Lithium Report 2018 Everything you need to know about lithium! - www.resource-capital.ch | - Liberty One Lithium Corp.

Page created by Alfredo Lowe
 
CONTINUE READING
Lithium Report 2018 Everything you need to know about lithium! - www.resource-capital.ch | - Liberty One Lithium Corp.
Lithium Report 2018
Everything you need to know about lithium!

       www.resource-capital.ch | info@resource-capital.ch
Lithium Report 2018 Everything you need to know about lithium! - www.resource-capital.ch | - Liberty One Lithium Corp.
Disclaimer
    Dear reader,                                    stood as guarantee of a particular price de-         shares of small and micro cap companies and
                                                    velopment of the mentioned financial instru-         low capitalized securities like derivatives and
   Please read the complete disclaimer in           ments or as a trading invitation. Every              leveraged products should only be as high
the following pages carefully before you            investment in securities mentioned in publica-       that, in case of a possible total loss, the depo-
start reading this Swiss Resource Capital           tions of Swiss Resource Capital AG involve           sit will only marginally lose in value.
Publication. By using this Swiss Resource           risks which could lead to total a loss of the in-
Capital Publication you agree that you have         vested capital and - depending on the invest-           All publications of Swiss Resource Capital
completely understood the following disc-           ment – to further obligations for example addi-      AG are exclusively for information purposes
laimer and you agree completely with this           tional payment liabilities. In general, purchase     only. All information and data in all publications
disclaimer. If at least one of these point          and sell orders should always be limited for         of Swiss Resource Capital AG are obtained
does not agree with you than reading and            your own protection.                                 from sources which are deemed reliable and
use of this publication is not allowed.                                                                  trustworthy by Swiss Resource Capital AG and
                                                       This applies especially to all second-line-       the respective authors at the time of preparati-
We point out the following:                         stocks in the small and micro cap sector and         on. Swiss Resource Capital AG and all Swiss
                                                    especially to exploration and resource compa-        Resource Capital AG employed or engaged
   Swiss Resource Capital AG and the au-            nies which are discussed in the publications of      persons have worked for the preparation of all
thors of the Swiss Resource Capital AG di-          Swiss Resource Capital AG and are exclusi-           of the published contents with the greatest
rectly own and/or indirectly own shares of          vely suitable for speculative and risk aware         possible diligence to guarantee that the used
following Companies which are described             investors. But it applies to all other securities    and underlying data as well as facts are com-
in this publication: Advantage Lithium              as well. Every exchange participant trades at        plete and accurate and the used estimates and
Corp., Durango Resources Inc., First Cobalt         his own risk. The information in the publica-        made forecasts are realistic. Therefore, liability
Corp., Liberty One Lithium Corp., Millennial        tions of Swiss Resource Capital AG do not            is categorically precluded for pecuniary losses
Lithium Corp., Nemaska Lithium Inc., Pure           replace an on individual needs geared profes-        which could potentially result from use of the
Energy Minerals Ltd., Standard Lithium              sional investment advice. In spite of careful        information for one’s own investment decision.
Ltd., Wealth Minerals Ltd.                          research, neither the respective author nor
                                                    Swiss Resource Capital AG will neither gua-             All information published in publications of
   Swiss Resource Capital AG has closed IR          rantee nor assume liability for actuality, correc-   Swiss Resource Capital AG reflects the opinion
consultant contracts with the following             tness, mistakes, accuracy, completeness,             of the respective author or third parties at the
companies which are mentioned in this pu-           adequacy or quality of the presented informa-        time of reparation of the publication. Neither
blication: -.                                       tion. For pecuniary losses resulting from inves-     Swiss Resource Capital AG nor the respective
                                                    tments in securities for which information was       authors can be held responsible for any resul-
