Toyota follows Magna's footsteps - who is next? Nissan? Japan Auto? Germans? TNR.v CLQ.v RM.v WLC.v AVL.v

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/toyota-tsusho-shares-jump-on-lithium-news-2010-01-19

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Toyota Tsusho Corp. (JP:8015 1,489, +84.00, +5.98%) rose as high as 11% early Wednesday, amid reports that the trading company, in which Toyota Motor Corp. (JP:7203 4,105, -35.00, -0.85%) (TM 89.01, -2.77, -3.02%) (TOYOF 44.75, +0.50, +1.13%) owns a large stake, has secured a long-term source of lithium, used in hybrid and electric-car batteries. The lithium project, sited in Argentina, could begin commercial production by 2012, according to reports. Shares of Toyota Tsusho later eased back, though were still up 8%, while those of Toyota Motor rose nearly 1%, roughly in line with gains enjoyed by other car makers

Even Bloomberg was no different with their own lengthy article - making sure lithium story is front and center.

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aEDl1P8WwxJw

Toyota, Orocobre Partner to Develop Lithium Project (Update2)

By Nichola Saminather

Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- A Toyota Motor Corp. affiliate will partner with Orocobre Ltd., an Australian mineral-exploration company, to develop a mine in Argentina that will provide raw materials for vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries.

Orocobre will set up a joint venture with Toyota Tsusho Corp., 22 percent owned by the world’s largest carmaker, to develop its Salar de Olaroz lithium potash project in Argentina’s Jujuy province, the Milton, Australia-based company said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.

Toyota Tsusho will take a 25 percent stake in the project and will provide $4.5 million for a feasibility study, as well as a low-cost Japanese government loan to fund at least 60 percent of the project’s development. This means Orocobre won’t need additional funding for development, Managing Director Richard Seville said in the statement.

“Toyota Tsusho becoming our strategic partner allows Olaroz direct access to Toyota Motor Corp. and its partners such as Panasonic and Sanyo,” Seville said. “These companies have significant expertise and understanding of supply requirements in large format lithium-ion batteries for the automotive industry and consumer sector.”

Orocobre shares surged as much as 46 percent to A$2.04 and traded at A$1.80 as of 1:13 p.m. in Sydney. Toyota Tsusho shares gained 8 percent to 1,518 yen, after earlier jumping as much as 15 percent, the most since October 2005.

‘World-Class’ Deposit

Toyota Tsusho is seeking reliable, low-cost supplies to meet rising demand for lithium-ion batteries for automobiles, the Nagoya, Japan-based company said in the statement.

“The size and quality of the deposit is world-class and we believe will produce high-purity, battery-grade materials required for the global battery industry at a cost that is competitive,” Toyota Tsusho said.

Orocobre will own the remaining 75 percent of the project after construction is completed, and will operate the joint venture, the Australian company said.

Construction is expected to be completed by early 2011, and the mine will be operational by the end of that year, Orocobre spokesman Paul Ryan said in a telephone interview.

Toyota Motor plans to begin retail sales of a plug-in version of its Prius hybrid car powered by a lithium-ion battery in about two years. It also intends to introduce a short- distance pure electric car in 2012.

Toyota established a joint venture in 2007 with Panasonic Corp., then Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., to ensure supplies of lithium-ion batteries for the automaker’s planned plug-in hybrid cars. Panasonic purchased 50.2 percent of battery maker Sanyo Electric Co. last month.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nichola Saminather in Sydney at nsaminather1@bloomberg.net

Toyota is Toyota. Knowing what you know about their ability to innovate into new markets (Toyota Prius in North America...think about it)...would you think they'd want to not hedge their bets on a reliable supply of lithium?

Hard to get more credible than the largest automaker in the world. Are you still doubting lithium's future?

Google "Argentina Lithium" and see what you come up with. There are more and more OTC promo plays - stick to the quality TSX guys. Even Tischendorf's Trend analysis letter has put in a recommendation for the below lithium sector companies.

Tischendorf plays a combination of trend analysis and fundamental and seems to have done quite good. Best part, he offers the service free of charge - allowing complete transparency. It's almost like he's done so well already he is using his articles merely to keep track of his own thoughts. Whatever it is sir, we solute you.

