSX:Toronto	LRM	0.23	13,922,505
.	Lithium One Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	LI	1.27	51,701,178
.	Lomiko Metals Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	LMR	0.11	3,593,246
.	Mainstream Minerals Corporation	TSX-V:TSX – V	MJO	0.11	3,111,610
.	Marifil Mines Limited	TSX-V:TSX – V	MFM	0.11	4,627,728
.	Mesa Uranium Corp.	TSX-V:TSX – V	MSA	0.30	2,765,424
.	Metalex Ventures Ltd.	TSX-V:TSX – V	MTX	1.01	10,249,368
.	Mineral Hill Industries Ltd.	TSX-V:TSX – V	MHI	0.05	2,183,570
.	New World Resource Corp.	TSX-V:TSX – V	NW	0.27	7,599,385
.	Newcastle Minerals Ltd.	TSX-V:TSX – V	FIT	4.60	5,102,786
.	Nortec Minerals Corp.	TSX-V:TSX – V	NVT	0.10	9,933,730
.	North Arrow Minerals Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	NAR	0.17	6,686,444
.	Pacific Iron Ore Corporation	TSX-V:TSX – V	POC	0.45	27,967,798
.	Pacific Wildcat Resources Corp.	TSX-V:TSX – V	PAW	0.19	12,762,582


.	Red Hill Energy Inc	TSX-V:TSX – V	RH	0.37	17,453,841
.	Red Hill Energy Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	RH	0.37	17,453,841
.	Rock Tech Resources Inc	TSX-V:TSX – V	RCK	0.22	4,869,828
.	Rodinia Minerals, Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	RM	0.58	15,706,248
.	Rubicon Minerals Corp	TSX:Toronto	RMX	5.14	1,163,501,163
.	Sidon International Resources Corporation	TSX-V:TSX – V	SD	0.05	2,328,958
.	Sirios Resources Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	SOI	0.08	7,080,205
.	Solid Resources Ltd.	TSX-V:TSX – V	SRW	0.16	7,305,272
.	Strategic Resources Inc.	TSX-V:TSX – V	UVR	0.06	4,538,752
.	Thelon Ventures Ltd.	TSX-V:TSX – V	THV	0.02	1,692,066
.	TNR Gold Corp.	TSX-V:TSX – V	TNR	0.35	32,109,277
.	Ultra Lithium Inc	TSX-V:TSX – V	ULI	0.06	4,542,398
.	Western Lithium Canada Corporation	TSX-V:TSX – V	WLC	2.13	145,966,428
.	Western Uranium Corporation	TSX-V:TSX – V	WUC	1.00	61,137,330
.	Weststar Resources Corp.	TSX-V:TSX – V	WER	0.08	3,218,044

Argentina Lithium HEATS UP: Koreans move into Argentina - KORES Joint Venture into Lithium One's Argentinean Asset TNR.V, LI.v, CLQ.v, MLM.v, ROC:NYS

2010-06-08T08:44:00.000-07:00

Lithium One and Korea Resources Corporation Announce Development Joint Venture at Sal de Vida Lithium Brine Project, Argentina

Highlights - KORES to earn 30% project interest by funding up to US $15 million towards a resource development program and delivering a Definitive Feasibility Study. - KORES to provide Project Completion Guarantee. - KORES to purchase up to 50% of lithium and to have certain marketing rights for lithium in China, Japan and Korea. - Lithium One retains rights to market 100% of the future potash production. - KORES signs MOU with GS Caltex and LG International to complete a consortium.

This is great news - think about where Lithium One's resource, compared to TNR Gold / International Lithium.

Fellow board poster on Stockhouse did a great job comparing the lithium brine that the two companies have under flagship projects:

Mariana (Argentina) - International Lithium
- Drill sample numbers up to 650pm just on surface (These tend to go higher as you go deeper - think salt water)
- Excellent infrastructure - by Chilean railroad
- Controls 100% production & surface of this salar completely independent
- ILC market cap at launch - $15 million (
.25 @ 60 million shares accordig to IR)
- @ a comparable valuation - let's say $40 million to be conservative = it already gives ILC shares a 250% potential gain based on that alone from
.25 to
.65+/share for ILC alone

Good luck all longs I know I'm adding more at this price point given below. Just wait and see.

Sal Da Vida (Lithium One)
- Drill sampled 694 ppm of Lithium
- Excellent Infrastructure - right beside FMC's Hombre Muerto
- Shares salar with FMC - one of the world's largest producers - I don't honestly think it's a good thing
--> 30% at $15 million = puts valuation of this salar at a nice chunk of change at $50 million
--> LI.v shares barely moved today - why? Market's alreadyaccounting for this into valuation - just look at the LI shares tradingat $1.50 with 45 million shares outstanding = $67.5M market cap

This gives it roughly $17.5M for the St. James Bay pegmatite resourcelithium, pretty fair given that market puts way more valuation on brines these days.
LI still has a bit of upward movements upon resource delineation, we shall see how this plays out with FMC right beside them...

____

So far Lithium One (LI:TSX) has seen little to no movement from this significant deal - has the expectation been priced in already?

Google "Lithium Argentina" or "Argentinean Lithium" - the first result that comes up shows you who's been in Argentina longer.

David vs Goliath TNR.v, MAI.to, Xstrata, Copper, Gold

2010-05-25T09:07:00.000-07:00

It's usually quite interesting when lawsuits are started by junior miners against deep-pocket major corporations - really make you think there's some validity to their claims, no?

Last week junior miner TNR Gold amends their statement of defence and essentially defends their right to back-in on the large Los Azules project.

At current valuation $25 million market cap for TNR Gold, even a conservative 15% of Los Azules (valuated last by Canaccord at over $700 million) represents nearly a 3x multiple NAV (Net Asset Value).

As always please complete your due dilligence with a qualified advisor prior to any investment decision. Keep in mind, management and insider already holds more than 50% of outstanding shares - rarely do you see a company with execs holding that much.

If you think about it - they have much more to lose than the average shareholder - knowing this at least gives me comfort my money's being put to work hard by the management.

