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Marin Katusa’s “Best Lithium Stock in the Market”

By Travis Johnson, Stock Gumshoe, October 6, 2016

We’ve gotten a lot of questions about the latest spiel from Marin Katusa, so I’m going to take a few minutes to dig into that today. I’ll warn you up front that I probably can’t be definitive about answers, because it looks like the ad doesn’t go into much detail on this “best lithium stock in the market” … but I can at least provide some educated guesses this time around, and get you started on your research.

The ad itself is mostly about the big picture demand for lithium, which relies heavily on increasing demand for electric cars. The logic of the argument is very compelling, as it has been for the past five years or so — projections for electric car demand rising, and the assumption that lithium will continue to be a major component of the most popular batteries for electric cars (graphite is the other, but graphite is cheaper and more plentiful), provide us with a pretty clear ramp-up in expected demand. That’s mostly because this shakes up the market pretty dramatically — a Tesla essentially uses 7,000 laptop batteries, so if they sell 100,000 cars a year (which is the pace they’re working toward right now, though they hope that number balloons when the lower-cost Model 3 is released) that’s the equivalent of about 700 million “laptop” batteries.

That’s obviously a big impact — by comparison, there are about 200 million laptops shipped each year now, though the battery world is not as simple as it was a decade ago when most laptops used similar, commoditized batteries, particularly because mobile phones and tablets, with smaller but more complex batteries, are also sucking up a lot of the world’s battery components, including lithium. (That mass-production of laptops a decade ago was a big part of the reason that the Tesla used, and still uses, thousands of small-cell batteries instead of a more customized large-cell array — the small cells were already standardized, commodity products and were fairly cheap to produce.)

Elon Musk has said that when they reach their goal of building 500,000 cars a year in several years (I’d say “if,” but that’s why I’m a lowly blatherer and not a visionary entrepreneur), they’ll essentially need to consume all of the world’s current lithium production. Which is obviously a huge demand driver for lithium, and the reason that lithium prices have been rising for a couple years as everyone tries to position themselves for this future supply/demand imbalance that will probably result in even higher prices, which will fuel additional production. And if fully electric vehicles really take off, which is still widely predicted but not, of course, guaranteed, then it’s worth remembering that Tesla may well remain a very small part of that market — most automakers are developing or selling electric cars with lithium-ion batteries (some bought from Tesla), and there are at least dozens of other major battery factories being planned or built that should increase the demand for lithium (and graphite).

So the big picture demand story for lithium makes more sense to me now than it did five years ago, mostly because it’s less theoretical and trend-based — some of the uncertainty has been reduced as the electric car business has gradually increased production… even though there’s probably more uncertainty in electric vehicle sales actually hitting the optimistic end of the forecasts from Elon Musk and others if oil prices stay low (many people buy electric cars for environmental or performance reasons, but a huge part of the demand is also likely to be based on comparative cost of operation — if gas is cheap, that equation can change).

I don’t know anything about battery chemistry, or whether competing battery designs will become more important in the years to come, but lithium demand is certainly rising right now and for the foreseeable future — that doesn’t mean it will go to the moon, or that someone won’t find a way to use half as much lithium per kilowatt hour or something like that… but over the past couple yeaers, lithium is the only non-precious metal that’s been at all thrilling for investors.

Let’s move on to what Marin Katusa’s saying in his ad:

“A Once-in-a-Lifetime Shift is About to Hit the Energy Market

“Here’s How You Can Make a Fortune From It….

“This ‘shift’ will completely transform the way we work and live. It will go down as one of the pivotal events in human history….

“Creating this shift will not be cheap. Project Tiger’s price tag is an estimated $5 billion, which makes it one of the most expensive building projects in history.

“You might know Project Tiger by its other name…

“It’s the massively hyped “Gigafactory” that is set to play a key role in the future of Tesla Motors and its genius founder, Elon Musk.”

Musk didn’t found Tesla, of course, he came along a few months after the company was born… but that’s mostly semantics — he surely is the biggest name behind the Tesla, Inc. that we know today, was one of the first major backers of the company and was actively involved in overseeing designs for its first car (the Roadster).

More on the big picture demand for lithium:

“With massive growth in electric car sales just ahead, there’s a lot of money to be made here.

“One of the biggest investment opportunities in this trend is lithium, a metal that is the key component of electric car batteries.

“Just like conventional cars can’t function without gasoline, today’s electric cars can’t function without lithium.

