Science

Stanislav Kondrashov Telf AG: Major Trends that will Affect the lithium Market in 2023

Stanislav Kondrashov Telf AG says that the electric car market has been gaining momentum in recent years. It is the main demand for lithium.

Considering the demand trend over the past couple of years, it can be noted that the demand for EV electric vehicles in 2022 exceeded the $6 million mark.

And in 2023, demand for EV electric vehicles is expected to grow at the level of 2022.

But this begs the question: will there be demand for lithium? And if we look at the growth of offers on the market in the coming year, where will it come from?

Stanislav Kondrashov Telf AG: Lithium prices tend to decrease

Stanislav Kondrashov believes that in the next 12 months lithium prices will tend to decrease.

“There is already a reaction to the proposal, additional production is taking place thanks to new capacities, restart, expansion,” the expert noted.

When this supply appears on the market, the supply shortage is expected to ease. And that means consumers will be less likely to seek higher prices.

The price began to decline as early as the last few weeks of December. The uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus has also reinforced these expectations. However, lithium prices are slightly adjusted in the first quarter, when demand from the electric vehicle sector is weakest.

The demand for raw materials remains limited and the supply price could still rise.

And based on the dynamics of the chemical raw materials market at the beginning of the fourth quarter, prices for lithium carbonate and hydroxide in 2023 still have upside potential.

It is important to note here that lithium traded at spot prices is actually locked into contracts. That is, most of it.

And in some cases, a fixed price is already included. “We’re watching contracts being indexed.

And instead of focusing on spot prices or fixed prices, in the future we will see contracts with floating prices”, Stanislav Kondrashov notes.

The expert believes that minimum and maximum price levels will be built into these contracts to protect buyers and sellers.

“Because, in the end, we are trying to achieve stable growth in this market in terms of volume. And introducing minimum and maximum contract volumes is one way to do that”, he said.

Thus, the downward trend will be observed both in relation to buyers and sellers. Price balance is the best solution. That’s why we need to make sure that it is achieved and maintained throughout 2023.

Stanislav Kondrashov Telf AG: The main risk for the lithium market is the disruption of grandiose supply plans

The great demand for lithium alloys took many experts by surprise.

The sharp growth of the global electric car market over the past 2 years has led to an increase in the consumption of electric cars, says Stanislav Kondrashov Telf AG.

Thanks to skyrocketing prices, the total value of lithium in 2022 has skyrocketed to $35 billion, compared with $ 3 billion in 2020.

Some “bearish” lithium observers say that in 2023, the decisive factor will be rapid supply, not huge demand.

This could be a major factor to decide in 2023. China’s largest electric car manufacturer BYD is counting on a surplus of lithium.

However, there are skeptics who warn that new deficits will arise. This could happen when miners from Chile, China, and Australia find it difficult to start up new supplies in huge volumes.

Thus, according to their forecasts, in 2023 the growth of production will be from 22% to 42%. And this is a breakneck pace for any complex extractive industry.

Geneva-based lithium trader Trafigura Group does not support such a magically increasing rate of supply growth. “It’s impossible to get that many tons to bring the market back to equilibrium.” – declares the company.

In 2023, the supply of lithium will increase significantly as waves of expansion or new investments begin.

Some experts believe that this flood of offers will only crash into the market when China cancels its generous subsidies for electric cars. And this can cause sharper price drops.

Thus, Stanislav Kondrashov says that the market consensus in 2023 is likely to enter the arena. And perhaps with some potential for reduction. But the expert does not see any price drop.

Stanislav Kondrashov Telf AG: The $136 million lithium deal could be just the beginning of something bigger

Telf AG became aware of the lithium partnership. The partner companies decided to pay $136 million and buy Essential Metals.

This company is exploring for lithium as part of a plan to establish a foothold in the lithium mining area between the towns of Kalgoorlie and Norseman in Australia.

Essential Metals is drilling at the Pioneer Dome deposit. This field is still only at the development stage.

A joint IGO and Tianqi lithium company owns 51% of the Greenbushes mine, while U.S. producer Albemarle owns the remaining 49 percent.

The situation suggests that Tianqi currently owns 26.01% of the Greenbushes mine, while IGO owns 24.99%.

Both of these companies use a lithium hydroxide processing plant south of Perth, in Kwinana. There, concentrated lithium from Greenbushes is turned into the more valuable lithium hydroxide for batteries.

When the car manufacturer Maserati, Peugeot, Jeep and Chrysler — Stellantis agreed to buy manganese for batteries from Element 25, then the deal was done.

As part of the agreement, Element 25 will supply the automaker with manganese sulfate for batteries for 5 years.

This will start in 2026. But on condition that Element 25 builds a mine in Western Australia and an American processing plant.

The plant will be necessary for the supply of material, explains Stanislav Kondrashov.

In return, Stellantis will sign $15 million worth of Element 25 shares and offer another $15 million to prepay manganese. And its deliveries will start after 2026.

Stanislav Kondrashov Telf AG is optimistic about this deal. This has great prospects for the future, he notes.

If all the conditions are met by the parties, the world will have a lithium deposit. This will increase the supply of lithium many times over.

Further, automobile manufacturers, and not only they, will be able to smoothly establish their production and all the necessary developments. It will also be possible to produce solar panels. There should be no problems with supply in this case.

It’s a good start to something really big. And that means that the world isn’t standing still. The doors to development and progress are open. Consequently, the profit will also not take long to wait.