TNR GOLD FILES FULL RESPONSE TO MINERA ANDES STATEMENT OF CLAIM
Vancouver, B.C.: TNR Gold Corp. and its wholly-owned subsidiary, Solitario Argentina S.A. (collectively, "TNR"), have filed an Amended Statement of Defence and Counterclaim in the Supreme Court of British Columbia responding in detail to the Statement of Claim filed by Minera Andes Inc. and certain related entities (together, "Minera Andes").

As disclosed in our April 23, 2010 press release, TNR notified Minera Andes that it was exercising its back-in right for 25% of certain of the properties constituting the Los Azules project in Argentina (the "Los Azules Project"). Minera Andes is contesting TNR's ability to exercise its back-in right. The Amended Statement of Defence sets out, among other things, TNR's position as to why the back in clause in the May 2004 Exploration and Option Agreement should be rectified to remove reference to a feasibility study being completed within 36 months, and why the condition linking the timing of the back-in right to the production of a feasibility study was for the sole benefit of TNR and, therefore, could be waived by TNR. TNR has brought a Counterclaim which seeks a positive declaration from the court that TNR's April 23, 2010 back-in notice is valid and enforceable.

We encourage interested parties to review the Amended Statement of Defence and Counterclaim in their entirety on our website for a better understating of our position. The link for this information is as follows:

Download Link to Amended Statement of Defence

ABOUT TNR GOLD

TNR and International Lithium Corp ("ILC") are diversified metals exploration companies focused on exploring existing properties and identifying new prospective projects globally. TNR has a portfolio of 18 active projects, of which 9 will be included in the proposed spin-off of International Lithium Corp. For further details of the spin-off please refer to TNR's April 12, 2010 press release or visit http://www.internationallithium.com.

Gold's new price level $1,200+ TNR.v, GG, KRC, FDN.v, DEC.v, MB.v

2010-05-10T13:24:00.000-07:00

Gold has now solidified its new position above what was previously lofty - $1,200 an ounce.

With further bailout actions for Greece - the global monetary supply now increases further. The pace of price increases is become apparent even to those not educated in the ways of capital markets.

Gold Prices To Rally As Currency Volatility To Continue

Chicago -- (Kitco News) --Gold prices might have fallen in reaction to the European Union’s bailout package for its ailing southern-member states, but the pull back appears to be nothing but a bump in the road to higher prices.
Spot and futures prices fell in early dealings Monday once the 750 billion euro aid package was announced, with futures prices falling nearly 2% at one point before curbing some losses. Meanwhile, the euro and global equities markets – stymied by worries that the initial debt-relief package for Greece wasn’t enough and that the debt problems bubbled under in other countries such as Portugal, Spain, Ireland and Italy would finally surface – rallied sharply.
The rally in riskier assets suggests, at least initially, that financial markets believe Europe really means it when it says going to stand the troubled southern euro-zone. The deal cobbles together funds from euro-zone countries, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank. Other global central banks, such as the U.S. Federal Reserve, are offering assistance.
What makes this aid package different than other EU and IMF offerings is the size, market watchers said. “This is a much bigger plan,” said Frank Lesh, futures analyst at FuturePath Trading.

With recent developments in Gold - more investors are looking back at Gold. Let's revisit some of our favorite projects on the TSX.

1. TNR Gold Corp (TNR:TSXV)

It is, TNR Gold, after all!
Despite popular belief of TNR's focus on copper - it's focus was on gold just a few years ago with its large project in Alaska called Shotgun.

The Shotgun property is located 175 kilometres south of Donlin Creek within the Kuskokwim Gold Belt in Southwestern Alaska, an area emerging as a world-class gold district hosting more than 40 million ounces of aggregated gold resources. The Shotgun property includes a number of prospects, including Shotgun Ridge and nearby Winchester. Donlin is an intrusion-associated system and represents one of the largest undeveloped gold deposits in the world. (See NovaGold.net.) The Company believes that there are several key similarities between prospects in the Shotgun area and that of the Donlin Creek gold deposit as well as other intrusion-associated deposits. Previous work at Shotgun Ridge by joint-venture partner NovaGold Resources Inc. has a estimated historical resource of 980,000 ounces grading 0.93 gram per tonne (g/t) at a cut-off of 0.5 g/t (National Instrument 43-101non-compliant resources).The geology and style of mineralization at Shotgun is very similar to the Dome area of the Donlin deposit.

What's amazing about this is a million ounces anywhere else would equal an operating mine and a mine life of easily 10+ years. The most drill program was back in 2006, where the company struck incredible intervals:
If these numbers were today - TNR would be trading much higher, you can be assured!

Drilling during 2006 at Shotgun Ridge intercepted 210.5 metres grading 1.29 g/t Au. Results from this drill hole were key in enabling TNR staff to identify two steeply dipping feeder zones and structurally reinterpret the Shotgun Ridge zone.

Good comparable is Aurizon Mines (ARZ:TSX) which has a profitable mine in Ontario producing 100,000 ouncs of Gold and using this revenue stream to bring a 2nd mine online - their reserve is at a million ounces (100k production x 10 years!)

Difference? Market cap of Aurizon is at $800+ million.
A pounds in the ground estimation of 1,000,000 ouncs of Gold, using $1,000/ounce gold is a $1,000,000,000 (billion), still a rough $200 million discount off Aurizon's market cap.

Post-spin-off - TNR Gold will still continue to benefit from share valuations from this. Thus we believe the ILC spin-off will bring a nice summer bonus for shareholders.

_________

Decade Resources has hit similarly interesting numbers - and the stock skyrocketed earlier this year - jumping from $0.08 struggling to close financing - to oversubscribing after results like 7.3 g/t over 28.35 metres. See attached price chart with overlaid news flow from the last half year.

Arguably - gold results now would be very timely. We've also noticed another junior group, Foundation Resources, do significantly well with high grade results - jumping nearly 5-600% within the last few months.

Given the level of inflationary forces worldwide, as interest rates start to climb up, raw materials and hard assets are still anticipated to outpace the growth rate on fiat currency.

Disclosure: Mining101 writers are typically long and bullish on commodities. Please do your own due dilligence before investing.

US Pentagon in Race for Raw Materials - WSJ TNR.v, AVL.to, RES.v, QUC.v

2010-05-03T10:37:00.000-07:00

This would be quite the junior take-out story wouldn't it, if Department of Defence comes in and buys out your favorite juniors for a measly $50 million dollars. Keep in mind 2010 Military budget overall came to over $500 billion. (reference DOD) Going forward it's expected to rise to $600+, accounting for over 19% of the US's overall GDP.

