How to Invest in Lithium - TNR.v, CLQ.v, MCI.v, WER.v, SOI.v, QUC.v

Other than Jim Dines |& John Kaiser - Mining101 told you about Rare Earths & Lithium first! TNR.v, CLQ.v, MCI.v, WER.v, SOI.v, QUC.v

Now that lithium has hit mainstream - it means that there are alot of confused general public investing blindly. CNBC is covering it weekly - Byron Securities are smart and picking up all the top juniors they like - financing (bought deals) already completed for TNR Gold Corp.

http://www.canadianbusiness.com/markets/marketwire/article.jsp?content=20090813_103506_10_ccn_ccn

When something uncommon like lithium attracts the attention of the investing public, the first people will flock to are the obvious players.

I) The producers - FMC, SQM, Rockwood Holdings (SilverPeak Nevada)

Unfortunately, Rockwood's already at $20/share and does not present a significant growth potential.

The $2.4 billion dollar Obama grant has tricked down to the junior's level finally (it only took weeks!) and it materialized in this form - an expansion of capacity for current producers.

According to the Obama battery stimulus plan - properties have to be in the United States.

This leaves 3 major groups who have major presence in Nevada.

Those companies may present a stable and for the most part a secure investment thanks to due dilligence being done already by major industry analysts and fund managers - but what if you are looking for higher returns like 200-300% gains?

If you followed Mining 101 from November 2008, and invested in TNR Gold (International Lithium Corp) and other mentioned companies such as RM.v, CLQ.v, and MCI.v, you would be up significantly to the tune of 500% (in case of TNR)

II) The Juniors - the next big lithium companies

1) International Lithium (4 for 1 spinoff from TNR Gold Corp - TNR:TSX)

With 2 large projects in Nevada - potential for a new lithium brine reserve and proximity to the only producing lithium brine project in US (Silverpeak) - this one is a no brainer.

Fish Lake Valley

I don't need much convincing after United States Geological Survey tells you there's lithium in 'em hills! Furthermore - they've even done sampling for you - for TNR and Int' Lithium to pick up a project of this magnitude tells you how early these guys got in...!!

Lithium brine has been known in Fish Lake Valley since the middle of the last century and received attention from the US Geological Survey during the 1970's during a lithium reconnaissance program to identify exploration targets similar to Clayton Valley. Fish Lake Valley is one of the two most prospective areas identified in that study. In spite of this recommendation, the valley does not appear to have received much serious attention.

Drilling and surface brine sampling was conducted by the USGS during the 1970s.

USGS Drilling at Fish Lake Valley
	Lithium in Sediments		Lithium in Water
Hole Name	Samples	Li (ppm)	Samples	Li (ppb)
FL-11	45	9 to 99	1	30
FL-11a	67	10 to 115	4	160 to 21,000
FL-12	11	65 to 240	1	5,700
FL-12a	27	30 to 409		420 to 890

Compare those results ppb to other current producers - I think you will understand why this company has gone from $0.03 lows of 2009 to $0.37 high last week.

Mudd Lake

Twenty Placer Claims (3,200 acres) have been located within Mud Lake Basin. The claim block is situated about 10 miles southeast of Tonopah, Nevada. The basin is accessible by non-maintained roads passable by two-wheel drive vehicles. Mud Lake occupies a depression in the southern end of Ralston Valley. The basin is approximately 5 miles wide and 5 miles long and has a surface area of about 25 square miles. The playa is bounded by the Cactus Range and Monitor Hills to the east, Goldfields, Nevada to the south, Alkali Valley to the west, and Ralston Valley to the north.

This group has gone up significantly from its lows of 200 *$0.035 to highs of $0.37. Upside remains one of the best of all the lithium juniors - and the fact they got in lithium so early means TNR can likely option projects off to late-comers such as LMR, SOI, MCI, EFG, and many other junior companies looking to raise cash through getting the commodity-of-the-month.

2) Canada Lithium Corp (aka. Black Pearl Mining)

Originally only looking to refurbish and restart pegmatite Quebec mine in Canada, CLQ has since then started exploring options in Nevada's Great Basin for lithium brines.

Biggest portfolio holders of lithium brines in Nevada remains to be TNR Gold (TNR:TSX International Lithium) and Rodinia Minerals (RM:TSX)

CLQ has gone up significantly and remains a wise investment choice. It would be very interesting to keep watch on the development with Mitsui's one-year marketing deal. From their recent press releases it's odd how they are announcing recovery rates and marketing deal - but doesn't seem like production is going to be a realistic level within the year.

Regardless - definitely one of the more advanced lithium pegmatite players around. $0.55 would be a reasonable entry point...Mining 101 covered CLQ back from its $0.26 price levels, easily +200% gain so far for loyal readers.

3) Lithium One (aka. ex- Coniaga Resources CNY - now LI : TSX)

Funny enough their logo and site even looks like Western Lithium!

CNY started as a tightly held shell named Coniaga Resources (CNY) funded by well connected Vancouver brokerage group Axeman Financial. The meteoric share price rise can be attributed to the fact that:

a) not many shares outstanding - 36 million shares or so

b) good Quebec project - super flowthrough funding available - more bang for your exploration dollars!

While we all know pegmatites only have limited appeal - CNY/ LI should be given credit that it attracted very good names to its Management & Board.

Lithium One Inc. has released the first results from its phase 2 diamond drill program at the James Bay lithium project in Quebec. Highlights of the results from the first 17 holes include 10.50 metres of 2.38 per cent Li2O and 22.50 m of 1.51 per cent Li2O. All drill holes have intersected significant pegmatite, with 16 of the 17 drill holes returning intersections with grades between 1.10 and 2.38 per cent Li2O over significant widths, and many intersections lying within 50 metres of the surface. Pegmatite intercepts greater than five metres are summarized in the table.