On January 24th he says lithium sector is displaying technical strength. Talk about good timing! Magna and Toyota both buys into Argentina. Coincidence? His lithium sector picks, funny enough include few of our frequently covered juniors.

Great minds think alike, if we may say so?

For a comparison of relative strength within the Lithium sector check my Lithium Sector Overview Chart. The stocks listed in the overview chart are:

• SQM – Sociedad Quimica Y Minera ( Chile)
  
• WLC.V – Western Lithium Canada
• RM.V – Rodinia Minerals
• TNR.V – TNR Gold
• CLQ.V – Canada Lithium
• LI.V – Lithium One

By Nichola Saminather

Jan. 20 (Bloomberg) -- A Toyota Motor Corp. affiliate will partner with Orocobre Ltd., an Australian mineral-exploration company, to develop a mine in Argentina that will provide raw materials for vehicles powered by lithium-ion batteries.

Orocobre will set up a joint venture with Toyota Tsusho Corp., 22 percent owned by the world’s largest carmaker, to develop its Salar de Olaroz lithium potash project in Argentina’s Jujuy province, the Milton, Australia-based company said in a statement to the Australian Stock Exchange.

Toyota Tsusho will take a 25 percent stake in the project and will provide $4.5 million for a feasibility study, as well as a low-cost Japanese government loan to fund at least 60 percent of the project’s development. This means Orocobre won’t need additional funding for development, Managing Director Richard Seville said in the statement.

“Toyota Tsusho becoming our strategic partner allows Olaroz direct access to Toyota Motor Corp. and its partners such as Panasonic and Sanyo,” Seville said. “These companies have significant expertise and understanding of supply requirements in large format lithium-ion batteries for the automotive industry and consumer sector.”

Orocobre shares surged as much as 46 percent to A$2.04 and traded at A$1.80 as of 1:13 p.m. in Sydney. Toyota Tsusho shares gained 8 percent to 1,518 yen, after earlier jumping as much as 15 percent, the most since October 2005.

‘World-Class’ Deposit

Toyota Tsusho is seeking reliable, low-cost supplies to meet rising demand for lithium-ion batteries for automobiles, the Nagoya, Japan-based company said in the statement.

“The size and quality of the deposit is world-class and we believe will produce high-purity, battery-grade materials required for the global battery industry at a cost that is competitive,” Toyota Tsusho said.

Orocobre will own the remaining 75 percent of the project after construction is completed, and will operate the joint venture, the Australian company said.

Construction is expected to be completed by early 2011, and the mine will be operational by the end of that year, Orocobre spokesman Paul Ryan said in a telephone interview.

Toyota Motor plans to begin retail sales of a plug-in version of its Prius hybrid car powered by a lithium-ion battery in about two years. It also intends to introduce a short- distance pure electric car in 2012.

Toyota established a joint venture in 2007 with Panasonic Corp., then Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., to ensure supplies of lithium-ion batteries for the automaker’s planned plug-in hybrid cars. Panasonic purchased 50.2 percent of battery maker Sanyo Electric Co. last month.

To contact the reporter on this story: Nichola Saminather in Sydney at nsaminather1@bloomberg.net

Warning : FACEBOOK Dell Laptop Giveaway is a scam!!! Buyer beware - Data Mining, Scam, FB, Dell, telemarketing

New scams pop up everyday - especially when economy hits hard.

Latest scam trend is based on the popular social-media tool, Facebook. Here at Mining101 we like to keep ourselves updated with the latest and greatest, and thus FB is a common tool we use in surveying general population's tastes and future trends.

Data mining, in case you didn't know, is a huge multi-billion dollar business.

What these goofballs are likely up to is selling your contacts, names, addresses, and possibly demographics (if you have it on FB profile) to marketing firms.

You can say bye to having a quiet dinner when at 6pm every night a telemarketer calls to pitch you:

a) condo in West California

b) time share condos in Las Vegas

c) investment in golf course in Nevada

d) tech stocks trading on OTC below $0.001!

Just a heads up to do your due dilligence before submitting your information out to anyone on the internet!