  Swiss Resource Capital AG receives                available in all publications of Swiss Resource      ting pecuniary losses. All information is subject
compensation expenses from the following            Capital AG liability will be assumed neither by      to change. Swiss Resource Capital AG as well
companies mentioned in this publication:            Swiss Capital Resource AG nor by the respec-         as the respective authors assures that only
Advantage Lithium Corp., Durango Resour-            tive author neither explicitly nor implicitly.       sources which are deemed reliable and trust-
ces Inc., First Cobalt Corp., Liberty One Lit-                                                           worthy by Swiss Resource Capital AG and the
hium Corp., Millennial Lithium Corp., Ne-              Any investment in securities involves risks.      respective authors at the time of preparation
maska Lithium Inc., Pure Energy Minerals            Political, economical or other changes can           are used. Although the assessments and state-
Ltd., Standard Lithium Ltd., Wealth Mine-           lead to significant stock price losses and in the    ments in all publications of Swiss Resource
rals Ltd. Therefore, all mentioned compa-           worst case to a total loss of the invested capital   Capital AG were prepared with due diligence,
nies are sponsors of this publication.              and - depending on the investment – to further       neither Swiss Resource Capital AG nor the re-
                                                    obligations for example additional payment lia-      spective authors take any responsibility or lia-
                                                    bilities. Especially investments in (foreign) se-    bility for the actuality, correctness, mistakes,
Risk Disclosure and Liability                       cond-line-stocks, in the small and micro cap         accuracy, completeness, adequacy or quality
                                                    sector, and especially in the exploration and        of the presented facts or for omissions or in-
   Swiss Resource Capital AG is not a securi-       resource companies are all, in general, associ-      correct information. The same shall apply for all
ties service provider according to WpHG (Ger-       ated with an outstandingly high risk. This mar-      presentations, numbers, designs and assess-
many) and BörseG (Austria) as well as Art. 620      ket segment is characterized by a high volatility    ments expressed in interviews and videos.
to 771 obligations law (Switzerland) and is not     and harbours danger of a total loss of the in-
a finance company according to § 1 Abs. 3 Nr.       vested capital and - depending on the invest-           Swiss Resource Capital AG and the respec-
6 KWG. All publications of the Swiss Resource       ment – to further obligations for example addi-      tive authors are not obliged to update informa-
Capital AG are explicitly (including all the pub-   tional payment liabilities. As well, small and       tion in publications. Swiss Resource Capital
lications published on the website http://www.      micro caps are often very illiquid and every or-     AG and the respective authors explicitly point
resource-capital.ch and all sub-websites (like      der should be strictly limited and, due to an        out that changes in the used and underlying
http://www.resource-capital.ch/de) and the          often better pricing at the respective domestic      data, facts, as well as in the estimates could
website http://www.resource-capital.ch itself       exchange, should be traded there. An invest-         have an impact on the forecasted share price
and its sub-websites) neither financial analysis    ment in securities with low liquidity and small      development or the overall estimate of the dis-
nor are they equal to a professional financial      market cap is extremely speculative as well as       cussed security. The statements and opinions
analysis. Instead, all publications of Swiss Re-    a high risk and can lead to, in the worst case, a    of Swiss Capital Resource AG as well as the
source Capital AG are exclusively for informa-      total loss of the invested capital and - depen-      respective author are not recommendations to
tion purposes only and are expressively not         ding on the investment – to further obligations      buy or sell a security.
trading recommendations regarding the               for example additional payment liabilities. En-
buying or selling of securities. All publications   gagements in the publications of the shares            Neither by subscription nor by use of any
of Swiss Resource Capital AG represent only         and products presented in all publications of        publication of Swiss Resource Capital AG or
the opinion of the respective author. They are      Swiss Resource Capital AG have in part foreign       by expressed recommendations or repro-
neither explicitly nor implicitly to be under-      exchange risks. The deposit portion of single        duced opinions in such a publication will result

