Scandium, Cobalt, and Water Purification: CleanTeQ HoldingsA Microcap Teaser Solution In Advance !!
(Australian stock exchange CLQ, OTC pinks CTEQF).
CleanTeQ is sure to be the answer to future teasers you will be reading about from resource gurus, To save you all the trouble of solving them, I decided to write this article.
My portfolio was grotesquely overweight in gold and silver positions, and in moments of anxiety I thought it would be a good idea to diversify and take a few positions in something other than gold mines, royalty companies, Mongolian exploration companies, and small-cap copper miners with major operations in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Thus I made a small speculation in CleanTeQ, solely on the basis that mining titan Robert Friedland was the Chairman, and CleanTeQ was the only resource company I could find that seemed to be in a position to mine scandium, a very rare metal that sells for a couple of thousand dollars a kilo.
My due diligence was so slight that I was embarrassed to emphasize my position to the readers at Stock Gumshoe. We are supposed to study these things a little more than I did for CleanTeQ. And after entering at 50 cents, the stock promptly dropped to 35 cents or so, making me glad that I did not look foolish by publicizing my position.
As the weeks went by, I started to find more information on the company that I should have found out beforehand. This was partly accidental, partly from other Gumshoe readers, and partly from new announcements and company news that occurred after I took a position. But the findings were all very positive, and because the company is so interesting I thought it warranted its own thread apart from the hard asset thread which I moderate.
I have a full long position and high hopes. And I thank Secretsquirrel, Griffin, Larry McKenna, and several others who helped fill in the missing pieces of the puzzle.
Below are my findings, opinions, and summary on CleanTeQ Holdings:
BUSINESS MODEL CleanTeQ is a hybrid company based with three bases: scandium mining and production, cobalt mining and production, and water purification. This seems like an odd combination, but as you will see, it is not. It is a stroke of genius. And I will explain why we should care about scandium and cobalt.
(1) The company is starting production of the Syerston mine, the world’s only scandium mine;
(2) The company will also produce significant amounts of cobalt as a co-product to the scandium;
(3) The company has a large-scale water purification technology, which will target municipalities,
Industrial operations with waste water problems, and mines, which also have water problems
PROSPECTS FOR THE THREE SEGMENTS
(1) Scandium is a very rare metal that usually occurs in only small amounts that are not economical to mine. It is mostly available as a by-product and the market is opaque, usually between private parties. Scandium has very beneficial applications in aerospace, aviation, and technology, but has not been widely applied because there is not a sufficiently reliable supply of it.
(2) Cobalt is essential in many batteries. Lithium gets all the investment press, but a majority of the battery formulations need cobalt, which is rare compared to lithium. Cobalt has a similar supply situation as scandium, it is mostly a by-product and is not commonly a prime mining target in and of itself. But demand for the electric energy market is growing rapidly and cobalt demand is growing and will continue to grow accordingly. Supply chains on cobalt are iffy.
(3) Water purification is a pressing need throughout the world. Cities with lots of people, industrialized places with lots of factories, or mines with waste water, all have a real and pressing need for large scale water purification. I think most people can accept this premise of widespread demand without a lot of documentation.
HOW DO THESE SEGMENTS RELATE TO EACH OTHER ? I cannot get too technical about the water purification technology, but I will try to explain what I understand, and how it relates to the scandium and cobalt operations. They call it Continuous Flow Ionization. Ionization is not a proprietary technology per se, but CleanTeQ has developed a way to implement ionization in a continuous feed, automated loop that improves volume, improves economics, is reasonably priced for installation, and can be custom-modified to specific waste problems. It can be used in conjunction with other filtration techniques. Further, it can be modified TO EXTRACT CERTAIN SUBSTANCES from the feed waste water. This is done by modifying the resins that are used in the ionization process.
Now it so happens that CleanTeQ has developed resins that can extract scandium and cobalt from waste water. So they potentially will have commercial sources of rare metals from the by-product waste of their water purification process !
HOW CLOSE IS THE WATER THING TO REALLY HAPPENING ? It is happening. CleanTeQ has signed a memorandum of understanding with a major Chinese municipality to implement their technology. There is a joint venture, 55% Chinese/45% CleanTeQ. Once the first one is up and working, China has a mind-boggling potential for water purification. For their teeming urban centers and for their mining and industrial locations, shall we say the potential is very large ?
CleanTeQ has 100% of rest of the world. CleanTeQ is closed-mouthed about other commercial sources, but they let on that they have been in contact with the likes of GE, Dow, and other big hitters. They state a pipeline target of $100 million by 2020; I predict they will do much better.
HOW CLOSE IS THE COBALT THING TO REALLY HAPPENING ? Very close. Battery useage is soaring and is the strategic target of many governments, corporations, and environmental groups. Batteries need cobalt.
HOW CLOSE IS THE SCANDIUM THING FROM HAPPENING ? This will take a while because the applications are high tech, with long lead times, and there is only one scandium mine in the world (CleanTeQ’s newly commissioned Syerston mine). CleanTeQ intends to develop the scandium market by being a reliable source of supply, and by driving the price down.
CleanTeQ will have viable margins with scandium prices up to half of current prices.
To give you an idea, the Russians made a few MIGs with scandium/aluminum alloys. They were faster, lighter, stronger. An addition of 0.5% scandium to aviation aluminum strengthens the frame, removes the need for riveting, reduces weight, and makes repairs easier. . The Russians dropped it because of costs; and Boeing and Airbus will not use it without a reliable source of supply. But there is about to be a reliable source of supply: CleanTeQ.
WHAT ABOUT IP PROTECTION ? I believe the IP and know-how moat is sufficient. CleanTeQ holds a perpetual license from a high-level Russian research organization that provided some of the foundation technology. I am not a patent lawyer and a lot of the know-how will be proprietary, not patented. CleanTeQ has been at this for over ten years, I think the barriers to entry are sufficient.
MANAGEMENT Totally a plus. Robert Friedland is the Co-Chairman and CEO, he has 20% of the company, great credibility and clout with the Chinese, and an unbelievable track record in mining. Sam Reggall is the other co-chairman. I know little about him, other than from my observations of him on an Australian investment show that aired last week. He was impressive.
MONEY AND FINANCES I don’t think there is anything at all to worry about. Friedland must be worth billions, the Chinese are in, and the concept has enormous potential.
Sources: as I mentioned, information is scant. My sources were the CleanTeQ website, presentations and and interviews with Friedland and Reggall, and the sketchy information on the brokerage sites. Nothing you cannot find on your own.
Long CleanTeQ
This is a discussion topic or guest posting submitted by a Stock Gumshoe reader. The content has not been edited or reviewed by Stock Gumshoe, and any opinions expressed are those of the author alone.
$GEMC on TSX (np)
Global Energy Metals Corp.
https://www.globalenergymetals.com/
I am looking for under the radar cobalt speculations and came across this company. I was wondering if anyone else has looked at the company.
They have interest in two cobalt properties, one in Australia (Queensland — north of Syerston) and one in Canada. The initial cobalt grades look promising to this novice but not extremely large.
What is intriguing to me is they have a strategic partnership with Beijing Easpring, the same company to which CleanTeq is partnered.
The stock is only $.10 on TSX with a market cap of only $3.8 million.
Any thoughts?
michmana…nice bones on GEMC…grades, jurisdiction, nice resumes for the management. But note that the Easpring agreement is a “co-operation” agreement. Not sure what that means. But it’s a long way away from an “off-take” agreement.
To do basic studies , they have to raise about twice their current market cap.
Very prospective, long time away from producing anything; but with such a low market cap, there is a clearly chance of pretty good upside. But it is also clear they have to raise a lot of money to move forward.