“This is why many people are saying lithium is the ‘New Oil.’ It’s the key natural resource that will power the electric car revolution.

“As electric car sales boom, lithium demand booms along with it…. We expect demand to increase 700% over the next 10 years.”

OK… so what’s the actual stock Katusa likes here?

Well, those of us who’ve been around for a few natural resources speculative bubbles (uranium, rare earth metals, geothermal energy, graphite — to name a few from just the past decade) are hopefully all quite aware that these kinds of increases in demand or shortages in supply for important resources (real or perceived) create waves of stupid in the stock market.

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Stock promoters and Vancouver charlatans create a company with “graphite” in the name, buy a deposit for $500,000 that no one ever cared about before, and drive the company up to a $500 million valuation based on nothing but hope and hype… buttressed by some “real” news that backs up the speculation that graphene (which can be made by throwing money at mined graphite) will be the next supermaterial and make us rich if we happen to own a graphite mine. And yes, there are now at least 100 tiny little companies with “lithium” in their names, and probably at least 90% of them will be gone or renamed in five years.

That doesn’t mean we have to ignore these kinds of stocks, but it does mean we should be even more cynical than we are when reading up on other sectors — there are real companies who are genuinely investing in building up lithium production or creating new lithium projects, and some of them will probably be successful, but it’s important to distinguish between those who just have a “staked” area near some other lithium production or a permit to explore from those who are actually booking reserves, designing “mines” and preparing to finance an actual project.

(I say “mines” because most lithium isn’t mined — the vast majority is extracted by pumping lithium-rich brine out of the earth and dehydrating it before processing that “ore” to extract lithium carbonate… there are some “hard rock” and clay lithium projects as well, either producing or planned, but it’s generally far more expensive to produce lithium by actual mining).

Katusa, wisely, makes similar points in his ad:

“Any time there is a catchy line like the ‘New Oil’ associated with an investment trend, there is sure to be danger as well as opportunities.

“Despite the huge opportunities in electric cars, batteries, and lithium, I expect that 99% of the people who invest in lithium will actually lose money over the next three years.”

Of course, his solution is to read his stuff and follow his ideas to avoid being on that losing side of the ledger during the anticipated continuation of the lithium stock boom… but you can also educate yourself and learn from other sources, I imagine. And his newsletter costs $2,500, so it certainly isn’t for everyone (according to the order form he offers an extremely limited 7-day cancellation window, during which you’ll pay $500 as a cancellation fee if you want the other $2,000 back).

And Katusa also brings up a point that’s not frequently made, so I should credit him for that as well:

“Because we have an abundance of supply, I do not believe lithium prices will continue to soar.

“However, I do believe the price will remain relatively strong. We have a lot of supply in the ground, but it will take years to build mines and put them into production.

“We still have time to make great money in lithium. But don’t let anyone tell you we’re facing a long-term supply crunch.”

Lithium, like graphite, is not at all in short supply in the earth’s crust — unlike platinum or some rare earth metals, we’re probably never going to run out, or even run out of places to look for it. There has been plenty of low-cost lithium to meet demands most of the time over the past 20 years, and ramping up production requires some investment but shouldn’t require lots of exploration or discovery to find vast new stores of lithium — we know where a lot of it is.

Katusa has always, going back to his days with Casey, emphasized the importance of people — “betting” on the leadership and operating teams as much as on the deposit or the location — so it’s no surprise that he’s doing that today as well:

“… hundreds of lithium companies have been created in the last five years. Less than a dozen of them have teams with the unique expertise required to make a lithium project a success.

“If you want to make tremendous gains in lithium, you MUST stick with these knowledgeable, experienced teams.”

And then we get the relatively limited clues:

“We Just Placed a Buy Rating on the Best Lithium Stock in the Market

“Investing with proven winners is such an important idea right now because just recently, one of the world’s best lithium teams just ‘went public’ with their company. And I’ve named this stock a strong buy.

“The team behind this company is absolutely world-class.

“I don’t think there is another person in the world who knows the lithium market as well as the CEO of this company knows it.

“And one of the biggest financial backers of this company is one of the smartest resource financiers in the world.

“Just as importantly, he has experience in taking a lithium company into production. He is the polar opposite of the many “posers” out there touting lithium stocks. I expect this company will be his next big win.

“This company owns what I believe is the best undeveloped lithium project in the world owned by a public company.”

And that’s it… that’s what we get in the way of clues.