Recent news from first round of drilling aren't too bad either - nothing too wide and pretty much on par with drilling USGS past results from TNR's Ontario projects (their results should be out soon too), nevertheless Mining101 thinks $2/share for a tiny junior with one project is too expensive. For that price AVL and RES presents significantly better investment choice with much more advanced resources.

4) Western Lithium

Hectorite Clay is not a low hanging fruit.

Let me repeat - nobody currently produces from hectorite clay.

SQM, FMC, Chemetall - all have stated they have 100+ years of lithium reserves in brines. Why on earth would you bother recovering lithium from hectorite and rely on unproven lithium recovery methods is beyond me.

Although higher tide raises all boats - WLC does not present a realistic longterm investment choice. We see limited upside beyond $1.50. At least we didn't say not to buy like Doug Casey's Int' Speculator... looks like Casey missed out on the lithium train in hindsight!

Int'l Speculator says Western Lithium not a buy here ($0.59)

2009-07-17 15:45 ET - In the News

The International Speculator in its July 1, 2009, issue, says buy Western Lithium Canada Corp., now 65 cents, officially, "Buy under C$0.50." The newsletter said buy on Jan. 28, 2009, at 76 cents. An investment of $1,000 is worth $846. Lukewarm buys such as this one are difficult for investors to follow because of the gap between the trading price and the buy price. The result is we have a fudged buy that really means do not buy. The Speculator's writer scans the press releases and says his North American lithium speculation continues to advance its Kings Valley lithium project in Nevada. He notes the lack of press releases; talking points are few. He figures the news slump and slow market increase the odds of getting a better entry point. That means investors should hold out for 50 cents or better. Aggressive buyers can try for 40 cents, in what the writer calls a "stink bid."

Lithium has hit mainstream - TNR.v MCI.v CLQ.v WLC.v RM.v

Mainstream.

What do you think is the definition of mainstream? Investors all want to get in early - but that usually means high level of risk and very little known information.

In rewarding these early stage venturers - Lithium has now hit mainstream.

CNBC is covering Lithium today - who else better to present than Byron Securities, group who is taking up TNR's $500,000 recent financing?!!!

http://www.marketwire.com/press-release/Byron-Capital-Markets-1030254.html

TORONTO (Marketwire) - Byron Capital Markets is pleased to announce that our Lithium Analyst, Dr. Jon Hykawy, will be speaking live on CNBC's "Street Signs with Erin Burnett" today at 2:20pm (EST). He has been invited to speak on the show for a segment about the U.S. Battery Industry, encompassing recent developments and increased investor focus upon the space due to the impressive world-wide growth in the use of lithium ion rechargeable batteries. We hope that you will join us in watching Dr. Hykawy give his insight on what is currently happening in this highly topical investment space.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION PLEASE CONTACT:

Byron Capital Markets
Campbell Becher or Robert Orviss
647-426-1660

It's no coincidence - Obama and US knows it's time to move forward with EV technology.

I just hope readers of Mining101 realize what TNR and International Lithium holds. Last I checked nobody else on TSX has anything near what ILC and TNR's portfolio holds.

Safest Bet in the World

We are now literally counting down the days to Xstrata's decision to back in to Los Azules or not (end of August) - will perennial favorite junior miner TNR Gold Corp (TNR:TSX) jump significantly on the news? Is Xstrata still interested...?

A news release like this coming from Xstrata certainly makes things more interesting, no?

Xstrata Approached Over Sale of 70% Stake in Chile Copper Mine

By Brett Foley

Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) -- Xstrata Plc, the fourth-largest copper producer, received approaches to sell 70 percent of its El Morro project in Chile that may lead to another partner joining or the company selling its interest in the mine.

“We are evaluating the approaches we have received and no decision has been made on whether or not to divest El Morro or dilute our stake,” London-based Xstrata spokeswoman Claire Divver said today in an e-mailed statement.

The Zug, Switzerland-based company may raise as much as $700 million by selling the stake, which it inherited as part of the takeover of Falconbridge Ltd. in 2006, the Independent on Sunday reported yesterday. Chinese companies are interested in buying the mine, the newspaper added.

El Morro, which is 30 percent-owned by New Gold Inc., has 489 million metric tons of measured and indicated ore resources containing 0.59 percent copper, according to Xstrata’s Web site

An excellent comparison of Los Azules vs the Xstrata (70% owned) El Morro by fellow investor from the Minera Andes board echoes:

An interesting compraison of El Morro to Los Azules (in red) is as follows. In summary, Los Azules is a bigger copper play while El Morro has more a attractive gold component to it. Very similar capital costs but Los Azules has far better long term economics. With El Morro is being valued at roughly $1billion with this recent offer from the Chinese, and if you assume properties are both nearly identical in $$ opportunity, then Los Azules is worth a minimum of ~ $450 million to Minera Andes, or almost $2 a share. Somebody remind me what we're currently trading at... need I say more to justify why it is I continue to hold my shares? Such dd sheds light on why Rob would pay $1 a share to keep Hochschild's grubby fingers as far away from our pot as possible.

- initial capital investment of $2.5 billion and $356 million in sustaining capital
- Los Azules at $2.7 billion and $704 million in sustaining capital

- 14 year mine life for a total life-of-mine (LOM) capital investment of $2.9 billion
- 24 year mine life for a total life-of-mine (LOM) capital investment of $3.5 billion

- using prices of $2.80/lb of copper and $625/oz gold, rate of return of 14.7% and a net present value of $1.1 billion when discounted at 8.0% (after tax)
- using prices of $2.80/lb of copper, $750/oz gold and $12/oz silver, internal rate of return of 23% and a net present value of $3.1 billion when discounted at 8.0% (pretax)

- the mine site operating cost is estimated at $10.55/tonne of ore, or $0.76/lb copper, after gold credits
- the mine site operating cost is estimated at $7.59/tonne of ore, or $0.85/lb copper, after gold/silver credits

- annual metal production is estimated to be 172,000 tonnes of copper and 313,000 ounces of gold over the entire 14 year LOM.
- annual metal production is estimated to be 170,000 tonnes of copper, 38,000 ounces of gold and 1.26 million ounces of silver over the entire 24 year LOM.