No opinion on the stock, other than it is very cheap in a good jurisdiction and a hot product.
ARRRF ARRRF. On 30th day anniversary of my purchase, looks like a double. Good dog. Ardea going parabolic in OZ action right now. Australian cobalt was a no brainer, and reaping the rewards. Long CTEQF, ARRRF, PTNUF. All doubles and just getting started.
Cleanteq, uranium, and gold…one interesting detail has emerged from various sources about Cleanteq’s technology.
A great deal of the intellectual property and know-how came from a Russian research group, from which Friedland has a world-wide license outside of Russia.
The technology was applied in Russia with an emphasis in gold and uranium extraction.
These two materials have been specifically mentioned by Cleanteq as targets for near-term agreements with unspecified producers, with “at least one of the two” expected to have a deal consummated in coming months.
**
I am pretty sure the gold negotiation is with American Barrick, specifically the Porgera mine in PNG.
I am not as comfortable making a prediction on the uranium producer. It could be Goviex, which is managed by his son and already has a relationship with HPX; or it could be Cameco, who is the elephant in the uranium space; or it could be a small cap prospector with big potential that Friedland could take over, like he did with Sama; or it could be a French company, as Friedland has connections with the French defense ministry from his work on I-pulse. In any case it does not strike me as urgent, given the current price of uranium.
**
I am a little surprised that a deal with the Kipushi mine is not already announced. They have a pile of tailings containing zinc, silver, lead, and germanium that has been built up since 1924, and Friedland is in control of both ends.
Maybe it’s politcal uncertainty…God knows Friedland has enough riding on the DRC as it is. I can understand it if he is holding off for that reason.
My guess is that a lot of the planning is already done, and at an opportune moment the deal will be announced with an astonishingly short lead time to operations.
Australia…with everyone stampeding to buy Australian real estate it is hard to see the Aussie dollar not going up.
Right now my shopping list has a distinct “down under” accent:
Novo, Oz Mines and more Platina are at the head of the list.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=fV12pcyDJAQ
Wow.
Blueprints on the table. Ready to go.
CLQ – Just a reminder who’s the boss
Yes. Cleanteq is The Boss. Easy to get distracted.
Thanks rubberworm,
Looking awesome, Thunder Birds are GO – EOM.
Cleanteq presentation…hard to digest the full import of this.
Besides having everything planned, the plant itself is going to be a technical marvel using Clean-iX methods…and it will be fully automated and scaleable, to boot. It is going to be revolutionary, a living example of the efficiency and advantages of Cleanteq’s extraction methods.
Cleanteq is going to be the most amazing company we have ever seen in the mining sector. They are going to be installing these things all over the place. And not just for cobalt and nickel and scandium…gold and uranium are on deck.
It’s going to be an unreal ride. Long Cleanteq.
CLEANTEQ IS THE BOSS
Some time back (I can’t remember when), having read all of your posts, I decided CleanTeq was a long term holding for me and possibly a legacy stock. Ivanhoe probably would be too, if it were located somewhere other than DRC (but I have no plans to reduce my position in it either).
One has to keep reminding oneself. It’s going to be a long day, and we are only at “Sunrise”.
deanbob, you can console yourself by remembering that Ivan has the Platreefs project in South Africa, which all by itself is worth more than Ivanhoe’s market cap. Not that South Africa is a Garden of Eden, either; but it’s not in the DRC.
$CLQ $CTEQF Cleanteq…well, I was a dumsh&t. But I’m learning fast and recovered.
Yesterday I told my broker to violate Rule #1…DON’T SELL ANY CLEANTEQ.
Accordingly a slice of CTEQF was sold off to fund my crazy speculations on BC developers who can’t get assays published and a Botswanian diamond prospector.
I came to my senses last night and realized I should sell off anything else. Anything but Cleanteq. So early this morning, I told her to buy back the amount sold plus another few thousand shares on the opening. I even sold some gold and silver stocks to fund it.
Net result: I lost 6 cents on a few thousand shares. But wouldn’t you know it, Cleanteq is up a dime this morning. And I am more diversified than before.
The fact is, Cleanteq and Ivanhoe have done way better for me that the average gold or silver stock speculation.
I’m not making that mistake again !
Just a friendly reminder from my recent experience:
If you get the urge to sell Cleanteq, resist and do the opposite. Buy it.
Urges to sell are subconscious, self-defeating impulses that are detrimental to the size of your portfolio.
Hey Guys, I randomly found the Gumshoe site a few weeks back while searching for a “next Amazon” or “next Netflix” or something the Motley Fool was touting. I came across Nuzzy’s CleanTeQ article and it resonated. Everything makes sense. Comparatively, I may be considered late to the party as many of you are in at well below $.50/share. I bought in a few weeks ago and again the other day. I think I average in at $1.22. Not 20 minutes ago, Clark Howard was on the ratio talking about the death of the gas engine. Volvo with a 2 year plan for no gas engines. All electrics. China mandate for all electrics. GM, Ford, Chrysler to follow suit with 2/3 electrics within 10 years. All of this benefits CleanTeQ. While I may be late comparatively to the folks on this thread, I think I am early as far as the mainstream public. When these types of things start hitting the Clark Howard show, they are starting to go main. That being said, where do you think CleanTeQ sits (share price) a year from now, 5 years from now, 10 years from now. I know Nuzzy stated that he had a gut feeling of $3/share in the near term, but where do you guys think it goes from there?
Gumdaddy…welcome !
We can’t control the moment when we notice an opportunity. You are still early, the company is listing on the TSX within the month.
As far as the future, I suggest you do not put a price target. The company is so dynamic, many things could occur that will enlarge its potential.
Suppose you put a price target of $5. Honestly, this target is achievable in 12 months just with cobalt supply and water purification. So you sell off with a three-bagger in twelve months. You will make a few bucks and be proud of yourself.
But then let’s suppose cobalt goes to $60 a pound, nickel hits $15, and scandium applications start up with Boeing, Airbus, and Lockheed. Cleanteq gets water purification contracts for Calcutta, Beijing, and the Yangtse River basin, and they open up six virtual mines extracting PGMs and PMs from waste piles and tailings sites at the world’s largest historical copper, zinc, gold, and uranium mines, and contracts everywhere to clean up coal ash and oilfields from which they will extract rare metals. They get the rights for virtually nothing and are JVs on the projects. On the mining clean-ups, they may even GET PAID for the rehabilitation work. Negative capex and slam-dunk cash flow FOR DECADES.
In that case, you won’t be so proud of yourself for selling at $5, because the stock could go to $50.
Don’t laugh. I worked for a guy who had a pile of Apple at 10 cents.
It can happen. Just buy as much as you can it for you grandkids and see what develops.
Thanks Nuz. That’s what I was kinda looking for. Considering construction doesn’t even begin until 2018, I bought with the intent on keeping for at least a few years. I cant help get excited about all the chatter on here and what the stock price has already done. I appreciate all of your input on this company. Its been a real eye opener. I’ll be buying more in the coming week.
This is a stock like we have never seen…in our portfolios, at least.
HN, for the tree to grow in a ruley fashion, it needs to be skillfully trimmed. Then you can enjoy some seasonal fruits, while the tree continues to grow strong. Growth spurts lead to secretion of oxytocin, the love hormone. It makes you want to buy more, regret not loving it more from the start, but strategically that is a losing play IMO. Buy at the bottom, and trim at various strategic points when it breaks out. I am a firm believer in flexible targets. I have trim targets on all my holdings, but will adjust them based on conditions on the ground. Chasing is a path to losses. If i miss something, i miss it. Other opportunities will present themselves.
