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SPONSOR: New Age Metals Inc. The company owns one of North America’s largest primary platinum group metals deposit in Sudbury, Canada. Updated NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate 2,867,000 PdEq Measured and Indicated Ounces, with an additional 1,059,000 PdEq Ounces Inferred. Learn More.

Deficit-hit palladium takes aim at $2,000 ceiling in record run

• “Supply is tight in the palladium market and when you’re adding the speculation about a potential pick-up in demand due to recovery in the global economy, you have a perfect storm of bullish news continuing to keep it supported,” Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen said.

(Reuters) – Scarce palladium soared on Tuesday, nearing a breach of the $2,000 an ounce level for the first time, with a “phase one” U.S.-China trade deal driving prospects of a pick-up in demand and helping the autocatalyst metal extend a record run.

Palladium was up 0.6% at $1,989.58 an ounce at 1035 GMT, after hitting an all-time high of $1,998.43.

“Supply is tight in the palladium market and when you’re adding the speculation about a potential pick-up in demand due to recovery in the global economy, you have a perfect storm of bullish news continuing to keep it supported,” Saxo Bank analyst Ole Hansen said.

However, he added: “Liquidity is poor, which means that if we see a correction, it can be quite brutal and could take palladium back down towards $1,850, although there are no signs of that right now.”

The phase one trade deal has been “absolutely completed”, a top White House adviser said on Monday. However, Chinese officials have been more cautious, emphasizing the dispute has not been completely settled.

Palladium, used mainly in vehicle catalytic converters, has gained more than 57% so far this year because of a sustained supply crunch.

“We look set for an imminent test above $2,000,” MKS PAMP said in a note.

Elsewhere, gold prices rose due to uncertainty driven by a lack of concrete details about the interim trade deal.

Spot gold rose 0.2% to $1,478.41 per ounce. U.S. gold futures were also up 0.2%, at $1,482.90.

The trade dispute will be an influencing factor for gold throughout next year, said Commerzbank analyst Daniel Briesemann, adding a phase two deal would be much more difficult since a lot of critical issues had been left out of the current agreement.

“We must be prepared for some volatility and uncertainty. It’s not yet a done deal.”

Gold, considered a safe investment during political and economic uncertainty, has gained about 15% this year, mainly driven by the 17-month-long tariff war and its impact on the global economy.

Also helping bullion, European stocks slid from record highs on reports that Britain’s prime minister was ready to play rough in Brexit talks, souring sentiment somewhat after a record rally during the Asian session on the trade optimism.

Silver was 0.2% higher at $17.07 per ounce, while platinum gained 0.3% to $932.32.

Source: https://www.onenewspage.us/n/Business/1zkl56ztmy/Deficit-hit-palladium-takes-aim-at-000.htm

SPONSOR: New Age Metals Inc. The company owns one of North America’s largest primary platinum group metals deposit in Sudbury, Canada. Updated NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate 2,867,000 PdEq Measured and Indicated Ounces, with an additional 1,059,000 PdEq Ounces Inferred. Learn More.

Palladium prices rally to record high

• “Palladium has been on a multi-year run that shows few signs of abating,” John Ciampaglia, chief executive officer of Sprott Asset Management

by Denton Staff Contributor

Palladium futures rallied Friday to their highest settlement on record, extending last year’s advance and narrowing their price spread with gold to the smallest in roughly 16 years.

“Palladium has been on a multi-year run that shows few signs of abating,” John Ciampaglia, chief executive officer of Sprott Asset Management, wrote in a recent report. “Palladium is close to becoming the most ‘precious’ of precious metals.”

Palladium, which is used in pollution-controlling catalytic converters on gasoline-powered vehicles, has been significantly narrowing its spread with gold prices.

‘Palladium is close to becoming the most “precious” of precious metals.’ John Ciampaglia, Sprott Asset Management

On Friday, March palladium  added $34.10, or 2.8%, to settle at $1,234.40 an ounce. The finish was the highest based on FactSet records dating back to November 1984, topping the previous record settlement of $1,201.30 from Dec. 19.

February gold  fell $9, or 7%, to finish at $1,285.80 an ounce dulled investment demand in the yellow metal. That helped narrow its spread with palladium futures down to $51.40, the lowest since November 2002, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The last time palladium settled higher than gold was in October 2002.

Overall, growing global demand for the industrial metal has fed worries about tighter supplies.