DoD Releases Fiscal 2010 Budget Proposal

President Barack Obama today sent to Congress a proposed defense budget of $663.8 billion for fiscal 2010. The budget request for the Department of Defense (DoD) includes $533.8 billion in discretionary budget authority to fund base defense programs and $130 billion to support overseas contingency operations, primarily in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The proposed DoD base budget represents an increase of $20.5 billion over the $513.3 billion enacted for fiscal 2009. This is an increase of 4 percent, or 2.1 percent real growth after adjusting for inflation.

Given that monstrous budget, you'd think the US would have been alerted by the 90% figure that China holds in terms of rare earth resources - after all, these are the very material you need for:

Night vision goggles - heavy use of Rubidium
High capacity lithium-ion batteries - you think there's power outlets in Afghanistan? Not to mention every car manufacturer is hyping up their own versions of the electric car...alot of new demands coming online!
Radars, high tech computer chips, capacitors - Needs for tantalum, cerium, dysprosium - drastically increasing as miniaturization becomes necessity - nobody wants to carry around bricks like this anymore!

Before tantalum / miniaturization

After Ta / miniaturization

The U.S. may stockpile lithium, thin pieces of which are shown here at the Center for Lithium Energy Advanced Research lab in North Carolina

Pentagon in Race for Raw Materials
Stockpiling Minerals Takes on Greater Urgency as Global Supply Gets Squeezed

By LIAM PLEVEN
The U.S. military is gearing up to become a more active player in the global scramble for raw materials, as competition from China and other countries raises concerns about the cost and availability of resources deemed vital to national security.
The Defense Department holds in government warehouses a limited number of critical materials—such as cobalt, tin and zinc—worth about $1.6 billion as of late 2008. In the coming weeks, the Pentagon is likely to present a plan for Congress to overhaul its stockpiling program,

The new plan, dubbed the Strategic Materials Security Program by the Pentagon, would give the military greater power to decide what it stockpiles and how it goes about buying the materials. It would also speed up decision making at a time when military technology evolves rapidly, commodity markets swing widely and countries around the world fight to secure access to natural resources.

"It's a risk-management program," said Paula Stead, who oversees the effort for the Defense National Stockpile Center at Fort Belvoir, in Virginia. The goal is to be able to obtain "a much broader" array of materials in "a much shorter time," she said.

Right now, the military can't add to the stockpile list without congressional approval, a process that can take as long as two years. The military wants to remove that restriction. It also wants the authority to strike long-term deals with companies or allied nations to provide emergency supplies of materials that the military says are irreplaceable for making weapons, jet engines, high-powered magnets and other gear.

U.S. allies are also increasingly alert to possible supply threats. Last year, Australia blocked a Chinese firm's bid for control of a company that was developing a mine for rare-earth elements, which are used in products such as alloys, electronics and computer monitors.
China controls more than 90% of global production of rare-earth elements, which the U.S. military uses in lasers and high-powered magnets. The U.S. in October added several of these elements to its list of materials that it might warehouse.

The proposed changes to the stockpile system are part of a broader overhaul of the way the Pentagon buys raw materials. The military currently uses hundreds of millions of dollars worth of raw materials annually, for building weapons and equipment, among other things.
The military has recently tested a system of bulk-buying commodities—by putting in joint orders across the armed services—which could cut purchasing costs. The military also wants the latitude to have private companies stockpile materials in "buffer stocks" that the military can tap if other supplies dry up.

Critics argue the current stockpiling system—set up in 1939 for World War II and shaped by the Cold War—is outdated and leaves the U.S. vulnerable to a shortage of critical supplies. That could weaken the military's negotiating position or leave it at the mercy of wild price swings in the market, or unable to get the material it needs for key weapons.
The huge purchasing power of other nations such as China and India makes this even more critical, according to a Department of Defense report given to Congress last year. Worries about potential shortages of strategic materials escalated in 2007 and 2008, as commodity prices jumped and demand from emerging economies soared.
At a hearing on the stockpile last July, a Defense Department official told Congress that the price of rhenium, whose heat-resistant qualities help jet engines operate at higher speeds, at one point shot up 1,000%. Rhenium is one of many materials the department already screens for stockpiling.
China looms large in the debate. In addition to dominating production of rare-earth elements, China is an aggressive deal maker with countries and companies that produce raw materials. The Chinese government also stockpiles a range of natural resources.
The rising competition for raw materials has sparked fears in the U.S. military that some materials that once seemed abundant could suddenly become hard to get at any price. In 2008 the military suspended or limited sales of 13 commodities it had previously considered excess. Last year it added 14 materials to its list of resources it considers for stockpiling, including specialty steels, lithium and some rare-earth elements, taking the total to 68. More additions are expected, said Ms. Stead of the Defense National Stockpile Center.
The changes being proposed by the military have the potential to move prices, especially on materials for which the market is small. If the military decides to add a commodity to the stockpile, it could cause "some upward pressure on price," said Roderick Eggert, a mineral economist at the Colorado School of Mines, who has tracked the proposal.
The Defense Department is also a major buyer of raw materials for immediate consumption, as opposed to stockpiling. It purchases about three-quarters of a million tons of raw materials a year for immediate consumption, and it uses almost 1% of U.S. steel production and nearly 5% of its aluminum.
The stockpiling system evolved over the past few decades into a network of warehouses containing material that, after the Cold War, the military largely concluded it no longer needed. Much of what was stored has since been sold off, shrinking the hoard and netting about $7 billion.
In 1995, the stockpile held 90 different commodities at 85 different locations. Today, it holds 20 commodities in 10 locations, Ms. Stead said.
The system amounted to "putting stuff into big piles," said Robert Latiff, a retired Air Force major general and lead author of a recent study on managing raw materials for the National Academies. The process for adding new material was "not only lengthy but torturous," said Mr. Latiff, who is now a professor at George Mason University.
The military has been caught flat-footed in the past. A special type of steel was needed early in the Iraq war to reinforce Humvees to protect soldiers from powerful explosives used by insurgents. The Defense Department didn't have the steel in its stockpile, and couldn't find a domestic firm to produce all it needed.
The rules were changed to allow the military to use material from Mexico, according to testimony to Congress last year.
At the same time, the military has also adapted to emergencies. When it was racing to build bomb-resistant trucks to use in Iraq, the Pentagon invoked authority it hadn't used in decades to force contractors to give key projects top priority access to essential material, because it feared shortages of ballistic glass and other components.
Write to Liam Pleven at liam.pleven@wsj.com"

What do you need for a successful mine? Los Azules, TNR.v, CZX.v, MAI.to, AND.to

2010-04-27T12:21:00.000-07:00

With a grass roots projects developing into a resource, and advancing to pre-feasibility reports and eventual production, it's a good idea to understand what's involved in a mining project.