Gumdaddy my projections are very conservative, and it could easily happen much quicker. But I tend to be accurate, because I don’t wear rose colored glasses, but an electron microscope. I like its chances to hit CTEQF 2 in 2018, and 4 by the end of 2020. My buy in was 62 cents, at 2 I can trim 30%, recoup my capital, and what is left is free shares 2.3 times my original buy in. At 4, I cash in a huge sum of money, and still have 2 times the value in shares as my original buy in. This is how I roll.
Renby, your method is completely valid; Hedy1234 likes to sell 50% of a position when it doubles; and there are other methods, depending on one’s temperment and objectives.
For myself, I am near a double on Cleanteq. My initial entry was
around 50 cents, and I have added on the way up. My average is around 70 cents. But I do not think I am interested in selling half when we get to $1.40. Even on a spike upwards, I might sell a little and buy back.
The main issue for me is that I think it is the best investment I can make. I see nothing else that makes me as comfortable in terms of risk and reward near current prices. When I see other comparable opportunities, and there have been realizations of intermediate objectives, like off-takes, construction,new installations, JVs on mine waste, financing, etc., then I will consider the options and my position.
Right now I am doubled in all 3 of my australian cobalt/nickel/scandium plays, in 10,4 and 1 month respectively. I could sell half of all of that, and what an unbelievable victory for me to have created a whole portfolio of billions in the ground high demand minerals in a perfect jurisdiction, and paid for it entirely with other peoples money. But I have made an executive decision that pulling anything out now is premature at this point. We are in the 3rd or 4th inning of this cycle. So my targets are more in the realm of let it triple, trim 30%. This will significantly increase the value of my free holdings. We are a few months ahead of where I projected we’d be price wise, 2 is a HUGE target for me, once we hit that, the Cage Empire will have significantly expanded.
renbycage,
I found that very interesting, as one thing I do not have is any planned strategy. I tend to buy and hold as long as it’s going north. Not good really as should trim or take something off the table as you say.
Of my 3 Australian plays 2 are up just over double, but with AUZ it’s 8 times as I got in very early.
I like the idea of free riding as you say, always good to have funds in the bank for other projects or to put away. However I still think the 3 Australian ones have a long way to go yet and I tend to pick for long term. Trading is not me.
Yes Renby, I read earlier, one of your financial projections/analyses on here, which I found to be astoundingly thorough. You clearly have a knack for that. I am wondering if you might consider doing something, say quarterly, for all of us less than technical folks here on the forum. Also, I am wondering if you might recommend a book on how to perform stock analysis/projection, ect. Thanks again.
Here’s a brand new Clean Teq video for all the fans!
Better than porn, if you ask me!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=fV12pcyDJAQ
Studying the process plant inthe video reminds me of something that RF said in his Lifetime Achievement Award interview in London ( see link below for another long listen).
He mentioned that mineral separation would soon no longer be done by milling and crushing, but by electromagnetic separation, saving massive amounts of energy and money. I wonder if he has some of this technology lined up for the initial stages of processing and separating the ore at Sunrise?
Set aside some time for an inspiring listen to Robert, our guru:
https://soundcloud.com/northern-miner/episode-70-the-unabridged-robert-friedland-sessions
Shavian, we don’t now when or how the I-Pulse technology will be applied.
One comment RF made was that it is very appropriate for diamond mining, because a lot of the larger, higher quality diamonds are broken in traditional rock-bashing methods. Like 20% of the value is lost.
He said, paraphrasing, “The surrounding rock is melted and you can pick out the diamonds like strawberries sitting in a puddle.”
There was also mention of very deep shaft penetrations to reach large underground deposits. Makes you wonder if the I-pulse might help dig super-deep tunnels.
There is a lot of implementation in front of us just on Clean i-X. We will have to wait and see about I-Pulse. And there aren’t any obvious ways to invest in it yet, either. Just have to keep an eye on The Master.
Another RF comment:
“Our concept of “What is ore?” is going to be completely changed. The old concepts of “cut-off grades” is going to be obsolete.”
Get the picture ?
Shavian, my impression is that the ore at Sunrise is pretty friable and loose. They don’t need to blast. The I-Pulse electro-zappers will likely be better applied to hard-rock deposits.
Just amateur guesswork.
My favorite RF quote:
I posted this a while back, but it bears repeating because we have a lot of new followers.
At a conference in Africa, RF had the stage and was making a slide presentation on Cleanteq. He said, paraphrasing:
“Everyone is always looking for a stock tip. Well, I am giving you
a stock tip: BUY CLEANTEQ !”
Everybody laughed. But I went out and bought Cleanteq.
Cleanteq presentation…watch with full attention and a magnifying glass !
1. I think Cleanteq is capable of developing scandium demand and application on their own. If you pay attention in the scandium section, they have an animated schematic showing the scan-alu application in heavy mine equipment !
My conclusion is that when they start getting contract installations, they will start using scandium/alu in their own mine processing equipment contracts !! Nothing like having your customers pay for developing your own mineral deposit and industrial applications !
2. Sunrise construction starts in 2018
3. In the animation and 3-D virtuals, I could not see the autoclaves. They are too large not to be noticeable in the virtuals. I have emailed IR to find out why they are not visible. They are the size of submarines, there are two of them, and they should have been visible in the models.
4. The plant is fully automated and scaleable. The plans are already done and they will use all proprietary processing. They are going to come in with killer low operating costs. They are going to sell mining processing plants like crazy.
This link was posted by rubberworm and chriz, everyone interested should see it
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=1&v=fV12pcyDJAQ
Cleanteq heavy mining equipment: the thought occurs, that they have Multotec as their African distributor. They can place a lot of lightweight ball crushers and other efficient, strong mining gear if scandium alloys are applicable.
Think. about it. Aluminum is cheap, and they get the scandium for nothing as a by-product from Sunrise, and they have Chinese manufacturing connections. They can make a lot of curved scandium alloy plate for their silos and U-shaped Clean i-X tubes before they start selling scandium to Airbus to make big tubes that fly.
In the recent video, Riggall said that some of the alloys are as strong as steel.
In the Sunrise factory animation, there’s a lot of large cylindrical metal objects. Wonder what they will be made out of.
Take a look starting at 0:40 seconds
Autoclaves…they are there, IR told me where to look. They are underneath the decking in the HPAL circuit. The vertical view of the 3D animation obscures them but they are BOTH there…each with a 2.5 million ton per year capacity…. which happens to be TWICE the stated PFS target.
Sure would be a shame to have twice the capacity you planned for originally, wouldn’t it ? Don’t worry, they will be able to ” increase the residence time of the solution, which will improve recoveries.” Yeah. Right. Get those recoveries up from 94.2% to 95.3%, instead of doubling production.
Can’t let that autoclave capacity go to waste.
Right now they are approved for 2.5. I see a few possibilities. They could seek and hopefully obtain approval to double up to 5. They can buy out a neighbor who may have an approval they could take over. They could work a deal to process for a neighbor who may have an approval. With all of the ore in the vicinity, we agree it doesn’t make sense to let that capacity go to waste, so there is this potential growth in capacity that could be brought on line at any time. But expect the upcoming DFS to be modeled at 2.5Mtpa throughput.
$ARL – Extensive scandium mineralisation
confirmed in re-assay of historic drilling at
Goongarrie South
https://www.ardearesources.com.au/downloads/announcements/arl_2017111001.pdf
First-pass resampling of historic pulps reveals extensive scandium
throughout the focus area of initial mining at the KNP Cobalt Zone
ARRRF !
CLQ (long)
Here is a link to a good annotated map that specifies the relative physical locations of CLQ’s Sunrise and neighboring claim sites (including $AUZ/Australian Mines and $PGM/ Platina).
https://hotcopper.com.au/attachments/b717c831-2692-46e9-8ec6-3385435fc639-jpeg.821148/
BTL…I really have a hard time imagining new processing installations being built on the adjoining real estate to Sunrise and competing with Cleanteq. I suppose someone might want to do it, but the head start and presence of such a well-thought out, technically advanced and efficient competitor a stone’s throw away make the prospect pretty daunting.