- annual metal production is estimated to be 203,000 tonnes of copper and 302,000 ounces of gold during our first five years of production
- annual metal production is estimated to be 213,000 tonnes of copper, 41,000 (est.) ounces of gold and 1.2 million (est.) ounces of silver during our first five years of production

- payback of the capital investment for the project occurs at 4.7 years.
- payback of the capital investment for the project occurs at 6.4 years.

BB

I think the Los Azules hands down takes the cake for Xstrata, no? $40 million in payments to Minera Andes by end of August won't seem too much when you have a bigger buyer from the Chinese - would TNR's portion be taken out for the NPV?

If so, we can easily see a 50% jump in TNR's share prices if no more - don't forget there's still this fantastic rare metals and lithium story coming out as International Lithium goes public...

TNR is trading at $0.27 today, up nearly 9X from lows of $0.03 in early 2009 when Mining 101 was covering it dilligently.

Several other frequent companies we cover here, MAI, CZX, NG, CLQ, has done equivalently well...maybe I should be charging broker fees! Good luck everyone.

Obama OKs Lithium Battery Initiative, TNR.v Commences Exploration for Rare Metals & Lithium, GWG Signs LOI with Toyota Tsusho, MAI Los Azules!

You go away for a week and look what you miss! Job data spurring a wave of rallying in the stock market - Year to Date (YTD) is looking better than ever. Heck, even in Canada they are seeing 89% jump in real estate sale in certain areas (Vancouver!)

If you are still doubting lithium battery and electric vehicles are for hippies, you must just miss out on the biggest stock market jump in decades. If you dont think its hit mainstream yet - what would you call President Obama approving the single largest budget for research and development for battery technology!

Direct from WhiteHouse
http://www.whitehouse.gov/the_press_office/24-Billion-in-Grants-to-Accelerate-the-Manufacturing-and-Deployment-of-the-Next-Generation-of-US-Batteries-and-Electric-Vehicles/

President Obama Announces $2.4 Billion in Grants to Accelerate the Manufacturing and Deployment of the Next Generation of U.S. Batteries and Electric Vehicles
Recovery Act will fund 48 new advanced battery and electric drive components manufacturing and electric drive vehicle deployment projects in over 20 states

Elkhart, Indiana – Further accelerating the manufacturing and deployment of electric vehicles, batteries, and components here in America, and creating tens of thousands of new jobs, President Obama today announced 48 new advanced battery and electric drive projects that will receive $2.4 billion in funding under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. These projects, selected through a highly competitive process by the Department of Energy, will accelerate the development of U.S. manufacturing capacity for batteries and electric drive components as well as the deployment of electric drive vehicles, helping to establish American leadership in creating the next generation of advanced vehicles.

"If we want to reduce our dependence on oil, put Americans back to work and reassert our manufacturing sector as one of the greatest in the world, we must produce the advanced, efficient vehicles of the future," said President Obama.
"For our nation and our economy to recover, we must have a vision for what can be built here in the future – and then we need to invest in that vision," said Vice President Biden. "That’s what we’re doing today and that’s what this Recovery Act is about."
The announcement marks the single largest investment in advanced battery technology for hybrid and electric-drive vehicles ever made. Industry officials expect that this $2.4 billion investment, coupled with another $2.4 billion in cost share from the award winners, will result directly in the creation tens of thousands of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. battery and auto industries.
The new awards cover the following areas:

• $1.5 billion in grants to U.S. based manufacturers to produce batteries and their components and to expand battery recycling capacity;
• $500 million in grants to U.S. based manufacturers to produce electric drive components for vehicles, including electric motors, power electronics, and other drive train components; and
• $400 million in grants to purchase thousands of plug-in hybrid and all-electric vehicles for test demonstrations in several dozen locations; to deploy them and evaluate their performance; to install electric charging infrastructure; and to provide education and workforce training to support the transition to advanced electric transportation systems.

Today, President Obama visited Navistar International Corporation, in Elkhart, Ind., to make the announcement. Navistar will receive a $39 million grant to manufacture electric trucks which the company reports will ultimately will create or save hundreds of jobs when full scale manufacturing at the site commences. Overall, seven projects in Indiana will receive grants totaling more than $400 million. The applications from the companies and from one university engaged in this technology research anticipate that these awards will create or save thousands of jobs.

Vice President Joe Biden and four Members of the Cabinet, also fanned out across the country to discuss the historic announcement.

Vice President Biden was in Detroit to announce over $1 billion in grants to companies and universities based in Michigan. Reflecting the state’s leadership in clean energy manufacturing, Michigan companies and institutions are receiving the largest share of grant funding of any state. Two companies, A123 and Johnson Controls, will receive a total of approximately $550 million to establish a manufacturing base in the state for advanced batteries, and two others, Compact Power and Dow Kokam, will receive a total of over $300 million for manufacturing battery cells and materials. Large automakers based in Michigan, including GM, Chrysler, and Ford, will receive a total of more than $400 million to manufacture thousands of advanced hybrid and electric vehicles as well as batteries and electric drive components. And three educational institutions in Michigan, the University of Michigan, Wayne State University in Detroit, and Michigan Technological University in Houghton in the Upper Peninsula, will receive a total of more than $10 million for education and workforce training programs to train researchers, technicians and service providers, and to conduct consumer research to accelerate the transition towards advanced vehicles and batteries.

Energy Secretary Steven Chu, whose Department selected the 48 award winners, visited Celgard, in Charlotte, NC, to announce a $49 million grant for the company to expand its separator production capacity to serve the expected increased demand for lithium-ion batteries from manufacturing facilities in the U.S. Celgard will be expanding its manufacturing capacity in Charlotte, NC and nearby Aiken, SC, and the company expects the new separator production to come online in 2010. Celgard expects that approximately hundreds of jobs could be created, with the first of those jobs beginning as early as Fall 2009.

EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson was in St. Petersburg, FL, to announce a $95.5 million grant for Saft America, Inc. to construct a new plant in Jacksonville on the site of the former Cecil Field military base, to manufacture lithium-ion cells, modules and battery packs for military, industrial, and agricultural vehicles.

Deputy Secretary of the Department of Transportation John Porcari visited East Penn Manufacturing Co., in Lyon Station, Penn., to award the company a $32.5 million grant to increase production capacity for their valve regulated lead-acid batteries and the UltraBattery, a lead-acid battery combined with a carbon supercapacitor, for micro and mild hybrid applications. East Penn Manufacturing is a third-generation family business with over 63 years in battery manufacturing.

Commerce Secretary Gary Locke visited Kansas City, Missouri, to announce a $10 million grant for Smith Electric to build and deploy up to 100 electric vehicles, including vans, pickups, and their "Newton" brand medium duty trucks. In addition, Secretary Locke announced three other grants supporting manufacturing and educational programs in Missouri: a $30 million grant to Ford Motor Company supporting the manufacturing of plug-in hybrid electric vehicles in Kansas City and in Michigan; a $73 million grant to Chrysler, for the manufacturing of 220 plug-in hybrid and electric pickup trucks and minivans in St. Louis and in Michigan; and a $5 million grant to Missouri University of Science and Technology, in Rolla, Missouri, to fund educational and workforce training programs on advanced vehicles technologies.

After the announcement green energy, solar, banking, even mortage lending companies all had a significant rally. If anything, government expenditures indicate a direction for the private sector to follow suit.

Who do you think will eventually build the infrastructure and power grid necessary to charge your lithium-powered electric vehicle...its likely not private funds thats for sure!! 3P, or Private-Public-Partnerships are more common as the government become more tapped for resources, and knowing government is already on board for battery tech - one should stay ahead of the curve and look into what the raw material these battery makers need.

Speaking of lithium and rare metals front - a junior company tha thas done well for us, TNR Gold Corp and its subsidiary International Lithium Corp - has commenced its exploration work in Ontario. Usually the stock price rallies on an exploration news...the reason why is that investors are excited that news will finally be coming out about specific projects they have heard about months ago from acquiition news.

In other words - its time to see if all the hype about good projects will be proven!

Canada has some of the reat rare earth deposits spawning from pegmatites and spodumene rich regions. It gives me great confidence as well that the guy leading the program Dr. Fred Breaks is a well-regarded geologist that has drafted over 100+ peer reviewed journal articles. Further, hes no ordinary academic staying in the library cranking out articles - he has field experience and can put his name on several discovery, including what used to be Avalon Rare Metals main project, Separation Rapids. Knowing a guy like that is on TNR and Int Lithium team makes you wonder what hes recommending to International Lithium this time...could it be the next big lithium and rare metals project for Dr Breaks!

July 27, 2009 TNR Gold Corp Commences Work on Canadian Lithium & Rare Metals Properties

Vancouver B.C.: TNR Gold Corp. ("TNR" or the "Company") is pleased to announce that exploration work has commenced on its 100%-owned lithium and rare metals properties, Niemi Lake, Forgan Lake, & Mavis Lake, all of which are located in Ontario, Canada. The exploration program will focus on sampling of the known pegmatite occurrences and obtaining historic grade confirmation of both lithium and other Rare Metals. The exploration program is being directed by Dr. Fred Breaks, a special advisor to the TNR Board. Dr. Breaks is a Ph.D. and Professional Geoscientist who is well known as a Lithium and Rare Metals expert in Canada. A proven explorer, he discovered two significant lithium-rich deposits: Avalon Venture Ltd's Big Whopper pegmatite near Kenora, Ontario and Houston Lake Mining Inc's Pakeagama Lake pegmatite in the North Spirit Lake area of Northwestern Ontario. His ability to create exploration models of lithium-rich, pegmatite deposits was developed during his career at Ontario Geological Survey where he authored and coauthored over 120 peer-reviewed scientific papers. ABOUT FORGAN & NIEMI LAKE The Forgan and Niemi Lake projects are located east of Forgan Lake within the Thunder Bay District of Ontario. Forgan Lake has four previously explored spodumene-bearing pegmatites yielding positive results such as 4.23% Li2O over 7.5 m and and two samples 68.6 m farther southwest averaging 1.98% Li2O over 7.6 m. Furthermore, all identified pegmatites have not been fully delineated at Forgan Lake and thus the extent of the deposits remains open. All identified historic work preformed by Lun-Echo Gold Mines Ltd analyzed drill core exclusively for Li2O. Historic drilling on the Niemi project, also undertaken by Lun-Echo Gold Mines Limited, returned values of 4.72m of 1.02% Li2O and 1.52m of 2.0% Li2O. ABOUT MAVIS LAKE The Mavis Lake Project covers the eastern extent of the Mavis Lake pegmatite group, encompassing nine identified rare-element-bearing pegmatites within a 512 hectare claim block. Located only 15km northeast from Dryden Ontario, Mavis is workable year round with excellent infrastructures. Historical lithium and tantalum values at the Mavis Lake property include 2,320 ppm of Li2O and 170 ppm of Tantalum over 1.3 metres. Tantalum is a rare metal with diverse applications across several industries -- capacitors in portable devices such as cell phones, computers, micro-sensors, precision laboratory gear, surgical equipments, camera lenses, and more. The corrosion-resistant, hard, and blue-gray metal is estimated to comprise 1-2ppm of the Earth's crust and is mainly produced by Australia (Talison Minerals Corp.), China, and Ethiopia with Canada and Brazil adding to output as a by-product from niobium mining. The results from the initial property evaluation will allow TNR to prioritize the development of its large portfolio of lithium and rare earth projects. Ike Osmani, P.Geo, is the company's qualified person on the project as required under NI 43-101 and has reviewed the technical information contained in this press release. To help understand the technical aspects of Lithium and Rare Metals please visit TNR's website at www.tnrgoldcorp.com ABOUT TNR GOLD TNR is a diversified metals exploration company focused on identifying and exploring existing properties in Argentina and Alaska and new prospective projects globally. Upon approval of pending licences in Ireland, TNR will have a total portfolio of 32 properties, of which 16 will be included in the proposed spin-off of International Lithium Corp. In addition to shareholder's current share of TNR, they will receive one share and one full tradable warrant of International Lithium Corp. for every 4 shares of TNR held as of the yet determined record date. This will result in TNR shareholders owning shares in both TNR and International Lithium. For further details of the spin-off please refer to TNR's April 27, 2009 news release or visit http://www.internationallithium.com The recent acquisition of lithium projects in Argentina, Canada, USA and Ireland confirms the Company's commitment to project generation, market diversity and building shareholder value. On behalf of the board, Gary Schellenberg President