1. The pit (ore body open pit)
(see left image)
Congrats, you found high grade % copper, now what?

The ideal scenario involves digging a humongous hole in the ground, via a systematic earth removal process such that you create the leftover open pit as shown on the left.

2. Transport the Ore (heavy rocks)

Ore, unprocessed, is worth very little. Naturally, you'd have your precious gold or copper mixed with ordinary rocks and other byproducts.

The idea here is to minimize the distance you have to transport these to your processing belt or factory, so you can start crushing and filtering out the valuable bits!

As you can see driving heavy duty 500 tonne trucks up these large pits can be quite costly on gas!

3. Start refining your ore

Once you have the ore at your factory it's time to fire up the conveyor belt. Crushing, refining, leaching, are all typical ways to separate your high grade minerals from the low-grade rocks. Do this well enough and you should be able to retain 90%+ of your estimated resource from raw ore - that is to say you don't waste too much in the way of getting rid of minerals within the ore during the separation process!

From there it goes through several steps of refinement until you reach a sellable end product for your customers - usually in forms of molly, raw mineral products, and in some cases finished pellets for melting into final products.

__

4. Disposal of waste and tailings

Wait, you think the government and environmental agencies will let you leave a big hole with waste rocks lying around after you extract the valuable minerals? Not quite!

Tailings (also known as slimes, tailings pile, tails, leach residue, or slickens^[1]) are the materials left over^[2] after the process of separating the valuable fraction from the worthless fraction (gangue) of an ore.

To properly dispose of these tailings (often still riddled with chemicals from acid leaching and chemical separation processes), significant efforts are put in to make sure environmental impacts are minimized.
Some would argue, tailings and waste process facilities are the single biggest economic barriers to a mine being successful.

Further, you'd want to have a site nearby (ideally downhill) where you can, for a low cost, get rid of your tailings and pile them up for isolation processing later.

____________

Hopefully that's helpful!

Back to Los Azules, it sure makes you wonder how Minera Andes (MAI.TO) will get their pre-feasibility and mine started without ownership of Escorpio IV??

Last we checked, junior miner TNR Gold Corp (TNR.V) controls that project 100%. Given how important tailings pond facility and waste disposals are to a mine, you'd think Minera Andes would want to work with TNR?

http://www.tnrgoldcorp.com/s/NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=303323&_Type=News-Room&_Title=Escorpio-IV-Ownership-Update

From Minera Andes's very own Prelimenary Assessment, outlining their mine plan on Los Azules, we have pulled together charts from different pages.
I think from looking at images (from Minera Andes) themselves, that Escorpio IV is clearly not in their possession...and that their engineers are optimized the mine plan so that both the tailing pond and waste management facilities lie right on Escorpio IV.

$5 million to buy 25% of a 11.2 billion pound copper mine? Yes please! TNR.v, MAI.to

2010-04-27T11:05:00.000-07:00

One of our perennial favorites here at Mining 101 is TNR Gold, the little junior explorer that could, has successfully found $5 million necessary to back-in and buy their way back into a project they held originally - the Los Azules.

We think they have a valid claim - which means TNR's tiny market capitalization of under $35 million is grossly undervalued.

TNR GOLD SUBSIDIARY SERVES NOTICE OF BACK-IN INTO LOS AZULES TO MINERA ANDES AND SECURES STANDBY CREDIT FACILITY
Compania Minera Solitario Argentina S.A., a wholly owned subsidiary of TNR Gold Corp., has served notice to Minera Andes Inc., exercising its back-in right for 25 per cent of certain of the properties constituting the Los Azules project in Argentina. TNR also entered into a standby credit facility in the aggregate principal amount of $5-million for a term of one year. The proceeds from the facility have been placed in a trust account to be released on closing of the exercise of the back-in right.
TNR has issued 2,272,727 common shares to the lender as partial consideration for the facility, and has agreed to issue another $500,000 of common shares with a deemed price equal to the 10-day volume-weighted-average trading price as of the day prior to the court's decision in certain circumstances where TNR is successful in its litigation, with respect to the back-in right. In addition, TNR has paid a corporate finance fee of $305,000.
The right of TNR and Solitario to exercise the back-in right for the Los Azules project is subject to a legal action commenced by Minera Andes Inc., Minera Andes S.A., Los Azules Mining Inc. and Andes Corporacion Minera S.A. (the MAI group) against TNR and Solitaro, in which the MAI group is disputing Solitario's ability to waive the production of a feasibility study and issue a back-in notice at this time. The action seeks declaratory relief that any back-in notice is invalid, void or of no force and effect, and advances a claim for costs. TNR is also in a legal dispute with MIM Argentina Exploraciones S.A. (MIM), a subsidiary of Xstrata PLC, over the language of the back-in clause of the exploration and option agreement entered into between Solitario and MIM. In the action, TNR is also seeking confirmation of its ownership in the Escorpio IV property, which is located adjacent to the Los Azules project, and a declaration that the Escorpio IV property is excluded from the exploration and option agreement. A court date has been set for the fall of 2010.

25% on 11 billion lbs of Copper? Yes Please! TNR.v, MAI.to

2010-04-07T09:46:00.000-07:00

April Fools (April 1st) is a day typically filled with jokes and pranks played on unsuspecting coworkers and colleagues.

A story we have been following from way back, Los Azules (11 billion lbs copper), has taken an interesting turn last week with Rob McEwan seemingly denying TNR Gold their back-in deadline of April 23, 2010.