And you have to compete with you-know-who every step of the way, for labor, customers, for pricing, everything. They can do it faster, better, and cheaper than you can. What are you going to add ? Where is your advantage ? How can you deliver a competitive return on capital ?
How do you expect to compete with Cleanteq ?
The capital and time advantage of the Sunrise project is going to make it pretty tough. I’m not saying it can’t be done; I’m just saying, it is not an attractive proposition. In my view, the presence of Cleanteq makes the other nearby properties good for mineral reserves and not much else. They are better off selling out to Cleanteq at a good price, assuming Cleanteq is interested.
I can understand it if you say, “The commodity in my ground is valuable and my claim is worth money.” But that is a lot different than persuading someone to invest half a billion dollars to build a plant that has to compete directly with Sunrise. Personally, I would not be interested in investing in a direct competitor anywhere close to Sunrise.
Just my opinion.
I don’t know the facts but if I recall right CLQ has water rights…does the adjoining real estate ?
$AUZ – H20: Water licence secured for Flemington Cobalt-Scandium-Nickel Project, New South Wales https://australianmines.com.au/pdf/water-licence-secured-for-flemington-cobalt-scandium-nickel-project.pdf
Thanks
Cleanteq had a little bit of a water problem so they got a borefield 60 km away
But hotcopper says AUZ own half of the Syerston deposit???
AUZ has half, Platina has half, and CLQ has half.
I know that’s three halves, but it is a big deposit !
The deposit is tremendous. But here is the important score:
Cleanteq 2 autoclaves on hand
AUZ 0 autoclaves, 0 on order, 3 year wait
Platina 0 autoclaves 0 on order, 3 year wait
The map to me looks like CLQ has 90% PGM 9% and AUZ 1%
It is the geolite layer over the dunite that is mineralised with Co and Ni – not the tout.
It depends on whose figures and which class of resource at what cutoff you want to use.
I will stick to historical pre 2000 black range maps not AUZ cartoons
CLQ has 1300 drill holes to back up their resource claims. Whatever they will claim as figures will have more credibility than a claim of resources not accompanied with comparable work.
On the other hand I am not skeptical about PGM and AUZ having big mineral resources of the same type.
No one is challenging the idea that the deposit runs onto all three claims. It’s just that Cleanteq has done more work on theirs, and thus can make stronger assertions about their deposit.
$CTEQF $CLQ More thoughts on competitors near Flemington…I could be completely wrong about this, but here is another angle on why I believe it is not going to be feasible to build another processing plant next to Sunrise.
Suppose there are two gold claims adjacent to each other, Miner A and Miner B. They each have gold in them, but Miner A finds his gold first, and gets the money to build a mine. This does not matter so much to Miner B. He will still get the money to make the mine, as long as he can persuade somebody that the gold is really there. The fact that Miner B is late, and the fact that Miner A is next to him, doesn’t matter very much, because both are using the same technology to produce a universally demanded, metallurgically simple product that has very high value.
If Miner B gets gold nuggets or smelts gold, he is on a close par to Miner B as far as
costs and product are concerned.
This seems roughly analogous to the situation at Sunrise, where we have Miner C, Miner P, and Miner Z.. But there are some very important differences compared to the gold mining scenario.
First, there is the technology required to produce the target materials. In the case of scandium and cobalt, there are very specific products that must be manufactured to high technical specifications. Cleanteq is not only capable of this, they have deep expertise and a very efficient, proprietary process to accomplish it.
Second, they will be completely vertical, totally automated, and have huge advantages of time and scale. They will have lower initial capex, lower operating costs, higher volume, and more profits than any new competitor. They are also in a position to expropriate new demand by increasing production. This is not the case with the gold miners, who have similar technical and financial starting and end points and are not in a position to have a macro effect on gold prices.
Third, while there may be a large quantitative demand for cobalt sulfate and eventually scandium oxide, a large part of the demand will come from a relatively small set of customers. Miner C will be gaining position and landing contracts
with this subset before Miners P and Z get off the ground. And Miner C can make contract terms very favorable so as to disadvantage Miners P and Z.
In the case of scandium, Miner C is really in the driver’s seat, because they are
way, way ahead on the technical and client side of things. They also have a built-in way to develop their own market for scandium, insofar as they have manufacturing
muscle in China, a distributor in Africa, and a pre-existing relationship with the most important auto and aerospace manufacturers in Europe. I suggest that Cleanteq could actually use an amount of scandium equal to world useage, just by finding applications for scan-alu alloys in the mining business. Miner C will be in a position to influence the cost of scandium oxide, and is The Boss because they have lower costs than Miner P or Z.
**
I am not saying a competitor in NSW is an impossibility. But anyone pushing through a project there will have to attract capital to what will be an inherently and substantially less profitable enterprise than the one at Sunrise. Of course, they may do so.
Competitors P and Z can puff and point, and say “Me too!”
But this situation has important differences compared to adjoining claims in base metals or gold or silver. A donkey can follow a cow and can bellow and bray, and say “Look at me. I’m a cow ! I have four legs, I’m a large mammal, and I eat grass !”
But the cow gives milk, the donkey does not. The donkey is not a cow, even though someone who has never seen either one might be fooled into thinking the donkey is a cow, and the donkey is braying loudly that he is a cow, too.
**
As usual, I could be wrong about this. But I want milk and cheese. I don’t want to make a mistake and find out later that I bought a donkey instead of a cow.
The situation at Metallis and Garibaldi is like the gold miners. they share a deposit, and when it comes to development and selling product, they will be on relatively
equal footing. They will use comparable equipment and methods. Neither will have a distinct competitive advantage, and neither one is in a position to control the macro environment for their products. They will both be viable. The differences are minor…one will have a larger deposit or slightly more favorable infrastructure.
But from an overall viewpoint, they are equivalent.
But suppose one of them had proprietary, more efficient processing, lower inherent costs, proven access to capital, a three year lead time advantage; and in addition, the product was complex to manufacture and the client base was specialized; and that one of them had a proven relationship with the major customers, and an offtake agreement for 20% of their production. And on one of the products, the mine with the advantage was in position to control the price of the commodity and modify its production up or down at will.
Which one would you go with ?
CLQ is clearly at the front and the more one reads and sees the potential it will be very hard if not impossible for the other 2 in any way to catch up.
I also believe at this point that AUZ’s plans are to definitely become a mine for their 3 sites, 2 x oversubscribed recent PP with their presentations for the recent road shows in Hong Kong, UK and the States only confirm their intention.
PGM is the likely contender for a buy out by CLQ as discussed here previously.
Unless of course CLQ decides to own all 3 for reasons of their larger plan?
I’ve got all 3 covered, so whatever happens it’s all good.
I see things differently. I don’t see Ardea, Platina, or AUZ as having to worry at all about cleanteq as a competition when it comes to cobalt and nickel. Scandium is a different story, but that is an issue for the future. When it comes to cobalt and nickel sulphate, any OZ company that can produce it will be able to sell it. By the time any of those other companies comes to production, Cleanteq will be practically sold out, and with the music playing, any car or battery company without a seat to the cobalt factory will be desperately hankering for available deals. Sales will be a certainty, the only unknown is price, and that is likely to do nothing but go up. That the world is still pricing companies that own billions in high grade cobalt and nickel in the double digit millions,this is an opportunity for schmucks like us to make some money. I’d say Cleanteq is getting fairly close to fair price on just cobalt and nickel alone [giving us great upsides on all their other opportunities and leverage to cobalt and nickel price], but Ardea, the most conservative market cap I can put on them is 2.5 times greater then its present one. And Platina, at their market cap, if they can come up with a cobalt update that is in the same ballpark as everybody elses in the neighborhood, they could easily go on a run exactly like Auz just went on, that was a 5Xer or even more now. A lot of smart fresh Auz money now going into these other companies. So money to be made all around in this sector, I think we are in either the 3rd or 4th inning, so not even half way thru. I’m holding everything.