Lastly, we get to the wave of acquisition and rare metal news - we are in an unprecedented era where countries are getting involved in securing resources directly from other countries. In a form of currency invasion, Chinas purchasing power is inevitably controlling more and more of North American resources.

With the newest wave of rare metals and lithium rush for battery and next-generation power storage, China still hold 80%+ of the worlds rare metal production. Thus, what we are seeing is Japanese conglomerates actively seeking out junior companies with lithium and rare metal reserves.

After all, with the paltry market cap that most juniors on TSX have (under $50 million), it is pocket change for multi-billion revenue giants like Toyota.

For retail investors - this opportunity presents a chance to make a good 100% on your investments easily - as in the case of Great Western Minerals (GWG.V) who recently signed a Letter of Intent with Toyota for joint explorations. If you are doubting that junior companies are worthwhile investments, GWG traded only at $0.05-0.07 prior to the LOI. See the jump post July 23. (left)

I think its fair to assume that other Japanese conglomerates are actively seeking out quality juniors with viable assets and-or experienced management team that can make things happen. Heres the news release.

TSX Venture Symbol: GWG
US Symbol: GWMGF
CUSIP 3914Y 10 3

GREAT WESTERN MINERALS GROUP AND TOYOTA TSUSHO CORPORATION SIGN LETTER OF INTENT TO COOPERATE ON EXPLORATION PROJECTS

July 21, 2009 - Saskatoon Saskatchewan and Nagoya Japan - Great Western Minerals Group Ltd. (TSX:V - “GWG”) and Toyota Tsusho Corporation (Tokyo Stock Exchange - “8015T”; Nagoya Stock Exchange - “8015NG”) are pleased to announce that both Companies have signed a non-binding letter of intent (the “Letter of Intent) to examine the merits of jointly conducting exploration and development activities on certain of Great Western Minerals’ existing projects (the “Proposed Transactions”).

Under the terms of the Letter of Intent, Toyota Tsusho Corporation (“TTC”) and Great Western Minerals Group (“GWMG”) will discuss possibilities for the Douglas River and Benjamin River exploration projects. TTC will have an exclusivity provision in these discussions for a six month period.

These two projects are of particular interest to TTC since the mineralization of these two properties appears to be significantly enriched in the “heavy” rare earth elements (“HREE”). The HREE are high value products that are critical to the manufacture of high-temperature magnets used in electric motors for a wide range of applications including hybrid vehicles and for phosphors used in LCD and plasma flat panel displays.

As such, the Board determined that GWMG could not move forward with negotiation of a definitive agreement relating to the Proposed Transaction and both GWMG and Molycorp have allowed the Letter of Intent to expire in accordance with its terms.

As reported in the GWMG’s news release dated January 7, 2009, assays from previous sampling of the vein material on the Benjamin River property varied from 0.6% total rare earth oxide (“TREO”) to 1.0 % TREO with over 30% HREE by proportion, including yttrium. Historic trench sampling of the Douglas River property in northern Saskatchewan yielded REE grades of up to 10% yttrium with accompanying high grades of HREE including dysprosium with grades up to 0.89% representing over 99% HREE and yttrium by proportion.

Toyota Tsusho Corporation, headquartered in Nagoya, Japan, is the sole trading company of the Toyota Group. The company's business includes domestic wholesale, exports, imports, overseas trading, contract construction, and insurance agency businesses. Worldwide, the Toyota Tsusho Group employs approximately 28,000 people. Consolidated global sales for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2009 totaled US$64 billion.

Great Western Minerals Group Ltd. is a Canadian-based company exploring for, and developing, strategic metal resources in North America and South Africa. Pursuing a vertically-integrated business model, the Company's wholly-owned subsidiaries of Less Common Metals Limited located in Birkenhead UK, and Great Western Technologies Inc., located in Troy, Michigan, produce a variety of specialty alloys for use in the battery, magnet and aerospace industries. These "designer" alloys include those containing copper, nickel, cobalt and the rare earth elements.

Jim Engdahl, President and CEO of Great Western Minerals Group said, “We believe that the joint participation by both Companies in this exploration and development initiative offers significant potential value for both Parties. We believe that Great Western Minerals Group has a lot to offer a partner such as Toyota Tsusho, not only from the potential of our exploration projects, but from our value added production facilities as well.”

The completion of any Proposed Transaction is subject to several conditions, including the completion of all necessary legal, financial and technical due diligence reviews and receipt of all necessary consents and approvals, including board and regulatory approvals. There is no assurance that a Proposed Transaction will be completed as proposed, or at all.

John Pearson, MSc., P.Geo., Vice-President Exploration for GWMG, is the qualified person responsible for reviewing the contents of this news release.