First Toyota, now Magna, who's next?? TNR.v, MAI.to, LAT.v, MCI.v, CLQ.v, WLC.v

Remember a few months ago when the lithium rush began? Oh yes, it really hit mainstream with the cover page of Resource World featuring some of Canada exchange (TSX Venture's) best and brightest juniors.

A copy of the article found here courtesy of one of the better groups that has yielded a nice return of nearly 700%+ since the lows of 2008.

As it's been about half a year since the lithium boom (so to speak) - let's review performances so far of some of the prominent guys covered in this trade article, shall we?

Few of the heavy hitter are the majors - who we can all agree are FMC:NYSE is one of the major players.

Then there is SQM Chemetall (in Chile/Argentina area) as well, and of course our North American favorite, Rockwood Holdings (ROC:NYSE) who operates the Silverpeak Operation in Nevada.

Here's where lithium is interesting - there's not much of a mid-cap producer in lithium.

When we identify the lithium trend back in February 2009 , nobody really cared about lithium. Nowadays junior companies, both credible ones and overly-promotional groups (American Lithium AMLM, Lomiko, and Li3Metals come to mind...), are all showing off their shiny lithium / REE acquisitions.

Which ones have done well? See the comparison below. TNR has done exceptionally well compared to lithium juniors - arguably even better once its new public entity is fully trading.

International Lithium Corp is expected to have about 25 million shares outstanding and $2 million dollars operating capital.

1) TNR Gold Corp (TNR.v TSX)(aka. International Lithium) - You can't blame us for liking this group. Back in the lows of last year, these guys held up their head, raised financing, and started acquiring lithium and rare metal assets like no tomorrow...knowing the trend's in their favor.

Following our recommendation to load up and average down back in February 2009, you would be up nearly 800-900% depending on your base.

In fact, their idea about spinning off a new public companies to shareholders was a direct copy of Western Lithium's hugely successful divestiture from Western Uranium.

TNR is now trading at around $0.33 - $0.36 range. Excellent entry point considering its one of the cheaper lithium juniors that have credibility, nice diversified assets, and upside potential still.

We anticipate a run-up in prices as the spinoff of International Lithium (ILC:TSX?) approaches. Management has indicated timeframe of before April 2010. (first quarter).

2) Orocobre on the Australian Exchange (ORE :ASX) - the recent Toyota deal has really made this stock fly further. When we first mentioned ORE:ASX, they were a relatively unknown company on the ASX, quietly developing their high potential lithium brine in Argentina.

They have a nice resource estimate and advancing to a $5 million prefeasibility. Being one of the most advanced groups in Argentina (other than producers) gave ORE a huge advantage.

Local US (Houston) venture capitalist Calaway group (J. Calaway) is the proud entrepreneur behind this deal. If you check his background you will see he is well respected in Houston and has advanced many social projects and non-profits. This is the credibility we like to see. As an aside we believe TNR and its new subsidiary has the potential to be the next ORE...they are even using the same engineering group in Argentina and arguably has a larger brine nearby.

Mining101 first picked up ORE:ASX around $0.30 around early 2009. It closed around $1.80 today.

3) Rodinia Minerals - Dropping their uranium credits, RM.V has done a 180-degree and became an entirely lithium-based explorer following their success in Nevada. Their projects are awfully close to TNR Gold / International Lithium's.

Having recently hired promotional speaker, Peter Grandich to hype the stock, RM has continued to step up, closing at $0.61 this weekend.

4) Western Lithium - While I don't believe in the lithium from clay business model at all. (see my past entries on WLC), I have to say WLC has done an excellent job attracting the big players from the get-go. Careful digging will reveal they seem to have the blessing of the Ivanhoe group.

Knowing Robert Friedland is thinking about lithium and future energy issues - makes me smile that I have some money on lithium. Potash One anyone?

5) Canada Lithium - if you like hard rock lithium production, be our guests! We don't believe its' economical and the famous TANCO Mine in Canada easily proves that.

Sporadic mine work stoppages when lithium prices dip and switching to tantalum/rare metals production is not our idea of a steady cash flow.

Worse yet, I don't believe there's any rare metals reserves at CLQ's Quebec Mine.