2010-04-01 14:20 ET - News Release

Mr. Nils Engelstad reports
MINERA ANDES REJECTS TNR GOLD CORP.'S CLAIM OF BACK-IN RIGHT
Minera Andes Inc. has filed a statement of claim in the Supreme Court of British Columbia against TNR Gold Corp. and its subsidiary, Solitario Argentina S.A.
In recent conversations and correspondence with Minera Andes, TNR has asserted that it has an immediate right to back into the Los Azules project.
Minera Andes rejects the ability of TNR to back into any part of the Los Azules project.
By way of background, the project was, until the fall of 2009, subject to an option agreement between Xstrata Copper and Minera Andes. In the fall of 2009, Xstrata elected not to exercise its option to back into the project and subsequently transferred all properties then held by Xstrata (and forming part of the project) to Minera Andes. Minera Andes now owns 100 per cent of the project.
Certain of the Los Azules properties formerly held by Xstrata and transferred to Minera Andes following the termination of the option agreement however remain subject to an underlying option agreement between Xstrata and TNR, whereby TNR has the right to back into up to 25 per cent of the subject properties, exercisable by TNR upon the satisfaction of certain conditions within 36 months of Xstrata exercising its option, including the completion of a feasibility study. It is important to note that the subject properties comprise the northern half of the project and do not represent 25 per cent of the Los Azules deposit by area or resources identified.
The 36-month period following the exercise of the option expires on or about April 23, 2010, and no feasibility study has been completed on the project.
The TNR agreement is the subject of a legal dispute between Xstrata and TNR, commenced by TNR against Xstrata in the Supreme Court of British Columbia. The dispute surrounds the validity of the 36-month time limit described above. In particular, TNR claims the 36-month time frame, although clearly stated in the TNR agreement, was added by Xstrata, overlooked by TNR (and its lawyers) when signed, not discovered for a number of years and in any event not the commercial intention of the parties.
According to communications between Minera and TNR, TNR seeks to waive the condition that a feasibility study be completed on the project prior to TNR being entitled to exercise its back-in right. It is Minera's view that TNR's back-in right is dependent upon the production of a feasibility study which has never been produced. Further, Minera Andes disputes the legal ability to waive this condition.
Although not party to the litigation between TNR and Xstrata, Minera Andes is seeking a declaration that any back-in notice delivered by TNR prior to April 23, 2010, will be null, void and of no force and effect.
As an additional point of clarification, Minera Andes wishes to confirm that notwithstanding references by TNR to its Los Azules project, that the project remains 100 per cent owned by Minera Andes and Minera Andes has no agreement or working relationship with TNR.
The company looks forward to informing its shareholders of TNR's response.
Minera Andes reports full year results
In other news, for the year ended Dec. 31, 2009, net income in accordance with Canadian GAAP (generally accepted accounting principles) was $4.1-million (two cents per share basic and diluted) compared with a net loss of $4.0-million (two cents per share) for the year ended Dec. 31, 2008. This increase was primarily due to an increase in the income recorded on the company's 49-per-cent-owned investment in Minera Santa Cruz SA, which owns the San Jose mine, from $4.7-million in 2008 to $9.3-million in 2009. In addition, the company recorded an income tax recovery of $1.6-million and total expenses in 2009 declined by $1.8-million compared with 2008.
For full details, please refer to the company's audited annual financial statements and management's discussion and analysis for 2009 filed on SEDAR and its Form 40-F filed on EDGAR.

Naturally, TNR Gold Corp had to respond the same day to show this is pretty serious business.

2010-04-01 20:17 ET - News Release
Mr. Gary Schellenberg reports
TNR GOLD PROPOSES TO EXERCISE BACK-IN RIGHT FOR LOS AZULES COPPER PROJECT
TNR Gold Corp. has informed Minera Andes Inc. that it proposes to waive the production of a feasibility study and exercise its right to acquire 25 per cent of the northern half of the properties for Minera Andes's Los Azules project. Minera Andes is contesting TNR's legal right to waive the production of a feasibility study and exercise its option, and has filed a statement of claim in the British Columbia Supreme Court seeking a declaration nullifying any back-in notice delivered by TNR. TNR will be filing a statement of defence and will vigorously oppose any such declaration.
The Los Azules project is an advanced exploration project currently reporting a National Instrument 43-101-compliant inferred resource. TNR has previously announced in Stockwatch that Minera Andes has commenced a diamond drill program of approximately 8,800 metres at the Los Azules project. Please refer to Minera Andes's news release in Stockwatch dated Jan. 12, 2010, for further details on the exploration program, and to its news release dated April 1, 2010, for details of its position with respect to TNR's exercise of its back-in right.
The terms of TNR's back-in right are currently the subject of a legal dispute with Xstrata. In that litigation, TNR is also seeking confirmation of its ownership of the Escorpio IV property, which is located adjacent to the Los Azules project, and a declaration that the Escorpio IV property is excluded from the exploration and option agreement.

Alot of eyes will be watching with anticipation in about 2 weeks time when TNR is expected to back-in on 25% of the highest grading portions of Los Azules. Should be very interesting, I would pick up some TNR shares on dips as we expect strong performance from TNR if/when they are able to finance the back in.

Keep in mind this project has a NPV of over $600 million dollars - even a conservative 10% of this in cash comes to $60 million - easily double the current market capitalization of TNR!

US Government Committee : Lack of Rare Earth Minerals Threatens US Manufacturers and Jobs TNR.v, LAT.v, Orocobre, CLQ.v, WLC.v, Washington

2010-03-18T12:26:00.000-07:00

Lack of Rare Earth Minerals Threatens U.S. Manufacturers, National Transition to Clean Energy Economy, Committee Warned

(http://science.house.gov/press/PRArticle.aspx?NewsID=2780).

March 17, 2010, (Washington, DC) – Witnesses from both the public and private sectors warned Members of the House Committee on Science and Technology’s Subcommittee on Investigations and Oversight that the lack of a domestic supply of rare earth minerals could severely affect the U.S.’s ability to manufacture advanced-technology products. A rare earth supply shortage would present a threat notably to the emerging clean energy industry but also to the telecommunications and defense sectors, according to testimony at a hearing on “Rare Earth Minerals and 21^st Century Industry.”