Renby, I agree that the other companies ARRRF AUZ PTNUF etc
are excellent speculations. And I agree that now is the time to be in them, if you were not in them yesterday.
I just mean to emphasize that I think they are pretty far behind on actually producing anything, and that as production investments they will not be as attractive as Cleanteq.
You are more evolved in your conviction on cobalt than I am; and as a matter of fact, I followed you into the sector. Your approach to cobalt is like my approach to junior miners. You are wider. But I am inching along towards your point of view.
I had not considered the value of Scandium to the mining industry itself.
When you elevate weight/mass you pay a huge penalty in energy costs and that is readily apparent in aircraft where cutting weight also further cuts the weight of fuel needed in flight and gives much more payload capacity.
In the huge mining dump trucks every tonne saved means a tonne more ore hauled per trip and in todays giant pit mines climbing up from the bottom burns great amounts of fuel. That is where the strength and rigidity combined with low weight can truly shine in mining. IMO
Long CleanTeQ.
Correct, I hadn’t thought of it either until they banged me over the head at 40 seconds into the last video
I’ll bet clq will by itself double world consumption of scandium Ins two years
I’ll bet clq will by itself double world consumption of scandium in two years
Hey guys,
It has been a lovely time sitting by and idly watching the Cleanteq river steadily flow since my entry at 0.8 at the behest of all of the contributions made here by you all. Special thanks to HN, renby and secretsquirrel.
Moving from there, I was hoping to fling out the proverbial line for some bites of wisdom with regards to Vanadium plays. My interest comes from having listened to you all, our guru Robert Friedland, and summary pieces across the internet such as this recent blog post brainstorming the future of the Vanadium market.
https://klendathucapitalist.com/2017/11/08/vanadium-the-next-commodity-youll-pretend-to-know-everything-about/
I only know of two pure Vanadium producing plays at the moment. The first being Largo Resources Ltd and its Maracás Menchen Mine. An attractive proposition purely on the basis of Vanadium itself, but in lieu of the company’s current leverage and market cap, it is an altogether less shiny prospect.
http://www.largoresources.com/
Beyond Largo I also happen to know that Ferro-Alloy Resources Group are looking to conduct a London IPO in the near future – which is one to keep eyes on. Ferro-Alloy Resources Group mines and processes vanadium at the Balasausqandiq vanadium deposit in Kyzylordinskay oblast of southern Kazakhstan. Lots of great slides jam packed into their original KASE listing presentation, here:
http://www.ferro-alloy.com/upload/static/presentations-other/en/FAR_investor_presentation_ENG.pdf
Of particular interest is the low capex cost for Ferro’s mine. The deposit is not comprised of vanadiferous titano-magnetite and is therefore easier to extract and process. Further – though it seems every miner has ‘proprietary extraction methods’ these days – their extraction technology enables vanadium and uranium recovery of over 90%. Estimated resource base is 870,000 tonnes vanadium at 0.67% grade / 5,586,000 tonnes aluminium at 4.3% / 12,000 tonnes uranium at 0.009%. Strong balance sheet relative to Largo, minimal debt. Financing shouldn’t be a problem if their economics check out even moderately distant to what they claim they are. 46%~ of outstanding shares is held by management currently. Citadel 13.9% and my canny Scottish compatriots from Baillie Gifford are early shareholders at 3.5%.
http://www.ferro-alloy.com/en/
If anyone has any thoughts/opinions/ideas on these two I would love and appreciate hearing from them, and even more so if anyone knows of any other vanadium plays. I know it is not revolutionary thinking around here to say that vanadium is the next big metal play in relation to battery technology and its use in strengthening steel and aluminum so I won’t prattle on in that regard. But without any ETFs or a futures market right now, one has to buy vanadium producing companies.
TIA all
Hi Coyote,
I suspect that Friedland’s announced interest in two Chinese coal plants has to do with clean-up AND trace mineral extraction. Friedland is also a shareholder in Pu Neng, a tech leader in vanadium redox. Vanadium is a listed extraction target for Cleanteq. So I am not going much farther to look for microcap metal plays, especially in vanadium, where I think Friedland is way ahead of everybody and just hasn’t shown his hand yet.. For the time being, Cleanteq will float my boat when it comes to rare trace metals, unless something really compelling is presented.
The minerals and technologies are very difficult to follow and the timing of their
preeminence is likewise impossible. So it will be very distracting and dilutive to chase after these trace minerals. Some people may be successful doing so, but I do not feel at all comfortable that I myself will be able to do it. I even had to be dragged into other secondary cobalt prospects, and I would be staying away from graphite had not RF planted a big bulls-eye on Sama. I am not even very interested in lithium. And when it shows up, I will have to do something in uranium.
I do not mean to discourage anyone from looking to capitalize on rare materials; I am just presenting my own assessment and likely action, which is to do not much but maintain my position in Cleanteq, until persuaded otherwise.
Great assessment HN, I keep slipping more and more under the plan with mods. I think there is good cause to follow some of the power in the metals world, RF. McEwen, Sprott, and Rule.
Sprott and Rule have very good principles, they are definitely worth listening to. Rule especially seems to enjoy pontificating at interviews…and honestly I find him very entertaining and educational. Doesn’t pull punches and tells it like it is, though most of the time he will hold back because he does not want to give away his information for free. But you have to be careful, because Rule and Sprott have more investments than we can follow and may talk their own book at times.
IMO, Doug Casey is excellent for general advice, though not necessarily specific picks.
Mcewen has basically one stock to follow;
Friedland maybe half a dozen or so.
Lassonde and Nolan Watson are worth following also.
And I have my eye on Tolga Kumova.
The fact is, all my gains in the last year can be attributed to companies run by the following individuals:
Robert Friedland, Nolan Watson, Robert Quartermain
Ivanhoe and Cleanteq (RF) are my biggest winners…by far.
Sandstorm Gold (NW)took over Mariana Resources, in which I had a big speculative position.
PVG (RQ) was an original gold position
Looking at it this way makes things pretty simple.
GReat names here, are you a fan of Amir adnani of $uec and $gldlf ? I know he is a guy people talk about with Nolan Watson.
On the fence. He has done a lot as an executive building up his company, he is shrewd, but I am not 100% convinced from an investor’s perspective.
Better than neutral. Casey likes him.
Also I like Marin Katusa, from what I have read by him. Not a subscriber or client.
Colorado Resources
http://www.coloradoresources.com/s/NewsReleases.asp?ReportID=806738&_Type=News-Releases&_Title=Colorado-Completes-2017-Drilling-At-KSP-And-Continues-To-Report-High-Grade-…
Inconclusive, nothing really clear yet. More coming.
Long
Yes, I like Amir Adnani but do not have as strong a conviction about him as the others. My only U position is UEC and he is one of the factors.
UEC’s great leverage is the other reason. I have a regular position size in UEC, which I can bear til U308 bull is underway.
I would have to put a huge position on CCJ to capitalize, and U308 pricing is too indeterminate in time frame to put in big money.
Long UEC
**
Tolga Kumova is another guy worth watching. Besides being hyperactive, he is an entertaining personality to follow even though we don’t hear a lot about him.