So what’s the stock?

Well, I can’t tell you for certain — but the best match I’m aware of is a company you probably already know if you’ve looked at lithium at all: Lithium X (LIX on the Canadian Venture exchange, LIXXF OTC in the US).

Why a match? Well, they do have a large potential lithium project in Argentina, right in the heart of where much of the world’s lithium comes from (the “lithium triangle” in the Andes, which includes the huge projects in Chile that have dominated lithium for decades as well as the untapped resources of Bolivia). That’s the Sal de Los Angeles project, which encompasses most of the Salar de Diablillos property — not too far from FMC’s Salar de Hombre Muerto lithium project. (They also have property in Clayton Valley, Nevada, next to the operating Silver Peak lithium project owned by Albemarle — but that’s exploratory, they are just starting drilling there this Fall, Sal do Los Angeles is much further along and is really a “pre-development” stage project.)

But the closer match is really to the people — and part of this is reading between the lines, because I know Katusa is friendly with Frank Giustra, who is one of the people behind Lithium X.

The CEO of this company, Brian Paes-Braga, probably does not really know the lithium market as well as anyone — or at least, it would be surprising if he did. Paes-Braga is a young entrepreneur/investment banker who talked Frank Giustra into investing in lithium with him and put the initial company together.

But the Executive Chairman would fit that clue — that’s Paul Matysek, who was CEO of Lithium One when it merged with the Australian firm Galaxy Resources to build a larger lithium company back in 2012. And Lithium One was also focused on Argentina (back when investors still hated Argentina), their Sal de Vida project is not too far away from Lithium X’s Sal de Los Angeles (and the two projects are likely to be pretty similar in size, it appears to me). Matysek led three previous companies to buyouts — Lithium One, Potash One, and Energy Metals — so perhaps that’s where Lithium X will be heading.

And Giustra would be that “one of the smartest resource financiers in the world” guy. Though I don’t think he’s ever been involved with a lithium company before, at least not in a high profile capacity.

The “taking a lithium company into production” bit does not really apply to Giustra, Paes-Braga or Matysek — but it does apply to another important member of the management team, COO Eduardo Morales (who just joined the company a few months ago, after the Argentina deal). Here’s how the company describes his experience:

“Mr. Morales is a chemical engineer with 36 years of experience who formerly built and operated one of the world’s largest lithium brine operations. As President of Rockwood Lithium Latin America, he successfully led the development, commissioning and operation of Rockwood’s Salar de Atacama project. His tenure with Rockwood Lithium ended with the company’s sale to Albemarle Corporation for US$6.2 billion in 2014.”

So that provides some indication that Lithium X is actually serious about bringing Sal de Los Angeles into production, certainly most of the little lithium juniors aren’t likely to have anyone that experienced running the show. They also have a joint venture in place to build the first pilot plant, something that they announced almost immediately after the deal — that JV is with the company that would physically build and operate the plant for the first phase, the partner gets 50% of the pilot project (planned to produce 2,500 tonnes/year of lithium carbonate) in exchange for investing $6 million to build it. That means Lithium X is not putting a huge amount of capital into the project just yet, despite the fact that they did just recently do a private placement for $10 million — when or whether the project grows from here to reach the anticipated production of 15-25,000 tonnes/year, I don’t think anyone knows yet.

So I’ll guess that Katusa is probably recommending Lithium X, but it’s far from the level of certainty I like to have before “revealing” one of these teaser stocks — which means that we’ll have to leave it there, and let you think for yourself on the matter.

Lithium X has grown quickly in its short life — they just acquired their share of Sal de Los Angeles a few months ago (they bought 50% of the project in exchange for 8 million shares and a development agreement, and can up their share to 80% by spending more and giving their partner an additional $5 million in shares). Lithium X shares are trading right about where they were when they made this deal in April, so effectively they paid about $13 million for half of the project and would pay another $5 million to get to 80% (though none of that is in cash).

I’d say that Sal de Los Angeles is by far the more important of the two lithium projects they own, since the Clayton Valley stuff seems much more speculative to me and is arguably in a less mining-friendly jurisdiction (at least in terms of costs — there must be some reasons why Albemarle has not invested to increase production there), so perhaps it’s a little worrisome that you’re effectively paying US$88 million (C$115) for a company whose major asset cost them C$18 million just a few months ago… that would be my largest qualm, that it’s possible that you’re overpaying because of the strong Lithium X promotional push over the past few months and the “brand name” connection to Frank Giustra. That’s not that unusual for a mining stock — adding a “known” person to the shareholder group can often make a huge difference — but it means that if lithium takes a few steps backward the shares might end up being a little lofty here. (All those numbers are in Canadian dollars, by the way.)