The TSX Venture Exchange has in no way passed upon the merits of the Proposed Transactions and has neither approved nor disapproved the contents of this press release.

Jim Engdahl, President and CEO of Great Western Minerals Group said, “After careful consideration, we did not feel that the direction in which we were heading with Molycorp was in the best interests of our shareholders or that we would be able to come to arrangements that would preserve our unique mine-to-market strategy. In light of the recent and sudden focus on the rare earth sector by the investment markets and in view of the additional interest we have received during the last several months, we will continue to pursue discussions with other potential strategic partners who share our vision as a vertically integrated developer of rare earth properties and products”.

Mr. Jim Engdahl
President and Chief Executive Officer
Great Western Minerals Group Ltd.
Tel: (306) 659-4508

For additional information, please contact Ron Malashewski, Manager of Investor Relations, Great Western Minerals Group Ltd. (306) 659-4516, or by email at info@gwmg.ca. Inquiries by direct mail should be addressed to Great Western Minerals Group Ltd., 226 Cardinal Crescent, Saskatoon, SK S7L 6H8.

Claim Staking, Oversubscribed Financing, & Rare Metals/Lithium News! TNR.V, MAI.V, Ventana, Evolving Gold, Yukon White Gold Rush

When demand for something overtakens its supply - we see a jump in price. This is the fundamentals on which Stock Market operates upon.

When Venture companies on TSX Venture do Financings for money they generally quite an accredited investor clause. This indicates to the Exchange that these investors know what they are doing and completely understands the risks involved with investing in a junior mineral explorations company.

After all, there is the risk that nothing will be found. This is part of the systematic risk that many fund managers are willing to accept - since they know that companies that do well with discoveries easily make up the ones that shrivel to nothing.

Invest in 20, make money on 1 homerun that goes to 10,000% over its starting point, and the rest doesn't even become significant anymore.

This is a very interesting shotgun approach to investing - and it seems to have worked well for several juniors we have reviewed in the last few months.

A junior with a portfolio of diverse projects all across the world is likely to attract joint venture partners - which can mean property payments while at the same time having their projects advanced.

By spotting trends and getting in early, companies like TNR Gold Corp and its to-be-public subsidiary International Lithium Corp has done the same thing for lithium and rare metals. I don't believe in my research I have yet to come across any other public company with as many projects. According to the company, the best part was that so many of the projects were acquired through basic staking. (read: low cost).

Claims staking literally involves going out to the property and putting your claim posts up in the ground and registering your claim posts with the local authorities or governing body. These claims posts usually would then have strings tying them to the next claim post (also helps measures the size of the rectangle). This is why when you see a claim map its all a series of boxes.
Lithium has been featured in prominent news articles almost on a daily basis - Chevy Volt from GM is going to pre-production and is receiving favorable reviews.

What is interesting is each Chevy Volt requires a Lithium-ion battery which will likely need anywhere from 30-50 lbs of lithium carbonate. I will leave the mathematical projections for another in estimating what it will mean for the global lithium market is EV/Hybrids were to take up 10% of the current vehicles on the road (likely Roskill Research has something already...). Regardless it bodes very well for lithium exploration companies - some of which we have covered before so here's an update.

Canada Lithium Corp CLQ:TSX - Announced termination of President Judy Baker - unknown reason but she stays on Board. Signed one year marketing deal with Mitsui of Japan. Trading around $0.28 has a past producer Quebec Lithium mine.

First Lithium MCI:TSX - has fallen back significantly after attempting to jump into White Gold area place (thanks to Underworld's huge discovery 104metres of +4 g/t gold). They have commenced a 43-101 so could be interesting as that gets closer - very little share outstanding. While it could be considered a me-too approach to some of the earlier players, having a name with Lithium should certainly help as lithium becomes more mainstream.
Trading around $0.07 after hitting a high of $0.14 on lithium 43-101 report commencements.

Rare Element Resources (RES:TSX) has done very well since our last mention jumping significantly to over $2 following Jim Dines' recommendation. Keep in mind this group has a much more advanced project with 43-101 resource of (TREO) estimates - stands for Total Rare Earth Oxides. Mining101 originally wrote about RES here.

Avalon Rare Metals (AVL:TSX) has the large Thor Lake project in Ontario - profiled here on CBC News few months ago here. They have signed on high profile guys such as Jack Lifton to examine and promote their projects on SeekingAlpha and their own corporate blog - Rare Metals Blog. What we find interesting too is while AVL has surged ahead, there is TNR Gold which has signed Dr. Breaks, founder of Avalon's Separation Rapids project, and International Lithium's Moose is touted to be near Thor Lake. In fact CBC confirms this by running an article on the Moose (Northwest Territories) acquisition awhile ago.

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/north/story/2009/05/05/nwt-tnr-rare-metal.html

2nd company shows interest in mining rare metals near Yellowknife

Last Updated: Tuesday, May 5, 2009 | 3:33 PM CT Comments8Recommend21

A Canadian mining exploration company has bought an old mine near Yellowknife, with plans to explore for rare, sought-after metals used in electronics and electric cars.

TNR Gold Corp. of Vancouver recently purchased the Moose 2 property 115 kilometres east-southeast of the N.W.T. capital that is known to have deposits of lithium and tantalum, among other minerals.

TNR president Gary Schellenberg told CBC News that the former mine, which was in use during the 1940s and 1950s, looks promising for lithium and tantalum — two metals, he said, that have seen their prices skyrocket recently.

"Tantalum is used in the electronics industry, and again, it's fairly rare. And of course, everybody's cellphones have a bit of tantalum in it," he said Monday.

"Lithium, of course, is getting a lot of press lately, due to the increased demand and all the talk of lithium batteries in electric cars."

Schellenberg said the company will conduct some exploration and sampling this summer in order to determine whether reopening the mine would be viable.

The Moose 2 site is not on the N.W.T.'s road system, but Schellenberg said it is accessible by boat and float plane.