“While the escalating U.S.-China trade war hurt many commodities in 2018, it couldn’t dent palladium’s rise,” said Ciampaglia. “Demand for palladium was especially strong last year, as environmental concerns have prompted a global shift from diesel to gasoline and hybrid vehicles.”

“Not even the 2018 slowdown in China’s auto market, the world’s largest, dampened demand,” he said.

Auto sales in China, the biggest global market, were on track for their annual decline in three decades after plunging 16% in November.

News Friday on progress toward a U.S.-China trade deal was upbeat, however. China’s Commerce Ministry confirmed that a delegation of U.S. officials will travel to Beijing for a new round of trade talks on Monday and Tuesday, .

“Supply shortages continue to support palladium’s performance, with strong multi-year growth in palladium demand now straining a fixed supply,” Ciampaglia said. “Palladium is especially scarce and its supply is inelastic since it is usually a by-product of ores that are being mined for other metals, like platinum and rhodium.”

Source: https://dentondaily.com/palladium-prices-rally-to-record-high-now-nearing-golds-level/

SPONSOR: New Age Metals Inc. The company owns one of North America’s largest primary platinum group metals deposit in Sudbury, Canada. Updated NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate 2,867,000 PdEq Measured and Indicated Ounces, with an additional 1,059,000 PdEq Ounces Inferred. Learn More.

Palladium Barrels Toward $2,000 as Red-Hot Rally Shreds Records

• Palladium’s blistering rally shows no sign yet of cooling off as records tumble

• the precious metal advanced to the highest ever on Friday as it climbed for an unprecedented 16th straight day.

Ranjeetha Pakiam, Bloomberg News

(Bloomberg) — Palladium’s blistering rally shows no sign yet of cooling off as records tumble: the precious metal advanced to the highest ever on Friday as it climbed for an unprecedented 16th straight day.

Prices are now barreling toward $2,000 an ounce as mining disruptions in major producer South Africa add to supply concerns, tightening a market already hobbled by a persistent deficit.

Palladium is headed for a seventh quarterly climb as demand for the metal used in autocatalysts has been strengthened by tighter emissions rules, with Citigroup Inc. forecasting it could hit $2,500 an ounce next year. In South Africa, rolling blackouts have hurt miners’ operations after state utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd. announced record power cuts.

Spot prices climbed as much as 1.3% to $1,965.82 an ounce, and traded at $1,960.93.

To contact the reporter on this story: Ranjeetha Pakiam in Singapore at [email protected]

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Phoebe Sedgman at [email protected], Jake Lloyd-Smith

Source: https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/palladium-barrels-toward-2-000-as-red-hot-rally-shreds-records-1.1362097

SPONSOR: New Age Metals Inc. The company owns one of North America’s largest primary platinum group metals deposit in Sudbury, Canada. Updated NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate 2,867,000 PdEq Measured and Indicated Ounces, with an additional 1,059,000 PdEq Ounces Inferred. Learn More.

Palladium posts all-time high that tops gold’s record price

By: Allen Sykora

• Palladium prices have once again hit a fresh all-time high, in the process exceeding gold’s record from nine years ago, as demand for the palladium in catalytic converters remains robust, traders and analysts said.

An additional impetus this week was continuing power issues in South Africa, some observers added.

As of 10:31 a.m. EST, spot palladium was up $26 to $1,922 an ounce and peaked at $1,935.30. Commerzbank analysts pointed out that this topped gold’s peak near $1,911 set back in 2011.

Platinum was up $2 to $938 an ounce and peaked at $944.40, its strongest level since Nov. 4.

TD Securities described the platinum group metals as “on fire as South African power woes add to supply concerns, particularly for palladium, which is in short supply.”

A desk trader downplayed the South African issue but emphasized the voracious demand for palladium in catalytic converters. The metal moved to a wide price premium over platinum in the two years, since palladium is used for catalytic converters in gasoline-powered cars, popular in the No. 1 and No. 2 car markets of China and the U.S.

“Palladium is trading strictly off of the fundamentals,” the trader said. “We have such strong demand…for catalytic converters.”

In particular, he explained, the consumption has increased in China and other countries due to more stringent environmental regulations. This has meant more loadings of palladium in each vehicle. In fact, some analysts said this has more than offset a decline in car sales during 2019.

“Palladium has been in a structural deficit for the last few years,” the desk trader said. “The increased demand due to higher emissions regulations in China, and a little bit in India, is just pushing that deficit deeper and deeper, which is driving the price…There is just a supply issue with people trying to get metal.”