That doesn’t seem terribly likely right now, but I don’t know how the lithium market will fluctuate.

Lithium X did just release an update on Sal de Los Angeles project, which you can see here. It’s still a resource estimate, they don’t yet have a feasibility study or “reserves.”

What will all this mean? Well, it’s really hard to guess at what cash flow might be like for a company that won’t be producing for a few years, and that seems likely to start with a pilot plant before getting a larger scale operation going… particularly when lithium carbonate pricing moves from $6,000 to $14,000 seemingly in the blink of an eye.

But we can be a bit superficial and look at Orocobre as a comparison, since that’s the first big new lithium producer to come online.

Orocobre owns 66% of the Salar de Olaroz project, which has a measured and indicated resource of 6.4 Mt Lithium Carbonate and is capable of sustaining current continuous production for 40-plus years (that’s from Orocobre’s website). Orocobre owns some exploratory assets as well, and a Borax project, but I think it’s fair to say it’s being valued almost exclusively based on Salar de Olaroz, which started production last year and hasn’t quite hit their 17,500 “nameplate” production capacity. Orocobre is valued at C$728 million.

Lithium X owns 80% (we’ll assume they spend another $5 million to get to 80%) of the Sal de Los Angeles project, which has a historical “inferred brine resource of 2.8 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent” and is targeted to produce 15-25,000 tonnes per year at some point but will likely produce a tenth of that amount over the next few years (that’s the pilot project). And Lithium X is valued at about C$115 million. So that’s $115 million for a potential resource (their share) of 2.25 million tonnes of lithium carbonate, or C$50/tonne.

Orocobre, when they were a few years from initial production back in 2012, was valued at about C$150 million — so about 50% more than Lithium X is valued at today. Orocobre’s feasibility study came out in 2011 and used that same 6.4 million tonne number, so 66% of that is 4.2 million tonnes. At C$150 million back then that would have been $35/tonne. So when they were at a similar stage (a bit more advanced, since they had a feasibility study already and Lithium X does not), the valuations were pretty similar.

So that gives some level of “OK, this valuation isn’t crazy” to Lithium X, particularly because lithium carbonate prices are roughly twice as high right now as they were back in 2012 when Orocobre was valued at $35/tonne of their “in the brine” resources — though we are, of course, working with survivorship bias here because we know that Orocobre turned out to be very successful and they’ve been producing lithium for a year or so (even if they aren’t up to that 17,500 tonnes/year level yet), and now have a market cap of well above C$750 million.

That’s not necessarily the best way to assess a lithium company, I just wanted to take a similar-sized project, in the same part of the world, and see if it was similarly valued a few years before any production had taken place. So on that front, Lithium X’s valuation isn’t as wacky as I might have expected given the Giustra affiliation, the strong management team, and the crazy price spike we’ve seen for lithium this year.

That’s no guarantee of future success, to be sure, and Lithium X has at least a few years to go before they might become a meaningful lithium producer but it’s a bit reassuring. We have seen Lithium X pitched before, it was the target of Nick Hodge’s teaser pitches in July that we covered here, and if you’re looking for more lithium coverage we wrote about a “Metal Oil” pitch from another publisher here back in March, another Nevada name here in June, and about some of the larger companies here when JR Crooks pitched them as purveyors of “salt fuel.”

With that, I’ll leave you to chew on things and discuss it amongst yourselves — do you like Lithium X? Have other favorite lithium stocks, either big or small? Think this will be a rehash of the last lithium stock bubble a few years back? I don’t currently own any of these guys, but I do see the appeal of lithium as a solid future market. Let us know what you think with a comment below.

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62 Comments
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Gene Schulze
Irregular
October 6, 2016 4:42 pm

I have been playing with ORRP considering it a pump and dump stock, and indeed it has wildly fluctuated between 16 cents and nearly a dollar, currently in the 40 cent range. Also took a small position in LACDF.

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chatyakk
October 6, 2016 5:07 pm

Travis… Close but no cigar 😉 I am a member and that’s not the stock.

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chatyakk
October 6, 2016 6:39 pm

No prob. Just wanted to chime in and let you “know” without publicly stating it. Always appreciate your writings though.