TNR is the second company that has expressed interest in exploring for rare metals in the Yellowknife area.

Avalon Rare Metals Inc. is looking at the feasibility of mining for terbium and other minerals at its Thor Lake site, about 100 kilometre southeast of the city.

115km East-Southeast for TNR/International Lithium's project and 100km Southeast for Avalon project sounds pretty close. I'll draft up a diagram for readers later but that sounds pretty similar area to me! Until then happy investing!

BYD Motors and Lithium Batteries - UXG, MAI, TNR

Hedge Fund Managers are impressed with BYD and its progress on lithium batteries - if Warren Buffet can be convinced of lithium-cars and batteries - can you?

Lithium-Ion Batteries for Hybrid Vehicles?

BYD seems to be doinf well with ferrous oxide. I’m referring to the Chinese electric car company “Build Your Dreams” (BYD) (see www.byd.com/company.php). CEO Wang Chuan-Fu, who Charlie Munger describes as a combination ofGeneral Electric’s (GE) legendary manager, Jack Welch, and inventorThomas Edison, scraped up $300,000 from relatives to start a knock off cell phone battery company in Shenzen in 1995. He grew the company into a massive, vertically integrated conglomerate, employing 130,000workaholics at 11 factories, including those in Hungary, Romania, andIndia (interesting choices). BYD bought a defunct car company in 2003 and re-engineered it to launch the $22,000 F3DM sedan last year, an old technology ferrous oxide based plug-in hybrid that gets 62 miles on a charge. General Motors (GMX) Volt and Toyota’s (TM) plug in Prius,which won’t come out until next year, will only get 40 miles per chargeand cost more. All-electric models are coming out this year. Warren Buffet was so impressed, he made a rare foreign investment last year,asking for a 25% stake and settling for 10% for $230 million. Wang, who has already earned himself a place on the Forbes 400 list, intends to build BYD into the world’s largest automaker, and quickly. Why do Ifeel like this war is over before the first shots were even fired?

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Rumor milll has it recently that Minera Andes (MAI:TSX), one of our longtime favorite stockpicks here at Mining101, could be a takeover target for another one of Rob McEwan's companies, the well-capitalized US Gold (UXG:TSX)

US Gold has primarily been focusing on gold in Nevada so it's a bit of a stretch to assume it wi considering taking over Los Azules (copper) and the non-operating interest of San Jose (gold/silver).

US Gold has the ideal gold explorer model down pat - value is created in the discovery and exploratino phase for shareholders. By the time mineral reserves are proved the value has been created from pennies to dollars - investors who risk getting in early has already won the rewards.

This is a very similar path for Canada Zinc Corp (CZX:TSX) who has had a difficult journey so far proving a significant resource on a commodity that fell out of favor at the height of the financial storm of 2008.

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TNR Gold Corp (TNR:TSX) is in the middle of closing its Private Placement - and understandbly seenig some selling pressure. Why this is usually the case is participants in the PP would sell their current shares (presumably around the PP level price) and in return get a share + warrant.

A warrant has a certain price level and is an excelllent low-risk way to have additional exposure to profits in case the stock runs later on news of results.

The company confirms portions of the proceed will be used to develop a 43-101 resource on a key asset from which International Lithium will go public on. Our guess is the large Mariana lithium brine lake, which spans 120 squared kilometres of liquid. Can you imagine what the resource estimate will be?!?

Production is simple

Example of a large lithium lake

The start of the Chinese buyout on TSX? TNR.v, CZX.v, MAI.to, Los Azules, Copper, Lithium, Rare Metals

Remember the saying, "Ze Germans are coming"?

Seems like these days it's more like "The Chinese are comin"!

One of our favorite copper project - Los Azules - so far in 2009 has attracted Mr. Goldcorp, Rob McEewan, and now seems like indirectly has drawn the attention of the major copper producer from People's Republic of China.

Take a read at the latest press release from TNR:TSX, does it sound like just one TSX small time miner investing a few hundred thousand dollars in another one?

CZX:TSX - has an excellent property but it has fallen drastically from its lofty $1+/share mark that it saw most of 2008. To add fuel to the fire, changing its name from Mantle Resources to Canada Zinc Corp has isolated the Vancouver firm further as a one-commodity junior...

Zinc prices continue to decline

LONDON — Sliding zinc prices are taking their toll on mining companies, but the market will not turn around anytime soon, industry analysts say.

Mine closings and production cuts have occurred as energy, labor and equipment costs rise while zinc prices drop.

And the pain will continue. The question is whether weak demand and global oversupply will keep prices falling into 2010, or whether the market will turn around next year.

"We would need very, very, very significant production losses to bring the market back to balance" in 2009, said Giles Lloyd of CRU Group, an industry consulting firm. "Some producers are now realizing that they were being a bit hopeful thinking that the market could turn in 2010."

Zinc, mainly used to galvanize steel, is one of the worst performers in the metals field this year. In August it dropped to its lowest level since November 2005; it now trades at around $1,745 a metric ton, down almost 25 percent so far this year.

It is no wonder that prices have dropped.

Zinc stockpiles at the London Metal Exchange have jumped 80 percent this year to 160,000 tons, and a Reuters survey of analysts showed an expected surplus of about 281,250 tons this year, growing to 328,758 tons in 2009.

However, some market watchers still expect a shift to a deficit in 2010 as producers cut spending and smaller companies, which typically operate zinc-lead mines, struggle to find financing for new projects and to gain environmental approvals.

"The market will turn around quite considerably in 2010," said Gayle Berry, an analyst at Barclays Capital. "The concentrate market is going to move into deficit due to closure of mines." She added that some smaller mines would reach poorer grades of ore.

Berry expects prices to average $2,073 a ton this year, $1,900 in 2009 and to jump to $3,100 in 2010.