If you got in at the $0.25 financing, I would look for an exit around $0.60. Producing from hard rock is far too uneconomical, and with SQM cutting 20% of prices it literally puts resources such as CLQ out of business.

Recent drop of their Nevada brine also makes me worry of longterm prospects of CLQ. No major automotive groups or end users have elected to adopt a hard rock project (esp one w/o rare metals / REE credits!)

Its no wonder they dropped it. Read the NR yourself!! At less than 10% of equivalent PPM at Western Lithium, only guys who would pick it up later would be American Lithium!! Don't you love drama in the mining juniors weekly?!

Gold Summit loses Nevada lithium JV partner

2009-11-05 12:21 ET - News Release

Ms. Andrea Rascati reports

GOLD SUMMIT GAINS 100% INTEREST IN NEVADA LITHIUM BRINE EXPLORATION: JOINT VENTURE PARTNER WITHDRAWS

Gold Summit Corp. has received notice today that Canada Lithium Corp. has withdrawn from the Nevada lithium brine joint venture in order to concentrate on its Quebec lithium pegmatite resource. Canada Lithium held a 75-per-cent interest in the joint venture.

Analytical results from the first test well drilled by the joint venture in the Paymaster area are now available. They show that the saline water encountered below 150 metres contains only weakly anomalous lithium values (eight parts per million) despite the highly anomalous values in the containing clastic sediments. These average 316 parts per million lithium between 150 and 365 metres, in a range between 130 parts per million and 940 parts per million lithium. These high indicate that some lithium clays, probably hectorite, are present, but could not be competitive with other hectorite-bearing clay deposits with lithium values in the 3,500 parts per million range.

Commenting on the drilling results, Dr. Anthony P. Taylor, chief executive officer of Gold Summit, said: "We are obviously disappointed that our first well does not contain economic levels in brines, but the lithium-enriched sediments indicate that abundant source rocks are present. We now have a 100-per-cent interest in the project that includes a large database and some 15 other target areas. We are in the exploration business and success is rarely immediate. Given suitable funding, we plan to continue the search for a new economic lithium brine deposit, although not to the detriment of our core high-grade gold and silver efforts."

Larry Kornze, a GSM director and a registered professional geologist, designated as the qualified person under National Instrument 43-101, has reviewed and approved the contents of this news release.

We seek Safe Harbor.

____

List of questionable Lithium Juniors

1) First Lithium (MCI.v) - Alberta Lithium brines, not to mention the group famously jumps on any promotable commodity of the day worries us due to lack of longterm credibility.

2) American Lithium (AMLM.OB) - OTCBB companies scare the heck out of us. And we are a fairly accredited group of investors who knows our way around financial statements, filings, etc. Thing is, there ISN'T much fililngs around AMLM.

The fact they're hyping small Nevada footprint projects they have as Saudi Arabia of Lithium is scary enough. I'd expect SEC to step in any minute now...

Short sell AMLM, anyone? It's on a huge down trend.

3) Lomiko Mines - LMK.V - Let me know? Aside from the odd name, virtually unheard of lithium junior came from a relatively unsuccessful TSX junior that has dabbled in

4) Li3 Energy - you gotta see the website! It's a guarantee to bring a smile to your face.

Dear sakes, the investor page is branded with a bulls-eye-mark on a wad of cash!! Now I'm not sure what says credibility, but last I checked most regulatory bodies in the world would frown upon that.

Short term trading yes - not a chance in the world a credible company will be associated with these clowns.

Don't worry there's more to come.

Happy New Years & 2009 In Review

A Year for Commodities and proven supply and demand of the market - best sums up 2009. January 2009, in retrospect, felt like digging out from a fresh grave dug only a few months ago with the subprime mortgage fiasco only beginning to rear its head.

Since then, commodities have surged back to 2007 levels and beyond, with very good reasons.

Sidebar shows various pricing charts of base and precious metal price levels.

Various experts such as RBC's George Gero has begun chiming in how 2010 should look even brighter for gold and the other hard assets.

2010 Gold Outlook

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- George Gero, vice president of global futures at RBC Capital Markets, says gold technicals are strong and prices will hit $1,200 as an upside for this year.

http://www.thestreet.com/video/index.html#60288492001

Here's to another great year of investment gains, health, and prosperity!!