Spot palladium has soared by 52% since the start of the year.

The trader said the South African power issues have been on traders’ radars for a while now. He pointed out that the load shedding has abated some from earlier in the week,
yet palladium has continued to rise anyway due to the strong demand, particularly from China.

“Even though we regard the steep price rise as exaggerated, there is no end in sight to the rally,” said Daniel Briesemann, metals analyst with Commerzbank. “Alongside palladium, platinum has also gained significantly for the second day in a row….This is probably related to the power outages in South Africa.”

Rolling power blackouts have occurred this week in South Africa, which along with Russia, is one of the world’s two leading producers of platinum group metals. This has impacted mining operations, which rely on electricity for operations that occur far below the ground, according to news reports.

Flooding after heavy rains exacerbated problems at public utility Eskom, according to news reports. The country’s president has also attributed some of the issues to suspected sabotage at power stations. Eskom provides more than 90% of South Africa’s power.

By Allen Sykora

For Kitco News

Source: https://www.kitco.com/news/2019-12-12/Palladium-posts-all-time-high-that-tops-gold-s-record-price.html

SPONSOR: New Age Metals Inc. The company owns one of North America’s largest primary platinum group metals deposit in Sudbury, Canada. Updated NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate 2,867,000 PdEq Measured and Indicated Ounces, with an additional 1,059,000 PdEq Ounces in the Inferred. Learn More.

Palladium zooms past $1,860/oz

• Palladium was up 0.3% at $1,845.80 an ounce, after hitting a new high of $1,861.71 earlier in the session.
• The metal has been breaking records daily since Nov. 25.

“Palladium positioning is slightly counter-intuitive to the price action, implicitly confirming heavy OTC interest from the long side,” INTL FCStone analyst Rhona O’Connell said in a note. “After weak longs were shaken out in early November another push to the upside is now approaching resistance from the uptrend.”

Concerns that supply of the metal used in car exhaust systems could run out has helped to lift prices by more than 47% this year alone, despite a weakening auto sector.

Silver shed 0.4% to $16.95 an ounce and platinum gained 0.4% to $903.51.

Source: https://www.cnbc.com/2019/12/02/gold-markets-us-dollar-china-economy-in-focus.html

SPONSOR: New Age Metals Inc. The company’s Lithium Division has already made significant acquisitions in Canada and the USA. The company also owns one of North America’s largest primary platinum group metals deposit in Sudbury, Canada. Updated NI 43-101 Mineral Resource Estimate 2,867,000 PdEq Measured and Indicated Ounces, with an additional 1,059,000 PdEq Ounces in the Inferred. Learn More.

Lithium: The New Oil

• Lithium prices will likely increase in the next few years.
• As electric cars replace gasoline powered ones, lithium will gain a strategic value not unlike that of crude oil today.
• And, Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, has the resources to become the ‘Saudi Arabia’ of lithium.

Alessandro Bruno

The Coup in Bolivia Could Boost Lithium Prices and Energy Resource Geopolitical Dynamics

Lithium prices will likely increase in the next few years. As electric cars replace gasoline powered ones, lithium will gain a strategic value not unlike that of crude oil today. And, Bolivia, the poorest country in South America, has the resources to become the ‘Saudi Arabia’ of lithium. The resignation of Evo Morales has tightened the market, indefinitely putting a halt to important lithium mining projects, which should sustain prices in the medium term. Notably, the coup and its possible – if not probable – links to lithium mining have stressed how all South American leaders (just as those of the Persian Gulf in relation to oil) will have to decide how manage the largest lithium reserves in the world.

Lithium: The New Oil

To an even more anxious extent than drivers looking for gas stations during the 1973 OPEC oil embargo, nothing characterizes 21stcentury ‘homo-sapiens’ lifestyle quite like the (insert gadget of choice)-battery-socket triangle. If social scientists, media gurus and advertising copywriters have noticed this trend, investors should have perceived by now that much monetary value lurks behind the gesture of ‘plugging-in’. The whole world needs to ‘plug-in’ angst, and the angst to recharge batteries will only intensify as car manufacturers are shifting away from the internal combustion engine in favor of electric motors at a faster pace than anyone had imagined even five years ago. Whoever has the most reliable, enduring, lightest and most powerful battery will build the best vehicles. Batteries, in an imminent future, will even generate enough power (and be light enough) to propel airplanes.A cell phone, a notebook, a tablet, work because of the  energy contained and released through lithium-ion batteries. But, the appeal of electric cars, (or even hybrid cars), is driving the appetite. Such vehicles are, quite literally, battery packs on wheels. And the batteries alone make up some 42% of the sticker price. (Source: Investopedia).

