Is Lithium The Next Big Play?
We are going to look at lithium but first a bit of info about the Ritchie Bros. auction this week. The results are in for the two parcels of mining claims that we had advertised here that were to be sold by Ritchie Bros. Auctions. The two groupings of claims sold on April 27. The first grouping of claims which was 51 claims on 13 Mile Creek sold for $127,500 CAD. The second grouping of claims on the 60 Mile consisted of 53 claims and sold for $106,000 CAD.
One has to keep in mind that these claims were river access only meaning that all equipment would need to be either barged in or wait until winter when the ground is froze enough to get equipment in. What this does show though is that there are buyers who are interested in buying mining properties.
With gold seeming to rally this last little while there has been a renewed interest in mining claims. I am getting emails from various vendors thinking about getting out of mining or selling portions of their mining properties. Some who had expressed interest in selling have taken a "wait and see" attitude as they feel the gold price will continue to go up there by making their properties tha much more valueable.
Talking to various mining people along with marketing people, there is getting to be more money available for mining and exploration pprojects. In the public arena, private placements are finding investors and in some cases depending on the project, placements are getting over suscribed. This sure beats the ways things were even 6 months ago. Last year for instance was almost a no show for raising money and a lot of junior mining company types were ready to throw in the towel. That being said I am sure that there still is a lot of companies that are working marginal ground and have little investor awareness that probably wish they could call it quits.
In the last month or so there has been a rush for some of smaller companies to get into the lithium plays. It seems everyday there is some news release that says this company or that comapny has aquired ground in some area somewhere that is located close to where someone else has found some interesting ground with lithium. I get asked what I think about about and I am not sure what to say. First and foremost I know nothing about lithiumor than it goes into batteries. The public interest kind of reminds me of the NWT diamond rush about 25 years ago or the Voisy's Bay rush 20 years ago. One company strikes it big and everyone rushes in hoping to find something big. I think it started with Lithium X and also Nemaska Lithium Inc.
Looking above at the two charts I don't have tell you that being a gold bug can sometimes be detrimental to your potential winnings in mining stocks. Had I bought into one of these lithium plays I would be a lot better off money wise than holding gold stocks. The one problem I do have with these lithium plays is how long will they be in the spot light? It was only a couple of years ago when a lot of these junior miners were all bummed out and decided to get into the marijuana thing. There were several compnies putting out news that they were no longer involved in mining but were signing deals to get into pot. That scenario played well for maybe a few but aside from those select companies who were maybe first in the game, the rest never did anything. Other than getting the stock to pop for a few sessions, most investors ended up being bag holders of dead stock. If you were late to the party you know what I mean.
Today, April 28 2106 and gold is at a high for the year as is silver. Let hope this trend continues and never mind the summer doldrums. News any day in regards to New Carolin Gold and their 3D modeling followed by drilling. There will be lots of action this summer for that play for sure.
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