LIX will probably do well as well. I think FMT has been on it before if I recall.

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smaihar
Member
smaihar
October 6, 2016 5:59 pm
Reply to  chatyakk

Why dont you let us know what is that stock 😀

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Mike
Member
Mike
October 6, 2016 6:31 pm
Reply to  chatyakk

Must be Millennium then….

David B.
David B.
October 6, 2016 5:12 pm

Lithium and Graphite are touted by many to have shortages if Tesla’s Gigafactory succeeds. I’m on the sidelines personally.

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opusnz
Member
opusnz
October 6, 2016 5:22 pm

Lithium X is a regular and favorite paid pump of CEO.ca. Stay away. Having Katusa involved just makes it worse. Katusa was deadly for my portfolio when I subscribed to him through Casey’s energy newsletter years ago. He typically does a private placement, establishes a large position and then pumps it through his network of friends and promoters, Stansberry, Casey and Frank Curzio being a prime example. In my opinion, he should have his picture next to pump and dump in the dictionary. I wouldn’t touch one of his picks with a ten foot pole.

Google IKN and Katusa together for much more.

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chatyakk
October 6, 2016 6:43 pm
Reply to  opusnz

Otto Rock is either “the sh*t” or “a sh*t” depending on your take. His style is certainly one of attitude and low-class. If I owned a newsletter, I would encourage people to go after the same stock I was purchasing too. Why suggest something you don’t believe in? He does do a lot of PP though and then suggest the same stock – doesn’t make the stock or the story bad. Also, it’s just one stock. If you do proper position sizing this shouldn’t be a problem anyways, even if 40% of them tank.

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opusnz
Member
opusnz
October 6, 2016 7:13 pm
Reply to  chatyakk

I followed and did everything Katusa recommended when I subscribed to his energy letter. I could never get in or out at the prices he later claimed. I have no problem with a newsletter writer personally owning a stock but an honest newsletter will use an average buy in price for the day after they recommend buying or selling a stock. Some won’t personally buy or sell for 3 days after making a recommendation. This is more realistic, more honest and it takes out volatility and gaps on the open and close. On small or micro cap stocks, this can easily mean a difference of 10 or even 20 % in a portfolio.

Otto from IKN is certainly a polarizing figure. He is one of the few guys who is willing to stick his neck out and call out the miscreants in the mining industry. He certainly gets it wrong sometimes but I wish I had listened to him more. It would have saved me a lot of money.

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chatyakk
October 6, 2016 7:28 pm
Reply to  opusnz

Yep – good points on the ins and outs. To be fair, there is lot of advice on when to get in and out based on recommendations.. to wait for newsletter effects etc. Maybe it’s changed since? I wasn’t a member of that back then.

The stocks mentioned so far have all gone up and down allowing for purchase if waiting long enoguh… couple took off with the market so didn’t chase it..- but those big gaps open on days up I know what oyu mean.

Were his picks the only ones you had? Guess I can let folks know how it goes % wise over time.

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Beware
Guest
Beware
October 18, 2016 3:44 am
Reply to  chatyakk

Opus is exactly correct on Katusa and almost everything Otto has written about Katusa/Casey is true. Otto is an a-hole for sure but he’s dead on most of the time. Katusa buys before he promotes to his network and then he sells when all the buying comes in. The securities laws in Canada have no teeth whatsoever. He could never do that in the US. Run away from anything Katusa mentions. He has a horrible track record and uses his subscribers to line his own pockets.

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anne
Member
anne
October 7, 2016 6:32 am
Reply to  opusnz

opusnz

opusnz
Member
opusnz
October 6, 2016 5:26 pm

This is what Rick Rule says about lithium…..a straight shooter. Go to the 12 minute mark.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8y-BQ6sY9TI

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anne
Member
anne
October 7, 2016 7:03 am
Reply to  opusnz

opusnz
Also bought into Katusa’s Energy Report when he was telling people to buy XOM when it was 100+. I didn’t buy any of his oil picks or suggestions, valuations too high. A month later they crashed which I was anticipating, then he left the Casey Organization. So it was a huge pump and dump and then goodbye I’m gone. I thought maybe the stock Katusa is promoting might have Rick Rule or Eric Sprott as financiers as they frequently finance mining companies.

