Yeah, but that's my point [not that it's over your head, which I doubt].
There is essentially no cobalt in Japan. My text coming from 1992, doesn't even mention use of cobalt in batteries. What do they make in Japan? Well they make a hell of a lot of tires, paint, machine tools, co containing batteries and stainless steel. I don't know if they make gas turbines, I thought that was primarily US, Europe and Russia.
Their traditional source is Africa, and Glencore was supposed to backstop them with Australian output. Due to "anticipated start up problems" (yeah, right) there is no Australian production. Glencore being private can't raise funds to meet their contractural committments or to invest in MM. Anglo will float a ton of stock, buy out Glencore and throw a bunch of money at Anaconda, which depending on your point of view, is the best thing since sliced bread or a rathole. Anglo's got time and money, and so if MM works out, they can ration delivery (check out Oppenheimer, DeBeers and diamonds) to set price where they want it.
This will ramp up Co price, and Sheppard, I assume, is paying some percentage of market price to CMR.
The situation in Zambia continues to deteriorate. On 7/29 4 miners were killed in a mudslide at 7/29. This week one miner was killed in Nkama, and one seriously injured at Mafulira, all ZCCM projects. In your basic socialist/communist state owned project, no money is spent on maintenance or on safety training as the object is to make some money for the state and keep as many people employed as possible. Costs which can be foregone, such as maintenance are. This is the story all over Africa. The infrastructure has simply vaporized from lack of maintenance and they are about 5 decades behind where they were when the colonialists left.
Found out a little more about the electricity grid in Zambia. It is undergoing a 4 year, 205 mil US rehab program including hydro at Vic Falls, hydro at Kafue Gorge (separate budget of $270 mil), Kariba N. power station (dam on the Great Zambezi, below Victoria and above Kafue Gorge, transmission system and Copperbelt distribution system.
Another article in one of the Zambian paper's today, said that average household electricity bill is on the order of 200k kwaza (sp?) and average household income is 150 k.
How do you ship Co and Cu in a country like this. There is a hydro station at Niagara Falls, that feed Ontario Hydro and Niagara Mohawk. They've had some problems in recent years with zebra mussels in the intake valves, but I've been in the area for 30 years, and I haven't heard of any massive rehab. We get ripped off for power to the tune of 8 c/kwh hr, but our electricity bill doesn't exceed household income. What happens in Zambia? The water is free, so no fuel cost to turn the turbines. Capital cost is all foreign loans that don't get repaid, so on occasion you make an interest payment until foreign creditors wave loan. How do their costs get so high that poor Zambian families, who cook with kero, and whose electricity probably consists of a small refrigerator and a few lights and a radio, have an electricity bill in excess of take home pay?
What happens? I'm sure they all just ignore the bill, just as ERB told Copperfields Elect. Corp. to supply Roan for free.
The whole structure is rotten. Production is way down. In the next 6 months, we should increasingly here of power disruptions to add to AIDS and no domestic diesel to add to their problems.
Back to Ni for a moment, and then I will sign off (probably to the great relief of many readers).
Electric scooter road test; Evercel patented Ni-Zn vs. Lead acid.
8/12: Evercel is pleased to announce that Xiamen 3 Circles has succesfully completed a road test comparing Evercel/s Ni-Zn battery to an equivalent sized lead acid battery. The test was designed to determine the total lifetime range of both the Ni-Zn and Pb-acid batteries in a side by side simulation test according to the Taiwanese Govt's ECE-40B testing standard. The total life distance obtained by the Ni-Zn equipped scooter was twice the total life distance of the Pb-Zn.
In Taiwan, electic scooter sales are 33k/pa. The batteries are also used in electric bicycles, 3 wheel vehicles, off road vehicles and miners safety lamps on an exclusive basis (for Evercel and 3 circles) in China and non-exclusive in SE Asia.
There are govt incentives in Taiwan at least, to increase electric scooter sales.
Now how many scooters are there in mainland China? How many is SE Asia? How many in India, Pakistan. Pop of China is 1.2 billion and I think India is 900 mil. Indonesia alone is almost as populous as US. How much Ni per battery?
A whole nother use boys, and as they work out the bugs on scooters, car batteries will move along.
It's been a long time coming, it's gonna be a long time gone. |