Long EUC
Would a column on the people in mining make sense/be helpful. I wonder if we could track back any their decisions to conference or events they have attended. It would also require knowing who was at a conference. I’ve been interested the idea of who travels in what circles. Some miners are more interested in Gold, others Silver, some REEE.
Good idea, but I cannot take it on. Also remember the people will lead to the same stocks we discuss here.
The best thing would be to put a tracking chip and a microphone on Robert Friedland.
**
Pierre Lassonde (founder FNV) is another star worth listening to and keeping track of, but he is semi-retired. Richer than Croesus.
On people, if I cannot have a superstar managing it, then at least I want to be comfortable with the management, and/or have great backers; or be 100% persuaded of the deposit.
Seabridge and ERDCF are in that category; so is Tsodilo.
A few links on AUZ, some which references CLQ.
http://www.nextminingboom.com/auz-emerge-major-developer-key-battery-technology-metals/
https://australianmines.com.au/latest-news
http://www.asx.com.au/asxpdf/20171031/pdf/43nrwj0p54h1t6.pdf
Imitation can be the sincerest form of flattery….
Long CLQ
Long AUZ
Long PGM
Thoughts about Australian cobalt projects
I am long a few other cobalt projects besides Cleanteq.
But I think Cleanteq’s lead in the race is getting longer, not shorter. I think they will be in production by the end of 2020. They are now openly stating that they will break ground “in 2018”, they have shown the blueprint plans in their video. It is all worked out. And it is the number-one priority of the company. You may have noticed, the cash on hand is $62 million, while their feasibility study calls for $60 million on hand contingency . In other words, they are ready to roll, the autoclaves are en route; they have said the new study will not delay construction; they have farmed out for a debt facility. So I say the “rolling timetable” is now fixed for Cleanteq: End of 2020 allows for two years’ construction starting in 2018.
By comparison, every day that goes by for any competitor without an order for long-lead equipment and without a DFS or financing pushes their completion date another day later. So today, it is three years out, at best. Tomorrow, it will be three years from tomorrow, at best . In three months, it will be three years from then, at best. And so on.
These other competitors have valuable assets. Their stock might go up, one might make a lot trading their stocks. Someone might come in and buy them out and build a plant…the Koreans, the Japanese, maybe even the Germans or Americans. But the project will not be as attractive as Sunrise. To me they are real estate commodity plays and should be exited when the real estate is sold off, because the profitability of the finished project will be later, less profitable, and technically inferior to Cleanteq Sunrise.
I think the SP is high for not even having FS done. Put this is no normal project. The have around 60 mil cash and already setting up 375 mil Dept Financing. Also my guess is that they will lead the scanduim market. RF will be pitching to Canada by the end of the month I think. So I think even though SP seems high now it still has legs to go much higher near term. I have heard from Stockdale when Glass was slow getting back to me. Ben said that Glass is working very hard but was getting lots of questions regarding the TSX listing. TSX listing will be interesting.
without $TICKERS, no one on a mobile phone etc know what you are referring to. I know many threads are dedicated but often other tickers are discussed on the thread.
$CTEQF….rubberworm, in my opinion:
The lack of a formal DFS is an advantage to us because it keeps the company off the radar of a lot of big money investors.
The bigs may ignore the company while it has a small cap, and until the formal DFS is done. But we have already seen a 300 page document that shows they are well along to producing a fantastic DFS, and this document was given to the MLA consortium who is going to arrange the debt facility. The DFS is a formality.
The main ingredient missing is that they have to re-do the mineral resource estimates, and the revisions are all going to be on the upside.
The delay in the DFS is by no means going to delay financing or construction. Ten seconds after the DFS they will announce that the debt has been bought. Twenty seconds later they will be breaking ground and telling us that the facility will be operational in late 2020.
It is full speed ahead, even though the DFS is cumbersome to complete and will not be released until “2018”.
The DFS is going to be window dressing when it is published, and the main purpose it will serve is to kick conservative money managers and investors in the ass and make them ask themselves:
“Why didn’t I buy this stock a year ago when it was under $1.00 ?”
HN…. Totally agree and I have further doubled my CleanTeQ holding.
Now, I have the foliowing question.
Ardea’s stock performance in the past four weeks has been stellar. It started behind CleanTeQ, overtook it, and now has taken a substantial lead. On Friday, CleanTeQ’s stock price fell 6c to $1.24 and Ardea’s rose 5c to $1.57 on the OTC. So, I’m wondering why Ardea’s stock has been doing so well. Naturally, I’m happy for both CleanTeQ and Ardea, but I thought CleanTeq held more cards. After all, it has Robert Friedland, an off-take agreement in place, the patented clean technology that gives the company its name, frequent and very polished upbeat presentations, the famous autoclaves, and a likely shorter time frame to production. Ardea, on the other hand, was recently promoted by Casey Research as their Australian junior miner of choice, and by Matt Geiger of Seeking Alpha as his top cobalt optionality play. Ardea has greater in-ground quantities of cobalt and nickel ores, as well as gold and zinc at a second location. Could this explain the difference in performance?
You can argue whether its better to have double the high grade cobalt [cleanteq], or triple the total deposit [Ardea], but Cleanteq has 5 times the market cap. I’d value the deposits equally. Cleanteq is more of a tech company with unlimited opportunities, while Ardea is more limited to their properties. Ardea is a great investment for the next few years, and may do dramatically better then cleanteq in the next 6 months considering how cheap it is. Cleanteq has the potential to be a legacy type company that just keeps on growing with no limits, but its cobalt/nickel is much more priced in to their stock price at present.
Renby…I agree with your assessment. There is really not much to make one prefer one portion of the deposit versus another.
They all have merit.
But of course Cleanteq has many reasons that justify a much, much higher market cap relative to the others. If you focus on the cobalt and nickel, it may make you nervous.
They are going to hit a billion MC with virtually no sales or income. That is a lot; although for the foreseeable future, I have no hesitation about buying more and keeping my entire position.
**
Eager…because I agree with Renby, I would look at the non-CLQ properties and evaluate them according to their intrinsic deposit values, which is subjective, in relation to their market cap.
The recent increases in stock price may look steep, but IMO if you look at market cap, they are easier to justify and may warrant an aggressive position. For example Platina is already near a double in stock price at 16 cents or 18 cents, but the market cap is only $50 million. I think this is still cheap, even though it may be tough psychologically to enter after a sharp rise in stock price.
I agree with Renby, these secondary properties are a bargain if the cobalt wave is half what we expect. I’ve got positions in PTNUF and EUC and want to re-enter ARRRF, but I am reluctant to sell any Cleanteq to do it. I might, but it would be only a small piece.
I think I should get the money out of gold or silver positions, which
means I must have very high conviction on cobalt.
Getting there.
Its more of an intuitive than scientific measurement, but my own assessment is a company like Ardea or Platina, or Auz, if you make the assumption that their properties have somewhat similar deposits as Sunshine, at the present time they should be valued at no less than 25% the value of Cleanteq. I give Cleanteq a lot of points for all the reasons we are all familiar with, and 4 times value is probably over-generous until other parts of their business perk up, but I am in the Cleanteq fan club, so give them the benefit of a lot of assumptions. Relative to the 25% rule, Auz would be over-valued, Ardea would be under-valued, and Platina would be extremely under-valued. I believe Australian investors are all over these market cap differentials [thats all they talk about on all these companies message boards], and smart money is now moving from Auz to Ardea and Platina. I think all of these companies are going to make investors a lot of money, though I have done no DD on Auz, which is now both pricey, and has like a trillion shares out and no mine or money. I am long CTEQF, ARRRF, PTNUF, but 6 times more CTEQF then the other two combined.