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senior111
senior111
March 4, 2017 9:24 pm
Reply to  anne

I have been watching these promoters as work: they make money thru the sells pf subscriptions and also by pumping and dumping stocks. It’s nice if you can get away with it.

I suspect that there is collusion between the “pumpers” and owners of these companies. Hey, the pumpers may get the stocks on the cheap. So when the pumpers see sufficient interest in their advisory services. They might drive up the stocks the price and hoping the rest of “suckers” would follow in driving the prices higher.
Then come the dumping time.
Does this sound plausible?

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b. gould
Irregular
b. gould
October 6, 2016 5:29 pm

Another one to watch, Nemaska “NMX” (Cdn. Mkt. TSX.V) in Quebec. A very interesting news update. Worth watching!

Mikey D
Member
Mikey D
October 6, 2016 5:35 pm

Try AVLIF – Advantage Lithium. I believe it fits.

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DanM
DanM
October 6, 2016 10:52 pm

There is a lot of lithium, but likely to be a lot of environmental and water shortages constraints on South American brine production growth. Nevada opportunities are miniscule. Nemaska is developing a hard rock mine, but seem to have a high quality resource, great logistics, and very low cost long term electricity contract due to processing facility right next to a hydro plant. That is what motivated my relatively small investment in Nemaska today in this pullback.

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Brett
Member
March 7, 2017 12:41 pm

Travis look at Cypress Development and their map and very high grade surface samples. They start drilling this week. Read the most recent PR on Pure energy and (Nevada Sunrise / Advanced Lithium) and look at the map on the Cypress website. Trades at .08 today 3-7-17 which is a whopping 3 million market cap. Not a recommendation as I am not a stock broker. Please let me know what you think about Cypress Development.

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Myron Martin
Irregular
October 6, 2016 7:09 pm

While I do not currently own it, I was into the lithium space early and did very well with Orocobre. but as they say; “you can’t kiss all the girls” but I have considered re-buying it. I Still hold Nemaska Lithium which I also bought years ago, and it has done very well for me. I also own Lithium x and would have agreed with Travis choice on which one commentor has turned thumbs down, so I wonder WHY he has not named the stock if he gets the Katusa newsletter and knows Travis is in error, wonder WHY?

I also own some other good investments Katusa has made for his own account and the same applies to Daniel Amaduri, but based on my own research. I think neither of them deserves the pump and dump label. Maybe some detractors are not telling the whole story, maybe their timing ( which is critical for juniors in particular) was seriously OFF on the buying end or they didn’t hold them long enough and sold at the first dip and just lacked conviction, buying blindly without due diligence on an analysts recommendation. No analyst i know of, (myself included) never makes a mistake and has a crystal ball that reveals unknowable future market events. Any investor who expects perfection from any analyst and blames the analyst for their own lack of due diligence should not be in a volatile sector and stick to blue chips and be satisfied with single digit returns.

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chatyakk
October 6, 2016 7:47 pm

Agree. FMT is just a promoter of mostly good companies. Gotta admit if you threw a bunch into their names few months ago you’d be up.. but also the sector took off too. Few duds but we all have those. Myron as to why I don’t just flat out name the stock is because that isn’t fair to myself after I paid to be a member. That’s a ridiculous thing to say lol. Who pays for membership to freely throw it around on public message boards. I did however want to let Travis know so he’s not left in the dark on his pick. Analysis is always helpful as usual though. Almost got LIX too few months ago but just can’t be everywhere at once. Too much to follow.

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lobstom
Member
lobstom
October 6, 2016 10:10 pm
Reply to  chatyakk

second chatyak’s comments. not lithium X and not disclosing for the same reason. you want to know bad enough pay up.

on a side note, i’d be happy to share contact details with another katusa follower. lobs.tom at googlemail com

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Dan negrey
Dan negrey
October 15, 2016 9:53 pm
Reply to  lobstom

Thats great lobstom,But you have no problem comming to stock gumshoe and having travis figure out the answers to all the other paid promotions thats very hypocritical!!!!

