SP Angel – Morning View – Friday 01 02 19
Prices retreat as China growth concerns resurface
MiFID II exempt information – see disclaimer below
Altus Strategies* (LON:ALS) - Termination of Letter of Intent with Raptor Resources for Morocco Subsidiary
Bushveld Minerals* (LON:BMN) –Investor site visit to Eskom highlights potential for new growth
Thor Mining* (LON:THR) – Appointment of SP Angel joint broker
China offers Xi meeting with Trump
- China trade negotiators are proposing a meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping and US President Donald Trump, to take place in China, according to the Wall Street Journal.
- Trump, in a tweet earlier on Thursday, said no trade deal would be final until he met with Xi "in the near future."
- President Donald Trump said Thursday that Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer will visit China in mid-February to hold the next round of talks.
- China promised to “substantially” expand the purchases of U.S. goods and both sides agreed to meet again in Beijing later this month.
- The meeting offers a chance to resolve extended and escalating trade threats, which would provide serious positive stimulus to global markets.
Dow Jones Industrials
-0.06%
at
25,000
Nikkei 225
+0.07%
at
20,788
HK Hang Seng
-0.04%
at
27,931
Shanghai Composite
+1.30%
at
2,618
FTSE 350 Mining
+0.27%
at
18,719
AIM Basic Resources
+0.23%
at
2,210
Economics
Currencies
US$1.1456/eur vs 1.1497/eur yesterday Yen 109.04/$ vs 108.72/$ SAr 13.318/$ vs 13.337/$ $1.305/gbp vs $1.314/gbp 0.726/aud vs 0.727/aud CNY 6.736/$ vs 6.707/$
Commodity News
Precious metals:
Gold US$1,319/oz vs US$1,321/oz yesterday
Gold ETFs 73.3moz vs US$73.1moz yesterday
Platinum US$825/oz vs US$819/oz yesterday
Palladium US$1,357/oz vs US$1,364/oz yesterday
Silver US$15.96/oz vs US$16.04/oz yesterday
Base metals:
Prices retreat as China growth concerns resurface
- As prices record their best month in more than a year, most industrial metals declined in London after China’s factory output slumped, stocking fresh demand concerns.
- The Caixin IHS Market private factory gauge contracted for a second month in January, missing estimates and hitting the lowest level since February 2016. On Thursday, the official PMI indicated the manufacturing slowdown may be easing, though it still signaled a contraction.
- Winter production caps can influence output, as Chalco puts facilities at Shandong Huayu Alloy Materials Co. on “flexible production,” affecting about 200,000t of capacity.
Copper US$ 6,116/t vs US$6,168/t yesterday
Aluminium US$ 1,895/t vs US$1,915/t yesterday
Nickel US$ 12,540/t vs US$12,425/t yesterday
Zinc US$ 2,725/t vs US$2,718/t yesterday
Lead US$ 2,105/t vs US$2,095/t yesterday
Tin US$ 20,755/t vs US$20,855/t yesterday
Energy:
Oil US$60.9/bbl vs US$62.1/bbl yesterday
Natural Gas US$2.797/mmbtu vs US$2.907/mmbtu yesterday
Uranium US$28.90/lb vs US$29.05/lb yesterday
Bulk:
Iron ore 62% Fe spot (cfr Tianjin) US$82.6/t vs US$83.0/t
Chinese steel rebar 25mm US$597.7/t vs US$600.3/t
Thermal coal (1st year forward cif ARA) US$84.3/t vs US$85.4/t
Coking coal futures Dalian Exchange US$196.3/t vs US$197.2/t
Other:
Cobalt LME 3m US$34,000/t vs US$36,000/t
China NdPr Rare Earth Oxide US$46,247/t vs US$46,444/t
China Lithium carbonate 99% US$10,022/t vs US$10,064/t
China Ferro Vanadium 80% FOB US$70.9/kg vs US$70.8/kg
China Antimony Trioxide 99.5% EU US$7.0/kg vs US$7.1/kg
Tungsten APT European US$260-270/mtu unchanged from previous week
Battery News
Sodium is the new lithium
- Researchers at the Nagoya Institute of Technology (NITech) in Japan have demonstrated that a specific material can act as an efficient battery component for sodium-ion batteries that will compete with lithium-ion batteries for several battery characteristics, especially speed of charge.