A Reuters poll in July found that zinc prices in the spot market were forecast to average $2,133 a metric ton in 2008 and fall to $2,000 in 2009. On Tuesday, cash zinc was trading at $1,762 a ton, and it has averaged $2,155 so far this year.

Weaker demand will also slow the recovery of zinc prices.

Lloyd, of CRU, said there were indications that demand in China, the world's biggest consumer of the metal, was beginning to slow markedly, and that the debate centered on whether internal demand would slow as export markets for China also weakened.

Consumption is also falling in Europe, the next-biggest consuming region, as economies there slow down.

European refined zinc demand fell 7.8 percent in the first half of 2008 from a year earlier, according to the International Lead and Zinc Study Group. Demand in Japan and the United States was little changed.

Still, Michael Jansen, an analyst at JPMorgan Chase, said: "The only way you are going to end up with a surplus post-2010 is if you assume a lot of mines are going to open and demand is going to fall through the floor."

Looks like CZX and its shareholders made an excellent decisino to invest in an undervalued junior that has gone up 500% already from its lows of January. Here at Mining 101 we recommended a buy of TNR and CZX back from its lows - while summer doldrums will likely dent the current price a bit with brokers and investors on vacation - longterm picture is still very favorable for both quality juniors.

TNR Raises $1 Million Nonbroker PP - CZX and Chinese Investments!

posted on Jul 07, 09 01:28AM

TNR GOLD ANNOUNCES STRATEGIC INVESTMENT BY CANADA ZINC METALS WITH PARTICIPATION IN $1 MILLION PRIVATE PLACEMENT

TNR Gold Corp. and Canada Zinc Metals Corp. confirm a strategic initial investment by Canada Zinc Metals in TNR as part of a private placement for up to five million units, priced at 20 cents per unit, to raise up to $1-million. Each unit consists of one common share and one-half of one common share purchase warrant. Each whole warrant entitles the holder to purchase one additional common share of the company at a price of 30 cents for a period of 12 months from the date of closing.

Canada Zinc Metals is focused primarily on developing its flagship Akie property, a significant zinc-lead deposit in northeastern British Columbia, Canada, containing a National Instrument 43-101-compliant inferred resource of 23.6 million tonnes grading 7.6 per cent zinc, 1.5 per cent lead and 13.0 grams per tonne silver. As evidence of the quality of the properties owned by Canada Zinc Metals, a large Chinese mining group, Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holdings Co. Ltd., has recently invested $4.9-million in Canada Zinc Metals for a 13-per-cent equity position.

Tongling, a state-owned enterprise based in Anhui province, is one of China's largest copper smelting companies and ranked in the top 100 large-scale industry enterprises in China. Tongling's principal activities are exploration, mining, ore processing, smelting and refining, and products processing of copper, lead, zinc, gold, silver, and other non-ferrous and rare metals. China has over half of the world's deposits of rare earths, over 80 per cent of worldwide production, and has recently shown significant interest in becoming majority shareholder of various rare earth miners such as Lynus Corp. and Arafura Resources. TNR's non-executive chairman, Kirill Klip, will be taking a significant portion of the financing along with other insiders and management.

TNR president and executive chairman, Gary Schellenberg, states: "We are encouraged by the support in this current financing by insiders, management, and welcome the strategic investment from Canada Zinc Metals and all its stakeholders. It is clear that our recent aggressive acquisition plan of lithium and rare metal properties around the world, along with continuing developments on our copper-gold properties in Argentina, is attracting significant attention in the mining and investment world."

Peeyush Varshney, chairman and chief executive officer of Canada Zinc Metals, commented: "This strategic investment into TNR and its proposed spinoff subsidiary, International Lithium Corp., will give our shareholders diversification into the growing opportunities that rare metal industries are offering. Furthermore, the investment gives us an interest in TNR's stake in the significant Los Azules copper project in Argentina."

A finder's fee of 7 per cent on a portion of the proceeds raised is payable in cash, in units, or a combination of both, at the election of the finder. Any units issued in lieu of cash will be on the same terms as the units of the offering. All securities issued pursuant to this financing are subject to a four-month hold period from the date of closing. The offering is subject to TSX Venture Exchange approval and any regulatory approvals.

Proceeds of the private placement will be used to finance the evaluation of TNR's lithium and rare metal properties, implement the proposed spinoff of International Lithium, and for general corporate purposes.

Luckily - this new investment may have a shot of breathing some new life CZX not to mention needed excitement! TNR Gold is a dynamic group that has been making newspaper and interview headlines with their lithium projects.

Taken from http://www.tnrgoldcorp.com/s/Media.asp

CBC Interviews TNR Gold on Lithium in Northwest Territory
http://www.internationallithium.com/i/pdf/CBC-TNRinterview.pdf

Vancouver Sun Article - TNR Gold Corp (International Lithium Spin-off)
June 4, 2009
http://www.vancouversun.com/Business/Trading+rises+unemployment+falls/1663973/story.html

Resource World - Lithium Exploration
June 9, 2009
http://www.internationallithium.com/Z-files/ResourceWorld-2009-Jun-Lithium.pdf

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More info about Tongling:

http://www.tnmg.com.cn/english/

Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holdings Co.,Ltd. is located in the Tongling City of Anhui Province, where is one of the cradles of China's Bronze Culture and entitled with the name "China's Ancient Bronze Capital", Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holdings Co.,Ltd. enjoys favorable geographical position that closes to both Yangtze River and sea, and has convenient transportation.

As one of China's earliest copper production bases, Tongling Nonferrous Metals Group Holdings Co.,Ltd. has put into production in June 1952. After development of half century, now this incorporation becomes an extra large scale complex that engages mainly in copper mining, mineral processing, smelting & refining and copper products processing, and also involves in trade, scientific research and design, machine building, construction & installation, shaft & drift construction and tourism industry.This incorporation is one of the 300 enterprises that being given special support by the nation and one of the large scale enterprises being given preferential support by Anhui Provincial government.