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Technology Stocks : VALENCE TECHNOLOGY (VLNC) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: hcirteg who wrote (2469)	3/21/1998 5:07:00 PM
From: hcirteg	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 27311

FYI FROM YAHOO NEWS: Saturday March 21 7:44 AM EST Buffett Silver Buy May Anticipate Battery Use By Clive McKeef NEW YORK (Reuters) - Warren Buffett's purchase of 20 percent of the world's silver may anticipate a new use for the metal in fuel cells, according to an upcoming report by an industry consultant. "Scientists are racing to develop the next generation of fuel cell batteries used to power electric cars, laptop computers, cellular phones, submarines and satellites and one of the most promising is silver-zinc fuel cells," said Richard Siegel, managing partner at Chilport Proprietary Research, which is set to publish a report called "Buffett's Silver Lining" on April 6, 1998. On Feb. 3, 1998, billionaire Buffett announced that his company, Berkshire Hathaway, had bought 129.7 million ounces of silver between July 25, 1997 and Jan. 12, 1998. The company said then that he and his partner, Charles Munger, had concluded that "equilibrium between supply and demand was only likely to be established by a somewhat higher price." Buffett is chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. Spot silver bullion prices jumped to nine-year highs of $7.90 an ounce after news of Buffett's purchase, before falling back to around $5.63 an ounce this week. "We first started to look at this story," Siegel said, "when Mr. Buffett was compelled to reveal his substantial investment in silver a month prior to releasing the much-anticipated Berkshire Hathaway annual report March 14th." "To use Mr. Buffett's own baseball imagery, like all great fastball pitchers, he doesn't give anyone much to hit. The key question to us was, was he buying based on low supply or high demand? The fact that he took physical delivery of silver swayed us toward demand," Siegel said. Since Buffett is a major shareholder in Gillette, the parent company of Duracell, Siegel said his firm focused on batteries. And since Berkshire indicated it planned to hold its silver, that "pointed us toward emerging silver-use technologies, rather than established ones, like photography," Siegel said in a statement. Silver-zinc fuel cells fit the investor profile of Warren Buffett "like a batter's glove," Siegel said. High energy, rechargeable silver-zinc batteries are already used in the U.S. Navy's deep sea rescue vehicle and on the Mars Pathfinder Lander. The Mars mission, launched on Dec. 4, 1996, landed on Mars July 4. Almost all launch and main storage energy for manned space flights has been supplied by silver-zinc fuel cells. "Silver-zinc battery technology does exist and about 40 percent of the battery by weight is silver," said Paul Bateman, executive director of the Silver Institute, an industry group. "The batteries produce higher energy but have a shorter life than other technology and so far have mostly been used in defense and space applications," he said. Silver is also being used in batteries to power cars, CPR's Siegel said. A 1,900-watt, silver-zinc battery powered the Honda Dream Solar Car, which recently won a race for sun-powered cars. The car used cells that convert sunlight to electricity and were developed at the University of New South Wales. The Honda Dream Car took 33.3 hours to complete the race from Darwin to Adelaide, Australia, averaging 55 miles-per-hour. It reached a top speed of 68 mph on desert roads. Environmentalists are enthusiastic about possible widespread use of electric vehicles because they are much less polluting than conventional ones. California has mandated that "zero-emissions vehicles" be ready by shortly after 2000. "Even if Mr. Buffett bought silver simply because he likes the way it looks," Siegel said, "I think fuel cell technology is an exciting racehorse for the investment community, especially Buffett-style value investors." Spot silver prices rose 25 cents Friday to $6.20 on news of the Chiport report.