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Playfulhair
Guest
Playfulhair
March 21, 2017 7:37 am
Reply to  Dan negrey

We’re all a good group of guys here, and Travis
Saves us a lot of money by his hard work.
It sounds like you don’t need us.

frankw17
October 6, 2016 8:20 pm
Reply to  Myron Martin

Myron, off this subject, but a stock you covered a couple years ago, $REED, is showing some monstrous insider buying over the last few weeks. It has not been uncommon to see 4 to 5 top
officers and or directors purchasing 40K to 50K shares on any given day. Is there something afoot at $REED to your knowledge?
Regards,
Frank

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edd_brady
edd_brady
October 6, 2016 11:03 pm
Reply to  Myron Martin

As a paid-up subscriber to Katusa Research, I would be greatly disappointed if someone was giving away his evaluation info on these small, “start-up” companies. His explanation of the difference in chemistry of the different types of Lithium deposits and the effect that has on the potential profitability of different mines is an example of the technical value he provides. He is a firm believer that people with proven track records are of high importance (especially in evaluating a start-up). His background in math and statistics is significant. He also has strong words for people that chase the price of his recommended stocks.
I would not hesitate to recommend his newsletter if you are comfortable with companies that will take years to play out (after all, these are companies that plan to go into production. Mines are not built in a day (some are not completed in one bull cycle).

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senior111
senior111
March 4, 2017 9:36 pm
Reply to  Myron Martin

Did you say you owned NMX years ago? It is still being peddled as a hot stock, That is unbelievable.

I am a Canadian and live about 40 miles , by water, from the Vancouver exchange, where all these penny companies listed. Also if you are interested there is website which is devoting to completely for insider trading on all Canadian stocks. This includes the penny stocks as well. The website is “Canadianinsider”
.

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wal.schwager
October 6, 2016 9:38 pm

Just heard a comment somewhere that most lithium batteries contain not much lithium. The source may have been benchmarkminerals.com Anyway, the lithium market is for day traders, fundamentals have little to do with it. Made a fair amount of money but took profits before it plunged. Sold NMX as well. I can only find analysts’ ratings for LAC, indicating substantial upside:
Lithium Americas Corp LAC BUY $1.90 Dundee Securities 13 Jun 2016
Lithium Americas LAC NEUTRAL BUY $2.00 Dundee Securities 13 May 2016
Lithium Americas LAC SPECULATIVE BUY $2.30 Mackie 20 Jun 2012

(Actually Musk also made the comment of the small portion of lithium in L-batteries)

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Sargam
Guest
Sargam
October 7, 2016 12:28 am

Stansberry hates Tesla and keeps predicting its failure. He seems to have a pretty good record in prognostication. However, other manufs. have a growing interest in electric and maybe there will be infinite gvmnt subsidies.

boskom
Guest
boskom
October 7, 2016 8:15 am

Hi Travis. Once Ford, Gm & Toyota get on board that’s when the Lithium price’s will skyrocket. As for Australian lithium mining companies. Id be taking a good hard look at Pilbara Minerals & Lithium Australia. I don’t own these stocks yet. But it wont be long before I do. Best wishes Bosko Markoski

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Shireen
Member
Shireen
October 6, 2016 11:57 pm

Thank you, good article.

surreyguy
Guest
surreyguy
October 7, 2016 1:44 am

I have been following Katusa since his Casey days. Lost a small amount of speculative money on one of his geothermal picks. When he left Casey he started his free KatusaResearch letter and gave out very accurate and detailed research on the energy and precious metals industry,etc. I think he is well respected by many within the industries he writes about. Not too long ago in his free letter he recommended Blackbird Energy giving excellent research on the company and he also put a lot of his own money into the company to help back it. I bought in around the same time when he first recommended it at 0.14. It is now at @ 0.30. I did some of my own due dillegence and can see this company trading much higher within the next couple of years. Not much has been written lately in his free letter and also have not seen any new recommendations. Probably because of his new $3500 letter. Personally I believe he’s one of the smartest stockletter guys out there. I don’t know what his Lithium pick is but if he is recommending one it is probably one of the very few that has the potential to be successful. My wild guess is it may be Bacanora (BCN). I also did some internet research on International Lithium Corp. (ILC) which has assets in Argentina, Canada and Ireland and is partnered with a large Lithium company in China. I think there is more Lithium demand and potential in China than in North America since they may have even more interest in mass producing electric cars going forward.