“With a little of one of these elements you can get a smaller, more powerful magnet, or an aircraft engine that operates at higher temperatures or a fiber-optic cable that can carry your phone call much greater distances,” said Subcommittee Chairman Brad Miller (D-NC). “The United States, not so long ago, was the world leader in producing and exporting rare earths. Today, China is the world’s leader. If we intend to foster a home-grown capability to make the devices that provide wind energy, we need to rebuild America's capability to supply its own needs in rare earth materials.”

Full Committee Chairman Bart Gordon (D-TN) noted that “this is not the first time the Committee has been concerned with the competitive implications of materials such as rare earths. In 1980—30 years ago—this Committee established a national minerals and materials policy to coordinate materials research and development,” Gordon said. “Unfortunately, over successive administrations, the effort to keep that program going fell apart. Now, it is time to ask whether we need to revive a coordinated effort to level the playing field in rare earths in order to support American business and American jobs.”

Between 2005 and 2008, 91 percent of U.S. consumption of rare earths came from China and 9 percent from other sources, according to the U.S. Geological Survey. China is reducing exports of rare earth materials and is working to leverage its deposits tobring the manufacture of the high-value-added products containing rare earths to China’s Inner Mongolia region.

“We have to recognize that the Chinese have some different ideas about how to get the greatest benefit from this suddenly-valuable commodity beyond simply digging it up and selling it to those who want to use it in their high-tech manufacturing,” said Miller. “China appears to view rare earths as one of the incentives they can offer a technology firm scouting for a new plant location. We need to learn how to compete in attracting and retaining manufacturing firms that need access to rare earth elements in light of China’s current near monopoly, and their willingness to use their monopoly power to our disadvantage.”

U.S. supplies are also strained by the continual discovery of new applications and our national effort to ramp up industries that depend on rare earths, such as clean energy technologies.

Members and witnesses discussed ways to overcome the expected imbalance between available supplies of minerals and the nation’s need for them, including: increasing exploration for domestic sources; finding new overseas suppliers; research to find substitute materials; research to reduce the amount of rare earths needed; and increasing recycling of materials.

For more information, please visit the Committee’s website.

Japan Oil and Gas (JOGMEC) moving into Nevada - TNR, CLQ.v, WLC.v, LMR.v, SQM, FCM, Rockwood

2010-02-17T14:15:00.000-08:00

If anything has taught North Americans a lesson - it's that hard work pays off. For many of the Asian countries where natural resources have always been scarce, there's a typical overall mandate that the larger government-backed companies have to acquire oversea assets such as mines and exploration projects.

JOGMEC is a Japanese government agency through which the country can secure longterm supply through a corporation.

Yesterday a small but significant deal was announced.

Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) Signs $2.5 Million USD MoA to Earn 51% of Lomiko's Alkali Lake Lithium Brine Property

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© Marketwire 2010

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA -- (Marketwire) -- 02/16/10 -- LOMIKO METALS INC. (TSX VENTURE: LMR)(PINK SHEETS: LMRMF)(Europe: ISIN: CA54163Q1028, WKN: A0Q9W7) ("Lomiko" or "the Company") is pleased to announce that Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation ("JOGMEC") has entered into a Memorandum of Agreement ("MoA") with Lomiko Metals Inc. and its wholly-owned subsidiary Lomiko Metals USA LLC ("Lomiko USA") to acquire 51% of Lomiko's Alkali Lake Project ("the Property") in Esmeralda after completing $2.5 million USD in work no later than March 31, 2013.

Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) was established on February 29, 2004. JOGMEC integrates the functions of the former Japan National Oil Corporation, which was in charge of securing a stable supply of oil and natural gas, and the former Metal Mining Agency of Japan, which was in charge of ensuring a stable supply of nonferrous metal and mineral resources and implementing mine pollution control measures. Further details are available at: www.jogmec.go.jp/english : .

Both parties must contribute based on a 51/49 ratio to retain their interest after the Earn-in-Date. JOGMEC has the Right of First Refusal to acquire the remaining interest in the property after the Earn-in-Date and may accelerate the Earn-in-Date by completing required expenditures early. JOGMEC also has the right to transfer its interests in the Alkali Lake Property, in whole or in part, to one or more Japanese companies or a consortium of Japanese companies. JOGMEC shall have exclusive right to direct the marketing of minerals or mineral materials removed from the Property on behalf of the Joint Venture for a 10 year period from the date of first commercial production.

The above agreement is subject to a 30 day due diligence period that may be extended to not more than 90 days. Once above due diligence is satisfied by JOGMEC, Lomiko and JOGMEC will form a Joint Venture Management Committee to direct exploration and Lomiko will act as Operator. JOGMEC shall prepare an initial draft of the definitive agreement between the parties to the MoA. Any Exploration expenditures by Lomiko from January 17, 2010 to present will be credited to the Joint Venture and compensated accordingly.

The Company's subsidiary Lomiko Metals USA LLC, located 552 lode claims comprising 4,615.4 Ha or 11,404.9 acres in Esmeralda County, Nevada. The staking covers a large portion of Alkali Flat Salt Lake in Montezuma Valley which is prospective for economic grades of lithium and other materials. America's only lithium production facility owned by Chemetall Foote, a subsidiary of Rockwood Holdings (NYSE: ROC) is located 15 km away by road in the Clayton Valley, immediately to the west. In addition to lithium carbonate, Silver Peak is one of the world's leading producers of lithium hydroxide. The U.S. government recently awarded Chemetall US $ 28.4 million USD to upgrade and expand the Silver Peak lithium brine mine as part of a program to supply sufficient lithium for the next generation of electric vehicle batteries (Resource World, Vol. 8, Issue 1). Details on Chemetall Foote's Silver Peak Property are available at: www.chemetalllithium.com : .