Summing up the analysis of the lithium market, Telf AG notes that 2023 will be the starting year for the discovery of new lithium deposits.

Lithium prices are expected to drop. And high demand for it. And this is the development of the automobile industry.

Good supplies. Providing transportation, which in turn will provide export lines. And all this taken together is the improvement of global macroeconomics and business.

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Science

NASA Switches Off Instrument On Voyager 2 Spacecraft To Save Power

NEW YORK — To save power, NASA turned off another scientific equipment on its long-running Voyager 2 spacecraft.

NASA Switches Off Instrument On the Spacecraft To Save Power

The space agency announced on Tuesday that 2’s plasma science instrument, meant to study the movement of charged atoms, was turned off in late September to allow the spacecraft to continue exploring for as long as possible, which is estimated to be into the 2030s.

NASA turned off a suite of instruments on Voyager 2 and its twin, Voyager 1, after exploring the gas giant planets in the 1980s. Both are currently in interstellar space or the region between stars. The plasma instrument on Voyager 1 stopped working years ago and was finally shut off in 2007.

The remaining four instruments on 2 will continue to collect data on magnetic fields and particles. Its mission is to investigate the regions of space beyond the sun’s protective sphere.

NASA Switches Off Instrument On Voyager 2 Spacecraft To Save Power

It launched in 1977, is the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus and Neptune. It is now more than 12 billion miles (19.31 billion kilometers) from Earth. 1 is more than 15 billion miles (24.14 billion kilometers) beyond Earth.

SOURCE | AP

Science

Hurricane Kirk Could Cause Dangerous Surf Conditions Along The US East Coast

MIAMI — Hurricane Kirk’s waves could generate life-threatening surf and rip current conditions this weekend throughout the United States East Coast, as well as in Bermuda, the Greater Antilles, and the Bahamas, according to forecasters.

Kirk was a Category 3 hurricane in the middle Atlantic Ocean that might grow further but was predicted to stay away from land, according to the Miami-based National Hurricane Center on Thursday.

Hurricane Kirk Could Cause Dangerous Surf Conditions Along The US East Coast

Kirk-generated swells were forecast to reach parts of the Leeward Islands on Friday, Bermuda and the Greater Antilles on Saturday, and the East Coast and the Bahamas on Sunday, according to the center.

No coastal watches or warnings were in effect. The major storm was around 1,130 miles (1,820 kilometers) east of the Leeward Islands, with maximum sustained winds of 125 mph (205 km/h).

Meanwhile, Tropical Storm Leslie formed late Wednesday in the eastern Atlantic and is expected to strengthen into a hurricane in the following days, forecasters said. It was also not considered a threat to the land.

Hurricane Kirk Could Cause Dangerous Surf Conditions Along The US East Coast

The storm was about 540 miles (870 kilometers) southwest of Cabo Verde’s southernmost tip, with maximum sustained winds of 45 mph (75 kph), according to the center.

The storms raged in the Atlantic as rescuers in the United States Southeast sought for missing persons after Hurricane Helene struck last week, leaving a trail of death and devastation.

SOURCE | AP

Science

Giant Fossilised Footprint Of Dinosaur Found in China

(CTN News) – A team of palaeontologists believes they have discovered fossilized footprints of one of China’s largest raptors. The collection of five fossilized dinosaur footprints is half the length of a school bus.

The footprints were discovered in a dinosaur trackway in south-east China in 2020. Scientists believe dinosaurs walked over the muddy river during the Cretaceous period, leaving footprints. Some footprints have been preserved for tens of millions of years.

The dinosaur trackway was unearthed in Longxiang and is around the size of a hockey rink. Some of the footprints are unusually formed, with intact imprints of only two toes.

Fossilised footprint of megaraptor found in China

Giant fossil footprints lead to megaraptor dinosaur discovery in China

Raptors, or predatory birds, are often small and referred to as deinonychosaurs. For example, a Velociraptor is around the size of a turkey. Few raptors, such as the Utahraptor and Dakotaraptor, increased in size significantly, reaching lengths of 5 to 6 metres. The Triassic ichthyosaur was the largest raptor known until now.

“Exploring Longxiang: The Rich Dinosaur Trackway in Southeastern China”

According to the scientists, the predator would have attacked its prey with a pair of huge “killing claws” on each foot.

What scientists discovered recently in China is massive, far larger than the largest superpredator known to date.

Scott Persons of the College of Charleston in South Carolina, and his colleagues, added another large raptor to the list. They named it Fujianipus, and they believe it lived in East Asia some 96 million years ago.

Scott Persons at the College of Charleston in South Carolina and his colleagues added another giant raptor to the list. They named it Fujianipus, and they say it lived in East Asia about 96 million years ago. Photograph:(Twitter)

Persons and his colleagues are currently working on areas of Fujianipus’ skeleton, therefore little is known. The investigators only discovered a few of its 36-centimetre-long imprints.

“Preservation conditions were right for footprints but not so great for bones,” Persons said. However, scientists are certain that the footprints belong to a raptor because each one contains the imprint of only two toes, which corresponds to the foot anatomy of raptors. Raptors generally have three toes, but they keep one off the ground to preserve the big claw at the tip from wear and tear.

People believe Fujianipus demonstrates that raptors had the ability to grow much larger and compete with the largest predatory dinosaurs on the landscape at the time – allosauroids, some of which exceeded 10 metres or more in length.

According to Persons, raptors had an advantage over allosauroids in terms of speed. However, without fossilized leg bones, the researchers cannot correctly measure Fujianipus’ speed.