- Sodium-ion batteries are an attractive alternative to lithium-based ion batteries due to several reasons. Sodium is not a limited resource - it is abundant in the earth's crust as well as in seawater. Also, sodium-based components have a possibility to yield much faster charging time given the appropriate crystal structure design.
Nobel winning technique may help lower vehicle emissions
- Scientists say they have used a Nobel-prize winning chemistry technique on a mixture of metals to potentially reduce the cost of fuel cells used in electric cars and lower harmful emissions from conventional vehicles.
- The researchers from the University of Manchester in the UK translated a biological technique, which won the 2017 Nobel Chemistry Prize, to reveal atomic scale chemistry in metal nanoparticles.
- These materials are one of the most effective catalysts for energy converting systems such as fuel cells, according to the study.
Carbon dioxide emissions from global fisheries larger than previously thought
- Carbon dioxide emissions from the fuel burnt by fishing boats are 30% higher than previously reported, researchers with the Sea Around Us initiative at the University of British Columbia and the Sea Around Us – Indian Ocean at the University of Western Australia have found.
- In a study published in Marine Policy, the scientists show that 207mt of CO2 were released into the atmosphere by marine fishing vessels only in 2016. This is almost the same amount of CO2 emitted by 51 coal-fired power plants in the same timeframe.
- The previous data implied that fisheries contributed only 0.29% of global CO2 emissions, while the new study indicates that their contribution is almost twice that number.
Company News
Altus Strategies* (LON:ALS) 2.9p, Mkt Cap £5.2m - Termination of Letter of Intent with Raptor Resources for Morocco Subsidiary
- African focused Altus Strategies announces the Letter of Intent (“LOI”) with Raptor Resources, previously reported on 4th September 2018, to terminate by mutual consent.
- The LOI envisaged Raptor earning a 100% interest in Atlantic Resources Ltd a wholly owned subsidiary of Aterian Resources Ltd, the Company's wholly owned Moroccan focused exploration subsidiary.
- The Company will now advance discussions with other third parties who have expressed interest in Aterian. In the meantime the Company's exploration programmes in Morocco are unaffected.
*SP Angel acts as Nomad and Broker to Altus Strategies plc
Bushveld Minerals* (LON:BMN) 37.3p, Mkt Cap £416.8m –Investor site visit to Eskom highlights potential for new growth
- Bushveld took a group of investors to see the Eskom test site for new battery storage installations yesterday
- Eskom are looking to install some 800MWh of new battery capacity in an initial phase to support renewable energy projects across South Africa and have been testing battery facilities for some years.
- The new battery facilities are likely to come from a mixture of lithium-ion and vanadium redox depending on Eskom site requirements, needs of the South African power system and the results of current trials with each type of battery suitable for differing applications, among other factors.
- Vanadium Redox batteries are seen as better for larger-scale operation with longer duration and deeper energy discharge.
- There is some $200,000 worth of vanadium in the UET battery, the size of a 20 ft shipping container, installed jointly with the Industrial Development Corporation, highlighting the cost component and importance of the vanadium in the battery. Fortunately the proposed ability to lease finance the vanadium should enable the low cost effective rental of vanadium for rolling out new battery facilities.
- Eskom plan to run various protocols (trials) for 18-24 months and while they may start to order larger scale vanadium batteries for grid use in the meantime they may also discover further ‘grid’ applications for this type of battery which may increase the amount of vanadium storage they choose to order.
- If Eskom sees that it works and starts using it, other utilities and large customers will follow suit, opening up the market for energy storage and vanadium.
Conclusion: Bushveld Energy should have a good future depending on the completion of the trials which have had a good start and have run for 10 days so far.
*SP Angel act as nomad and broker to Bushveld Minerals
Thor Mining* (LON:THR) 1.3p, Mkt Cap £9.3m – Appointment of SP Angel joint broker
- The board of Thor Mining announce that pursuant to the proposed merger between SP Angel Corporate Finance and Northland Capital Partners, it has appointed SP Angel as its Joint Broker with immediate effect.
- Thor is an exploration and development company with an advanced tungsten/molybdenum project poised for development, a growing tungsten resource, an exciting copper development project, and an interest in a lithium exploration company.
*SP Angel act as joint broker to Thor Mining