Montezuma Valley (also known as Alkali Flat) formed in a structural basin, a down-faulted and rotated crustal block caused by tensional spreading forces common to the Basin and Range province of Nevada and nearby states. The faulted blocks, which often result in the creation of closed basins, are composed of a variety of Precambrian and Paleozoic rocks overlain by younger volcanic rocks ejected from a nearby eruption during the Tertiary. It is these volcanic rocks, some containing high lithium values, that are considered to be the source of lithium found in subsurface brines in Clayton Valley. Lithium, along with numerous other elements, was liberated from the rocks through mechanical and chemical weathering processes and transported into the basins. Subsequent climatic changes in the Quaternary resulted in the enrichment of lithium solutions by evaporation. Montezuma Valley and the Kar claims are located immediately east of Clayton Valley. The two valleys are separated by the Paymaster fault and share the exposed Precambrian and Paleozoic basement rocks covered by tertiary volcanic rocks of Paymaster Ridge.

Mr. Garth Kirkham, P.Geo, is the Qualified Person responsible for the technical content of this news release.

To view accompanying map, please click on the following link: www.marketwire.com/library/20100215-lmr2168.jpg :

On behalf of Lomiko Metals Inc.

Paul Gill, President & CEO
We seek safe harbor.

Neither TSX Venture Exchange nor its Regulation Services Provider (as that term is defined in the policies of the TSX Venture Exchange) accepts responsibility for the adequacy or accuracy of this release.

____________

While we do not believe the projects have as much merit as say, International Lithium's or Rodinia Minerals' assets in Nevada, it regardless is a step in the right direction as deals are starting to be made.

It's a smaller deal but we firmly believe end users such as Hitach (see below for drills), Toyota, Mitsubishi, are all waking up to the increasingly competitive market for a common lithium resource, outside of the majors (FMC, SQM, Chemetall).

I mean, if your business relied on a secure resource, even as a risk management step, wouldn't you want to diversify away from just Chile and Argentina?? 75% + of the world's supply currently come from there, it would be awfully easy for the major producers to hike up the price, no? Not to mention political risks!

LMR.v was up significantly on 2 million shares TSX-Venture yesterday. It closed at $0.115 today down 14%.

Mitsubishi Buys into Lithium, TNR.v, CLQ.v, WLC.v, NAR.v, LMK.v

2010-02-16T10:43:00.000-08:00

If you need more proof the world needs more lithium than SQM:NYSE, FMC, and Chemetall Foot (Rockwood ROC:NYSE) can supply, look no further.

Here at Mining101 we have been following the Lithium movement right from the beginning - and we are getting more confirmations daily that this is it.

PERTH, Feb 15, 2010 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) --
Japan's Mitsubishi Corporation (TSE:8058) has agreed to buy about 30 per cent of battery grade lithium carbonate output from Galaxy Resources Ltd's (ASX:GXY) Mt Cattlin mine in Western Australia.
Shares in Galaxy were up four cents, or 3.25 per cent, at A$1.27 (US$1.12) at 1253 AEDT.
Galaxy said in a statement on Monday it was close to finalising similar off-take agreements with other major groups and high-end users of battery grade lithium carbonate in China and other parts of Asia.
The value of the Mitsubishi deal was confidential, a Galaxy spokesman said.
Demand is growing for lithium, which is used in batteries for electric cars.
(AAP)ma

Lithium Conference - Las Vegas 2010, TNR.v, ORE.asx, WLC.v, RM.v, CLQ.v

2010-02-08T09:23:00.000-08:00

With the world spotlight now on Lithium as the next green-energy material of choice in batteries, electric cars, and all things wonderful technology (think iPod, iPad, etc), the first annual industrial mineral commodity conference wrapped up last week.

Let us revisit some of the companies presenting and check the list of presenters against what we've outlined before as credible companies, shall we?

As we discussed in our previous entries..

http://mining101.blogspot.com/2010/01/first-toyota-now-magna-whos-next-tnrv.html

I think when you're dealing with that level of audience, BS geology can only get you so far. Sorry, time to short Alberta oil-field brines!! (MCI.v, CHU.v, HAO.v, etc etc!)

Confirmed speakers include:

Dr Gal Luft, Executive Director, Institute for the Analysis of Global Security, USA
Jerry Huang, Corporate Communications Manager, TNR Gold / International Lithium Corp, USA
Iggy Tan, Managing Director, Galaxy Resources, Australia
Richard Seville, Chief Executive Officer, Orocobre, Australia
Jay Chmelauskas, President, Western Lithium Corp., USA
Don Bubar, President & CEO, Avalon Rare Metals Inc, Canada
Ted Miller, Senior Manager, Ford, USA
Keith Evans, Consultant, USA
Jon Evans, FMC Lithium Division Manager, FMC Lithium Corporation, USA
Robert Baylis, Senior Consultant, Roskill Information Services Ltd, UK
Waldo Perez, Chief Executive Officer, Lithium Americas, Canada
Mr. Patricio de Solminihac, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, SQM, Chile
Dr Steffen Haber, President, Lithium Division, Chemetall GmbH, Germany

And now consider the attendees. Note ones highlighted...Toyota just did a $5.5 million pre-feasibility deal with Orocobre, and are on the market looking for more.

The latest fiasco with braking problems is more of a government protectionist propaganda...heck the 90's Ford Explorer problem killed far more people and was potentially far more dangerous. Too bad nobody considered Hyundai's position in all this as they seem to be the ones profitting not GM...but I digress.

Attendees

Advanced Metallurgical Group

Altairnano Inc

Amalgamet Canada

American Lithium

Amerpro Resources Inc

AMG Advanced Metallurgical Group NV

Angelo & Newton

Argonne National Laboratory

Asahi Kasei America Inc

Avalon Rare Metals Inc

Bal-Co Spa

Barclays Capital

BBA Inc

Boart Longyear E & I Drilling

Bollore

Brgm

Bruce Consultancy

Bureau of Land Management

Byron Capital Markets

Calaway Interests LLC

Camet Metallurgy Inc

Canaccord Adams

Canada Lithium Corporation

Canadian Orebodies

Capital World Investors

Chemetall Foote Corp

Chemetall GmbH

Chemtura Corporation

Chenco GmbH

CIF Mineracao SA

Clearbridge Advisors

CMAI

Cormark Securities

Dajin Res

Defense National Stockpile Center

Electric Metals Inc

Ener1

Enerdel

Enova Systems Inc

Eramet

Eye Management

FCM Lithium Corporation

First Analysis

FMC Corporation - Lithium Division

FMC Lithium

Ford Motor Company

Galaxy Resources Limited

Geological Survey of Japan

GeoXplor Corp

Gilford Securities

GlobeStar Mining Corporation

Hains Engineering Co Ltd

IGC Technologies LLC

Ihor Kunasz

Ilgren Consulting

IMERYS

Industrial Minerals

Institute for the Analysis of Global Security (IAGS)