2

                            Swiss Resource Capital AG | Poststrasse 1 | 9100 Herisau | Schweiz
Lithium Report 2018 Everything you need to know about lithium! - www.resource-capital.ch | - Liberty One Lithium Corp.
in an investment advice contract or investment        thors will guarantee that the expected profits           Potential shareholders and prospective in-
brokerage contract between Swiss Resource             or mentioned share prices will be achieved.           vestors should be aware that these statements
Capital AG or the respective author and the           Neither Swiss Resource Capital AG nor the re-         are subject to known and unknown risks, un-
subscriber of this publication.                       spective authors are professional investment          certainties and other factors that could cause
                                                      or financial advisors. The reader should take         actual events to differ materially from those
    Investments in securities with low liquidity      advice (e. g. from the principle bank or a trus-      indicated in the forward-looking statements.
and small market cap are extremely speculati-         ted advisor) before any investment decision.          Such factors include but are not limited to the
ve as well as a high risk. Due to the speculative     To reduce risk investors should largely diver-        following: risks regarding the inaccuracy of the
nature of the presented companies their secu-         sify their investments.                               mineral reserve and mineral resource estima-
rities or other financial products it is quite pos-      In addition, Swiss Resource Capital AG wel-        tes, fluctuations of the gold price, risks and
sible that investments can lead to a capital          comes and supports the journalistic principles        dangers in connection with mineral explorati-
reduction or to a total loss and - depending on       of conduct and recommendations of the Ger-            on, development and mining, risks regarding
the investment – to further obligations for ex-       man press council for the economic and finan-         the creditworthiness or the financial situation
ample additional payment liabilities. Any in-         cial market reporting and within the scope of         of the supplier, the refineries and other parties
vestment in warrants, leveraged certificates or       its responsibility will look out that these princi-   that are doing business with the company; the
other financial products bears an extremely           ples and recommendations are respected by             insufficient insurance coverage or the failure to
high risk. Due to political, economical or other      employees, authors and editors.                       receive insurance coverage to cover these ris-
changes significant stock price losses can ari-                                                             ks and dangers, the relationship with emplo-
se and in the worst case a total loss of the in-                                                            yees; relationships with and the demands from
vested capital and – depending on the invest-         Forward-looking Information                           the local communities and the indigenous po-
ment – to further obligations for example                                                                   pulation; political risks; the availability and ri-
additional payment liabilities. Any liability            Information and statements in all publica-         sing costs in connection with the mining cont-
claim for foreign share recommendations, de-          tions of Swiss Resource Capital AG especially         ributions and workforce; the speculative
rivatives and fund recommendations are in             in (translated) press releases that are not histo-    nature of mineral exploration and development
principle ruled out by Swiss Resource Capital         rical facts are forward-looking information wit-      including risks of receiving and maintaining
AG and the respective authors. Between the            hin the meaning of applicable securities laws.        the necessary licences and permits, the
readers as well as the subscribers and the au-        They contain risks and uncertainties but not          decreasing quantities and grades of mineral
thors as well as Swiss Resource Capital AG no         limited to current expectations of the company        reserves during mining; the global financial si-
consultancy agreement is closed by subscrip-          concerned, the stock concerned or the res-            tuation, current results of the current explorati-
tion of a publication of Swiss Resource Capital       pective security as well as intentions, plans         on activities, changes in the final results of the
AG because all information contained in such          and opinions. Forward-looking information             economic assessments and changes of the
a publication refer to the respective company         can often contain words like “expect”, “belie-        project parameter to include unexpected eco-
but not to the investment decision. Publica-          ve”, “assume”, “goal”, “plan”, “objective”, “in-      nomic factors and other factors, risks of in-
tions of Swiss Resource Capital AG are neit-          tent”, “estimate”, “can”, “should”, “may” and         creased capital and operating costs, environ-
her, direct or indirect an offer to buy or for the    “will” or the negative forms of these expressi-       mental, security and authority risks,
sale of the discussed security (securities), nor      ons or similar words suggesting future events         expropriation, the tenure of the company to
an invitation for the purchase or sale of securi-     or expectations, ideas, plans, objectives, in-        properties including their ownership, increase
ties in general. An investment decision regar-        tentions or statements of future events or per-       in competition in the mining industry for pro-
ding any security should not be based on any          formances. Examples for forward-looking in-           perties, equipment, qualified personal and its
publication of Swiss Resource Capital AG.             formation in all publications of Swiss Resource       costs, risks regarding the uncertainty of the
                                                      Capital AG include: production guidelines,            timing of events including the increase of the
   Publications of Swiss Resource Capital AG          estimates of future/targeted production rates         targeted production rates and fluctuations in
must not, either in whole or in part be used as       as well as plans and timing regarding further         foreign exchange rates. The shareholders are
a base for a binding contract of all kinds or         exploration, drill and development activities.        cautioned not to place undue reliance on for-
used as reliable in such a context. Swiss Re-         This forward-looking information is based in          ward-looking information. By its nature, for-
source Capital AG is not responsible for con-         part on assumption and factors that can chan-         ward-looking information involves numerous
sequences especially losses, which arise or           ge or turn out to be incorrect and therefore          assumptions, inherent risks and uncertainties
could arise by the use or the failure of the ap-      may cause actual results, performances or             both general and specific that contribute to
plication of the views and conclusions in the         successes to differ materially from those sta-        the possibility that the predictions, forecasts,
publications. Swiss Resource Capital AG and           ted or postulated in such forward-looking sta-        projections and various future events will not
the respective authors do not guarantee that          tements. Such factors and assumption include          occur. Neither Swiss Resource Capital AG nor
the expected profits or mentioned share prices        but are not limited to: failure of preparation of     the referred to company, referred to stock or
will be achieved.                                     resource and reserve estimates, grade, ore re-        referred to security undertake no obligation to
                                                      covery that differs from the estimates, the suc-      update publicly otherwise revise any for-
  The reader is strongly encouraged to exami-         cess of future exploration and drill programs,        ward-looking information whether as a result
ne all assertions him/herself. An investment,         the reliability of the drill, sample and analytical   of new information, future events or other such
presented by Swiss Resource Capital AG and            data, the assumptions regarding the accuracy          factors which affect this information, except as
the respective authors in partly very speculati-      of the representativeness of the mineralization,      required by law.
ve shares and financial products should not be        the success of the planned metallurgical test
made without reading the most current balan-          work, the significant deviation of capital and
ce sheets as well as assets and liabilities re-       operating costs from the estimates, failure to        48f Abs. 5 BörseG (Austria) and Art. 620 to
ports of the companies at the Securities and          receive necessary government approval and             771 obligations law (Switzerland)
Exchange Commission (SEC) under www.sec.              environmental permits or other project per-
gov or other regulatory authorities or carrying       mits, changes of foreign exchange rates, fluc-          Swiss Resource Capital AG as well as the
out other company evaluations. Neither Swiss          tuations of commodity prices, delays by pro-          respective authors of all publications of Swiss
Resource Capital AG nor the respective au-            ject developments and other factors.                  Resource Capital AG could have been hired