Based on my above analysis, my prognostication would be that in the next 3 months, the stocks will appreciate in order of most to least PTNUF [.18], ARRRF [1.57], 3. CTEQF [1.24], 4. AUZ [.14]. I make a note to recheck to see on feb.11.
renby, I agree with your prediction on relative growth potential, as it is close to the inverse relationship of the market caps.
I think this is somewhat related to something called the Poisson theory of asset distribution, wherein the smaller volume entities have a greater potential for appreciation on a percentage basis.
The Poisson theory says in that if you have two stores, one does 95% of the business and the other does 5%, that the optimal distribution of inventory will be to give the 5% store more than 5% of the inventory because otherwise you cannot capture the larger inherent percentage fluctuation in the smaller unit.
Its unique opportunity, I don’t think it is that hard to read. Cobalt going in deficit, and these companies owning property with billions of dollars in high grade cobalt selling for less than 25M when I bought Platina, and 70M when I bought Ardea. It sure seemed anomalous to me, and the market has agreed and doubled that for me, but I think these are worth 3X more at least.
Travis has discussed Sparton Resources, Inc. in the past.
Sparton’s website, http://www.kmpedwell.com/
From homepage scroll down.
States Sparton Resources, Inc., has an 89% owned Subsidiary, Vanspar Mining.
According to this Vanspar website,
http://www.vanspar.com/
Vanspar Is an 18% owner of PU Neng.
Am I confused, or might Sparton Resources, IncTSV:SRI, OTC:SPNRF, be a backdoor way to invest in privately held, Pu Neng?
Needs, more research.
Ckeanteq is The Boss and is the FRONT DOOR method of investing in these arcane metals, because wherever the demand goes, Cleanteq will be able to produce the material when the demand is actually there. This is especially true with vanadium, a material we can vaguely begin to see the need for.
Now Vanspar or another nano-cap miners and tech companies might be very good investments, but for me to be comfy going after such companies I would have to have a lot of due diligence on the technology involved, as as well as the geology of the deposits.
I concede that there might be tremendous opportunities out there. But one is adding a lot of variables, and one also has to be correct about the future of the technology involved.
It is tough enough doing due diligence and finding a good play in basic mining and materials. To add the need to be correct in predicting the future prospects from advanced technology is something that is beyond me. I was a failure in investing in such predictions in the biotech sector. I am not sure I would do any better in the battery technology or advanced applied materials sector.
$SRI.tsv $SPNRF – PuNeng Energy Announces Major Vanadium Flow Battery Contract Clarification https://web.tmxmoney.com/article.php?newsid=6574718524460512&qm_symbol=SRI
Also look at other members of the BOD and management.
SRI,tsv – Follow link…RF is Chairman of BOD of Pu Neng – http://www.kmpedwell.com/vanadium-projects/energystorage/
$SRI.tsv – Searching ‘HPX’ found that AFS was terminated http://www.kmpedwell.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Sparton-Q2-2017.pdf
Agree with RF, HN and others… Long $CTEQF, AUZ, $$ARRRF. Very grateful to HN for this forum and other contributors. Best2ALL
Sparton is interesting but I do not quite understand what they are doing. I understand owning 18% of Pu Neng, though.
The structure of the thing seems a little opaque and convoluted. More DD required.
It is a bad idea to invest in something one doesn’t really understand very well.
Vanspar-Pu Neng-Sparton…I really have trouble understanding what the &%#! is going on here. I want to knock my head against the Sparton release and try to get a grip on it. There are tantalizing things in there, but some red flags also.
On the one hand, it seems like it might be a way into a HPX. On the other hand, it is not a great thing to have Chinese entities refusing to pay your invoices, and to have to take them to court to make a recovery.
It’s a lot easier to understand that ARRRF or NSPRF has got a mining claim that might be of world-wide interest.
hn, HPX caught my eye as well. I slogged my way through the 2017 financial report once very slowly; then scanned it for a second pass. I almost got out a blank sheet of paper to draw a flow chart of the company ties; but after re-reading the issue of Chinese entities refusing to pay, I stopped. I tried to find RF’s interest (in # of shares), but had no luck. There certainly are mgmt and board members from other positions we hold. And while I like the low cost (it only takes a few cents to double!), I did not feel comfortable enough to roll the dice this morning.
deanbob, I agree. I just don’t understand what is going on there. Something is going on, but darned if I can get a fix on it.
It seems like Pu Neng had a major dispute over the bill from Sparton/ Vanspar, and settled after a suit was filed in court. It looks like they made a deal, but I can’t make out the motives and interests of the players. It’s hard to believe the kisses were sincere during the make-up party, after one side had to file a lawsuit suit to get their money. I do not want depend on the outcome lawsuits and collections where the Chinese state electrical grid is on the other side.
For sure Vanspar might have some great income forecasts and “on paper” deals, but we know that Pu Neng refused to pay one big bill that somebody was counting on; and there is no reason to suppose it couldn’t happen again.
You’ve also got Cayman Island registrations and a lot of other unknowns.
As attractive as an 18% interest in Pu Neng might be as a speculation, and as attractive as a more direct investment avenue to HPX might be, altogether it is a little too murky for me.
Thank you Renby and Hn for your responses which are most helpful. I seem to remember mentioning Ardea on account of the richness of its resources soon after I discovered this excellent thread a few months ago. If only I had bought some then. Ah well, better late than never.
Thanks, interesting read that.
AUZ did recently raise 20 million and was also oversubscribed 2x that amount. The recent jump up was huge and there are plans from here. Whether and how far this will run I do not know? but my time frame is/was to hold for 2/3 years subject to how it goes of course.
To me AUZ seems more oriented towards financial, publicity, promotion and security moves than in developing their resource.
Just the opposite emphasis from CLQ. This is not to say people won’t make money in AUZ.
Similar profile here, CTEQF is way bigger than anything else. Full normal position in PTNUF via the recent increase, might add some; have to re-enter ARRRF, I sold it when I made a big push for Cleanteq investment capital. 3/4 position in EUC.
Chasing up the shares of early stage junior gold miners in 2010/11 was fun but ended in tears for most people including me. I’ll stick to CLQ because if its ‘picks and shovels’ aspects. Cobalt is the mineral de jour right now, but could be completely sidelined by some of the emerging battery tech including graphene and vanadium redox flow machines. CLQ’s adaptable process IP is the star of the show here, with a bit of mining on the side. There will always be a need for nickel, but if cobalt is replaced as a battery essential, these junior cobalt players could be left high and dry in the long term, as their product does not have many other mainstream uses. Oh yes, and CLQ also has the scandium up its sleeve.
Shavian…and don’t forget water purification.
About “a little mining on the side”: the realization that Cleanteq can capitalize on world-wide deposits of waste ore is what really set the bells off for me.
Cleanteq is a very good example of how technology is changing rather ancient businesses.
UBER revolutionized the private transport business by using technology to capitalize and get income from the enormous underutilzed capital investments in automobiles sitting in the garages of private individuals. They are the largest taxi cab comnpany in the world, and they do not own ONE SINGLE TAXICAB.
AIRB&B is revolutionizing the hotel business, by using technology to capitalize and get incoime from the enormous underutilzed capital already invested by private individulas in the residences.
CLEANTEQ is at the beginning of a revolution in the mining business. Mining is an incredibly capital intensive business, and a lot of the capital ends up wasted.
Cleanteq will apply their technology to capitalize and generate income from mine waste and ore dumps that already exist and have NEGATIVE value, in addition to having a flexible technology that can adapt to changing demands in various materials. Besides their dedicated operations like Sunrise,
Cleanteq will have a galaxy of low-capex virtual mines on the waste dumps of mines that have been producing waste ore for decades. The first step on this journey will be announced in a few months, when they disclose a deal with a gold or a uranium producer.