International Lithium Corp

International Royalty Corporation

Itochu Chemicals America Inc

Itochu Corporation

Japan Oil, Gas & Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC)

JCI USA Inc

Juan Carlos Zuleta

Kay Investment Ltd

Keith Evans

Kodiak

Lanxess Deutschland GmbH

Leverton Clarke

LG International

Li3Energy

Limtech Technologies Inc

Lithea Inc

Lithium Americas Corp

Lithium Corporation

Lithium One Inc

Lomiko Metals Inc

MAC Equipment Inc

Marubeni Corporation

Matamec Explorations Inc

MDB Capital

Minerales Industriales Tubutama

Mitsubishi Corporation

Mitsubishi Corporation Unimetals

Mitsubishi International Corp

Mitsui & Co (USA) Inc

Mitsui & Co Canada Ltd

Mitsui & Co Ltd

MRC Corp

NAATbatt

Nation-E AG

Netzsch-Condux Mahltechnik GmbH

New World Resource Corp

Nordic Mining ASA

North Arrow Minerals Inc

Orocobre Ltd

Owens Corning Co

Pan American Lithium

Panasonic Corporation

Peter W Harben Inc

Pinetree Capital Ltd

Plug in America

Popular Science

Portal Capital LLC

POSCO

PowerOne Capital Markets

Prince Minerals

Reed Resources Ltd

Renault

Renault SAS

Rincon Lithium Ltd

Rio Tinto

Rio Tinto Minerals

Rodinia Minerals

Roskill Information Services Ltd

Salares Lithium Inc

Samsung

SCL

SGS Minerals Services

Simbol Mining Corp

Small Ventures USA

Sojitz Corporation of America

Solmax International

SQM SA

Stephens Investment Management

Sumitomo Corporation

Talison Lithium Limited

Tata Chemicals Ltd

The Doe Run Co

TNR Gold Corporation

Total SA

Toyo Chemicals Co Ltd

Toyota Tsusho Corporation

URS Corporation

US Geological Survey

Ward Chemical Inc

Western Lithium Corporation

http://www.metalbulletin.co.uk/events/1045/Americas/Non-Ferrous/Intro/Lithium-Supply-and-Markets-2010-Conference.html

Time ET	Ex	Price	Change	Volume	Buyer	Seller	Markers
15:42:02	V	0.16	0.00	500	9 BMO Nesbitt	85 Scotia	K
15:39:01	V	0.16	0.00	500	9 BMO Nesbitt	85 Scotia	K
15:36:01	V	0.16	0.00	500	9 BMO Nesbitt	85 Scotia	K
15:33:01	V	0.16	0.00	500	9 BMO Nesbitt	85 Scotia	K
15:30:01	V	0.16	0.00	500	9 BMO Nesbitt	85 Scotia	K
15:27:01	V	0.16	0.00	500	9 BMO Nesbitt	85 Scotia	K
15:24:00	V	0.16	0.00	500	9 BMO Nesbitt	85 Scotia	K
15:21:06	V	0.16	0.00	500	9 BMO Nesbitt	85 Scotia	K
15:18:04	V	0.16	0.00	500	9 BMO Nesbitt	85 Scotia	K
15:15:04	V	0.16	0.00	500	9 BMO Nesbitt	85 Scotia

CIBC Junior Copper Rankings
Company	Ticker	CIBC Junior Copper Score	Market Cap ($-mln.)	Overall Ranking	Strategic Partnership
Duluth Metals Ltd	DM-T	4.95	218	1	Antofagasta has 40% interest in Nokomis
PolyMet Mining Corp	POM-T	6.75	225	2	Glencore owns 6.3% and Cliffs Natural Resources owns 6.1%
Western Copper Corp	WRN-T	7.65	105	3
Terrane Metals Corp	TRX-X	7.85	639	4	Proposed acquisition by Thompson Creek Metals
Augusta Resource Corp	AZC-T	8.75	360	5	HudBay owns 11% (13.6% fully diluted)
Antares Minerals Inc	ANM-X	9.55	251	6
Far West Mining Ltd	FWM-T	9.85	273	7	Quadra FNX owns 7.9% (14.64% fully diluted)
Copper Fox Metals Inc	CUU-X	10.05	211	8
Minera Andes Inc	MAI-T	10.85	262	9
Nevada Copper Corp	NCU-T	10.95	165	10	Capstone owns 11.1% (14.4% fully diluted)
Coro Mining Corp	COP-T	11.55	57	11
Redhawk Resources Inc	RDK-X	11.65	49	12
Candente Resource Corp	CDG-T	12.65	35	13
Baja Mining Corp	BAJ-T	13.55	136	14	25% partner on Boleo with a consortium of South Korean companie

Pan American Lithium Corp. (PL)						As of April 7th, 2010
Filing Date	Transaction Date	Insider Name	Ownership Type	Securities	Nature of transaction	# or value acquired or disposed of	Unit Price
Mar 10/10	Mar 10/10	Minni, Jerry Anthony	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-5,000	.780
Mar 10/10	Mar 10/10	Minni, Jerry Anthony	Indirect Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-5,000	.800
Mar 10/10	Mar 10/10	Minni, Jerry Anthony	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000	.800
Mar 10/10	Mar 10/10	Minni, Jerry Anthony	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000	.800
Mar 10/10	Mar 10/10	Minni, Jerry Anthony	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-3,000	.800
Mar 10/10	Mar 10/10	Minni, Jerry Anthony	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-7,000	.810
Mar 09/10	Mar 09/10	Minni, Jerry Anthony	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-10,000	.780
Mar 09/10	Mar 09/10	Minni, Jerry Anthony	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-5,000	.800
Mar 09/10	Mar 09/10	Minni, Jerry Anthony	Direct Ownership	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-5,000	.800
Mar 09/10	Mar 08/10	Minni, Jerry Anthony	Control or Direction	Common Shares	10 - Disposition in the public market	-15,000	.770