Many see ‘electric power’ as the way to end dependence on oil from the Middle East. However, such independence is the stuff of geopolitical fantasies: the rising demand for battery generated electric power has already shifted the geopolitical balance away from the sands of Saudi Arabia and closer to those of South America, which holds the richest lithium deposits in the world; especially, Argentina, Chile and Bolivia together hold some 80% of the world’s lithium (the Salar de Uuuni, a salt flat covering 10,000 square kilometers at 3,600 meters above sea level). being the largest known deposit). It is located near Potosi, perhaps the most important mining center of South America during the Spanish colonial era. The salt flat, which is also rich in magnesium, potassium and sodium, contains some 47% of the known world’s lithium reserves. At a price ranging between $8,000-10,000 per metric ton, the potential is clear.

Indeed, the batteries that have hooked the whole world are the lithium-ion (Li-ion) kind. And they are found in anything from smartphones to tablets, to electric cars and modern airliners.

Lithium is a low-density metal, typically found in salt form, noted for its ability to keep its level of charge (in case of inactivity). It is an abundant alkaline mineral, but nowhere is it abundant (and easy to extract) as it is in vast majority of the kind that’s most suitable to make rechargeable batteries. However, one of lithium’s main advantages as a resource is that, unlike oil, just about everyone has some. It’s found everywhere; and therefore, it’s unlikely that conflicts will break out because of it. Should a geopolitical dispute develop over lithium, it will have more to do with the know-how to advance related battery technology than Nevertheless, because of its sheer size, all major industrial powers, starting from the United States, are coveting South American lithium. Those who will, write rules of the contest to build the best lithium battery, therefore, will not focus on the geographic control of the resource. Rather, they will focus on the ability to combine the expertise, technology and resource together in order to transform the resource directly into batteries. More than power-relations, the winners of this game will excel at diplomacy. Battery dominance will be a factor of scientific competence, mining and geopolitics.

Who Wants South American lithium?

All industrial powers want South American lithium, though, clearly the United States, Japan, Germany, South Korea and, of course, China have the most interest. But, it’s China, which has been investing most heavily in the research. And therein rests the core of the problem. Because the real ‘resource’ is the manipulation and technology around lithium, ambitious governments, focused on lifting standards of living, have imposed conditions on would-be extractors. They must invest in the mining as well as the technology. And that’s the key to understand what happened to President Evo Morales of Bolivia – and the key to understanding how the race for lithium, the ‘21stcentury oil’, will have to be played. Indeed, as commercial lithium mining operations in the Salar de Ayuni began in 2016, President Morales quickly became dissatisfied with the notion of perpetuating the exporting model that has kept so many countries behind: that is the export of natural resources and the import of expensive finished goods.

Morales wanted to establish an in-house battery production process in order to export finished batteries. And Morales reached such an agreement in January 2019 with Germany’s ACI System(ACISA). Among others, ACISA supplies batteries to Tesla Motors. Germany, which is one of the remaining industrial powers, needs to secure batteries for its large auto manufacturing groups, which have quickly developed electric vehicle lineups, after a few years of trailing behind the Japanese and Americans. But last November 4, the Bolivian government canceled the agreement after protests from Potosi locals, expressing anger over the terms of the deal and the environmental consequences deriving from the magnesium tailings from the lithium extraction. Morales, for his part, probably expected more investment in the human resources through the installation of educational facilities, chemistry faculties, or at least scholarships to train the local people in the relevant skills. Morales, in turn, wanted to sign a $2.3 billion agreement – this time with China – turning Beijing into its strategic partner for lithium extraction and battery technology. Morales thought China to offer the best solution to achieve a complete battery production supply chain.  The Bolivian government was even rumored to attempt a nationalization of the project, but a week after the cancellation, President Evo Morales ‘resigned’ (or was the victim of a coup).

Is there a coincidence between the cancellation and the resignation? Perhaps, but the resulting political turmoil has effectively cut out Bolivia and its massive lithium resources from the market. Even China, which had designs with a project of its own in the Salar de Uyuni, will not have a chance to pursue any mining, given the political and social instability – even if the new people in charge will seek re-alignment with the West (i.e. USA, Europe) instead of China and Russia.

Source: https://midasletter.com/2019/11/lithium-the-new-oil/