And Cleanteq will be profitable. It will not be like these tech companies who have tremendous valuations but no profits. Cleanteq will make tons of profit.
**
Uber, AirB&B, and Cleanteq share in one major characteristic: they use technology to monetize and leverage existing underutilized or wasted assets, to satisfy increasing or existing demand in a capital-intensive endeavor.
I have no idea how the analysts and investment community will value Cleanteq.
But I know that Cleanteq will be worth many billions of dollars in the not-too-distant future.
Sunrise…detail in the virtual animation…I saw something in the virtual graphic presentation on Sunrise that I never saw before. It gives an idea of how innovative the whole thing is, aside from the fact that they are using Clean i-X technology
and (probably) scan/alu heavy equipment.
If you look at where the ore is coming from, they have a big scaffold-like structure that is parked up against a wall of of rock which is presumably the ore body.
There are conveyor chutes that lead from the scaffold into the processing plant.
From this we can presume that the ore will be dug out of the deposit and placed immediately onto the conveyor. No blasting or trucking the ore. Just dig it out and plop it onto the conveyor. Then lower or move the scaffold to the next hunk to be chewed up and repeat.
Riggall emphasized that this was a new type of mining installation unlike any other. It will be fully automated, apply new technology on a scale never seen before,
and will (probably) showcase scan/alu alloys in innovative, money-saving ways.
Long Cleanteq
As you have surely noticed, I tend to focus closely on a few companies, and resist hopping around a lot. But I look for clues in the details of the companies I follow.
In this connection I want to mention something else about Cleanteq.
I have been in communication on a few questions with IR at Cleanteq, and until this week my replies were from Ben Stockdale.
I thought this was unusual, because Stockdale is the CFO of Cleanteq, and I thought it peculiar that the CFO of company would shag down investor email queries and answer them. I shrugged and figured it was because Cleanteq is “lean and mean”, and I rested comfortable in that I was communicating with a big shot, and trusted the answers, since the CFO is going to be knowledgeable and credible.
But this week, my question was answered by a Mr. Glass. So it means that Ben Stockdale is too busy now to deal with small-fry like me, and has hired Mr. Glass for such duties. Ben is now doing interviews for youtube distribution and probably has an inbox full of contracts to review.
The company is growing. Ben Stockdale is a busy guy.
Too busy now to deal with Hendrixnuzzles.
Long Cleanteq.
Cleanteq IR has answered that no scandium/alu alloys are being envisioned for use in “external equipment” at Sunrise. So I have to retract my speculation that scan/alu alloys will probably be used in the project.
This does not jive with their own graphics in the video animation. I have no satisfactory explanation for the use of those graphics.
Cleanteq and the mentality of persuasion…one thing that I simply adore and greatly respect is Friedland’s attitude about how to persuade people.
He says something, but doesn’t care if the listeners believe him or not.
He then proceeds to prove the point with his actions. He persuades by DOING IT.
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The main example is the use of Clean i-X as a viable primary mining extraction method. He could spend years trying to persuade Vale or Teck or somebody, and never get anywhere. So he said, “Screw it. I’m going to buy my own mine and install
my technology in it.”
Same thing with scandium. He can talk until he is blue in the face; and Airbus and Daimler might be believers, but they are slow and Friedland doesn’t want to wait around.
So similarly, I believe he has decided:
“Screw it. I’ve got and my partners in China and Multotec. I’ve got research up the wazoo. The Russians proved it with the MIGs. I’m not only going to employ Cleanteq technology at Syerston, I am going to construct the plant using scan/alu alloys, which are stronger, and lighter and weldable. Maybe I can even get some bulldozers and trucks made out of the stuff, too. I’ve already got that cool motorcycle.
Airbus and Boeing and Lockheed are going to see a whole bunch of scan/alu cylindrical silos that are going to prove these alloys are viable and withstand all kinds of stress and pressure. This will persuade them that the stuff is good enough for their flying cylinders.
Plus, I will use these scan/alu alloys in the heavy equipment so they can see how great they will be for those moving parts in the jet engines, and everything can be 3D printed.
A few plants like that and world demand for scandium will double or triple in no time.
And Cleanteq will get all the business, heh heh.”
Friedland = Musk without the madness!
Even better. EM will be a customer for RF’s production.
We are way upstream when we go searching for miners.
Whatever direction human enterprise moves in, at some point materials and resources are needed. And Cleanteq and Friedland will be supplying them: Copper, nickel, zinc, germanium, silver, lead, graphite, platinum, palladium, rhodium, gold, uranium, scandium, vanadium…and many others we cannot even spell and have never heard of. The rarer, the better.
“These are the only ones of which the news has come to Harvard ,
There may be many others but they haven’t been dis- cervered”.
(Tom Lehrer – ‘The Elements’)
Cleanteq IR stated that no scan/alu alloys were being envisioned for application in the Sunrise “external equipment”. Accordingly this speculation goes into the dust bin for the time being.
Long term trends in global exploration–are we finding enough metal?
http://www.minexconsulting.com/publications/FEM%20Conference%20FINAL%20Oct%202017.pdf
Includes cobalt and nickel.
Duplicate post, important thought:
About “a little mining on the side”: the realization that Cleanteq can capitalize on world-wide deposits of waste ore is what really set the bells off for me.
Cleanteq is a very good example of how technology is changing rather ancient businesses.
UBER revolutionized the private transport business by using technology to capitalize and get income from the enormous underutilzed capital investments in automobiles sitting in the garages of private individuals. They are the largest taxi cab comnpany in the world, and they do not own ONE SINGLE TAXICAB.
AIRB&B is revolutionizing the hotel business, by using technology to capitalize and get income from the enormous underutilzed capital already invested by private individuals in their residences. THEY DO NOT OWN ONE HOTEL.
CLEANTEQ is at the beginning of a revolution in the mining business. Mining is an incredibly capital intensive business, and a lot of the capital ends up wasted.
Cleanteq will apply their technology to capitalize and generate income from mine waste and ore dumps that already exist and have NEGATIVE value, in addition to having a flexible technology that can adapt to changing demands in various materials. Besides their dedicated operations like Sunrise, Cleanteq will have a galaxy of low-capex virtual mines on the waste dumps of mines that have been producing waste ore for decades. The first step on this journey will be announced in a few months, when they disclose a deal with a gold or a uranium producer.
And Cleanteq will be profitable. It will not be like these tech companies who have tremendous valuations but no profits. Cleanteq will make tons of profit.
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Uber, AirB&B, and Cleanteq share in one major characteristic: they use technology to monetize and leverage existing underutilized or wasted assets, to satisfy increasing or existing demand in a capital-intensive endeavor.
I have no idea how the analysts and investment community will value Cleanteq.
But I know that Cleanteq will be worth many billions of dollars in the not-too-distant future. And we are there ahead of the crowd.
Long Cleanteq
Technology in mining…I neglected to mention the huge savings in time and capital that will come about from technical improvements in mineral prospecting and detection. We cannot invest directly in HPX, but we can recognize the value of what Friedland is introducing to the sector, and follow along as best we can.
I do not expect all of Friedland’s projects to hit paydirt. But when he gets involved, we are going to get the answers and see action quickly. The time frames are being collapsed because of technology.
Long CTEQF IVPAF CDBMF FEXXF LNZCF
Long CMDRF (not a Friedland company but owns FEXXF ‘s SVB target)
No position GVXXF, waiting U308 price improvements
Fractional position CCNCF , no immediate front-burner projects
CTEQF is The Boss.
IVPAF overweight.
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Even this future speculation about HPX ignores the potential of the I-Pulse
technology, of which we have scant information and no practical investment vehicles in which we can participate.
Hope Cleanteq has a big Key Man insurance policy on The Master. Friedland’s health is the biggest risk to the future of the company.