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Rog C
Member
Rog C
October 7, 2016 3:02 am

KENNEDY VENTURES (KENV:AIM) 2.66P
The tantalite miner was on the cusp of generating attractive
levels of cash flow when it encountered irregular metal grades and high levels of fine material in its Namibian project at the
start of 2016 as well as lithium-rich ore that the current plant wasn’t configured to recover. It was forced to undertake a
discounted placing to get money to upgrade the plant, hurting it’s share price.
Now looks like a good time to buy the shares as the upside
potential is significant over the next two to three years.
If everything goes to plan it should be producing lithium
within the next six months the commodity everyone’s talking
about, thanks to growing demand from electric vehicles and energy storage systems. The upgraded processing plant will also
enable it produce a more consistent grade of tantalite. Coinciding with the plant upgrades will be drilling to better understand the ore body and prove up a lithium resource.
Following that, it should see a further plant upgrade to produce
lithium carbonate which is the type of product used in batteries.

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Rog C
Member
Rog C
October 7, 2016 3:04 am

Sorry, meant to add Kennedy ventures is on the UK AIM market and probably can’t be bought in the US. But it seems to be doing very well. Up 40%+ in a month.

pjwa
pjwa
October 7, 2016 6:58 am

I continue to hold a small Australian Lithium stock called Neometals (NMT). Mkt cap. is only about US$150m, after pulling back 30%; but half is cash after several deals, one of which commits all production, just begun, to their Chinese partner, Ganfeng, for the next 3 years.
Neometals and partners are establishing a traditional sulphate/caustic soda plant in Western Australia to make lithium hydroxide. But NMT also has a patented ‘Eli process’ which will create LiOH and Lithium Carbonate from salar brines at a much cheaper cost. This is still in development, though proved feasible.
Separately they have a patented process for Titanium at a quarter the cost……

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colbillseals
colbillseals
October 7, 2016 8:30 am

Katusa’s “Best Lithium Stock” may indeed take off, if Hillary (aka. Crook) is elected. Frank Giustra is the Canadian who sold most of our uranium reserves to the Russians by crawling into bed with the Clinton Foundation when HC was Sec. of State. want to know more? Read “Clinton Cash” by Peter Schweizer.

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Opposeablethumb
Irregular
October 7, 2016 11:03 am

Re-posting from a previous Friday file. Realize you have been busy and at a conference, so I am not complaining. Love the new search capabilities, very powerful.

Travis: Do you have concerns with $CRTO. allegations by Steel House that they are using click farms, 25% of clicks are from three users. Do they get paid by sales results or clicks? Have been in $CRTO, currently out but interested at this price.

Thanks for all you do!

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captainkirko
Member
captainkirko
October 7, 2016 1:32 pm

Lithium 7/10/16

I have been quite interested in which Lithium company would offer up the best future for my portfolio, as a small cap buyer. I hate this particular point that we find ourselves at- that of which company is still going to be in business several years down the road, which company management team is the best, which company is a pump and dumper and which is just blowing smoke up our you know what, and which company has any Lithium holdings at all?

Personally I had to come to some Lithium decision as it is almost 2017 and Musk’s Gigafactory should come on line this year coming and all things being considered and weighed, I chose to go with Orocobre and not Lithium X. I hope I weighed all aspects correctly ( hoping all info gathered was truthful and when would some legal attack rear it’s ugly face and blow my money and decision all to cr-p.)

I truly hate it when we have to make decisions on make believe information from hucksters and flim flam liars.

Sorry for being long winded, but boy it feels good to say that, finally.

CAPTAINKIRKO

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russwkennel
October 15, 2016 1:55 am

Try PEMIF. Any bets?

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YOU BRIGHTEN MY DAY oss.
October 8, 2016 1:08 pm

Not only do you do a great job, which saves me from stupid decisions, I love your witt. Thank You for being there

gridflash
Member
gridflash
October 19, 2016 1:37 am

Well if Katusa’s pumping Neo Lithium it’s certainly going in the wrong direction…

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whitenorth
whitenorth
October 22, 2016 7:35 pm
Reply to  gridflash

Should one consider Neo at this level being sure that it is Katusas recommendation?
Is the value and potential as he defines them for his new lithium company?

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SCOTT
Member
SCOTT
December 7, 2016 11:38 pm

I BOUGHT LITH X AND LITH A FEW THOUSAND EA,-SEE WHERE IT GOES

Brett
Member
March 7, 2017 12:48 pm

CYP.V tiny 3 million market cap
Ask your stock broker about Cypress Development CYP.V Their property borders Pure Energy and Albemarle as well as (Advanced Lithium / Nevada Sunrise). All 3 have brine wells. Cypress has very high grade Lithium at surface and is going to start drilling it this week. ONLY 3 million market cap… risk reward for this one. Not a recommendation as I am not a stock broker.

Just look at the map for one minute.

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