Lithium may be a light metal, but it could be the next gold, speculators suggest
Jonathan Ratner, Financial Post
Published: Saturday, August 15, 2009
The flurry of new interest surrounding lithium as the commodity of choice for a play on the emerging electric-car market has put several once-penny stocks on investors' radars. One such name is Rodinia Minerals Inc. (RM/TSX-VEN). The Vancouver-based company saw its shares jump more than 50% this week to above 65¢. It's up 1,100% in 2009. While the recent surge of interest is a result billions of dollars in subsidies for electric vehicles such as the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf, rising demand for lithium-ion batteries in products such as laptops and cellphones has also helped. Rodinia has a brine deposit in Nevada, which Rick Mills at AheadoftheHeard.comsuggests might just be America's own Saudi Arabia for lithium. While the supply-demand situation for lithium is relatively balanced, if an electric-automotive industry is in fact developed, bulls on the light metal anticipate a supply shortfall in the future.
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