                                                                                                                                                             3

                                                www.resource-capital.ch | info@resource-capital.ch
Lithium Report 2018 Everything you need to know about lithium! - www.resource-capital.ch | - Liberty One Lithium Corp.
and compensated by the respective company            in such states where it is legal by applicable       No guarantee for share price data
or related third party for the preparation, the      law. US citizens are subject to regulation S of
electronic distribution and publication of the       the U.S. Securities Act of 1933 and cannot              No guarantee is given for the accuracy of
respective publication and for other services.       have access. In Great Britain the publications       charts and data to the commodity, currency
Therefore the possibility exists for a conflict of   can only be accessible to a person who in            and stock markets presented in all publica-
interests.                                           terms of the Financial Services Act 1986 is au-      tions of Swiss Resource Capital AG.
                                                     thorized or exempt. If these restrictions are not
   At any time Swiss Resource Capital AG as          respected this can be perceived as a violation
well as the respective authors of all publica-       against the respective state laws of the menti-      Copyright
tions of Swiss Resource Capital AG could hold        oned countries and possibly of non mentioned
long and short positions in the described se-        countries. Possible resulting legal and liability       The copyrights of the single articles are with
curities and options, futures and other deriva-      claims shall be incumbent upon that person,          the respective author. Reprint and/or commer-
tives based on theses securities. Furthermore        but not Swiss Resource Capital, who has pub-         cial dissemination and the entry in commercial
Swiss Resource Capital AG as well as the res-        lished the publications of Swiss Resource Ca-        databases is only permitted with the explicit
pective authors of all publications of Swiss         pital AG in the mentioned countries and re-          approval of the respective author or Swiss Re-
Resource Capital AG reserve the right to buy         gions or has made available the publications         source Capital AG.
or sell at any time presented securities and op-     of Swiss Resource Capital AG to persons from
tions, futures and other derivatives based on        these countries and regions.                            All contents published by Swiss Resource
theses securities. Therefore the possibility                                                              Capital AG or under http://www.resource-ca-
exists for a conflict of interests.                    The use of any publication of Swiss Resour-        pital.ch – website and relevant sub-websites
                                                     ce Capital AG is intended for private use only.      or within http://www.resource-capital.ch –
   Single statements to financial instruments        Swiss Resource Capital AG shall be notified in       newsletters and by Swiss Resource Capital
made by publications of Swiss Resource Ca-           advance or asked for permission if the publi-        AG in other media (e.g. Twitter, Facebook,
pital AG and the respective authors within the       cations will be used professionally which will       RSS-Feed) are subject to German, Austrian
scope of the respective offered charts are not       be charged.                                          and Swiss copyright and ancillary copyright.
trading recommendations and are not equiva-                                                               Any use which is not approved by German,
lent to a financial analysis.                           All information from third parties especially     Austrian and Swiss copyright and ancillary co-
                                                     the estimates provided by external user does         pyright needs first the written consent of the
   A disclosure of the security holdings of          not reflect the opinion of Swiss Resource Capi-      provider or the respective rights owner. This
Swiss Resource Capital AG as well as the res-        tal AG. Consequently, Swiss Resource Capital         applies especially for reproduction, proces-
pective authors and/or compensations of              AG does not guarantee the actuality, correct-        sing, translation, saving, processing and re-
Swiss Resource Capital AG as well as the res-        ness, mistakes, accuracy, completeness, ade-         production of contents in databases or other
pective authors by the company or third par-         quacy or quality of the information.                 electronic media or systems. Contents and
ties related to the respective publication will                                                           rights of third parties are marked as such. The
be properly declared in the publication or in                                                             unauthorised reproduction or dissemination of
the appendix.                                        Note to symmetrical information and opini-           single contents and complete pages is not
                                                     on generation                                        permitted and punishable. Only copies and
   The share prices of the discussed financial                                                            downloads for personal, private and non com-
instruments in the respective publications are,        Swiss Resource Capital AG can not rule out         mercial use is permitted.
if not clarified, the closing prices of the prece-   that other market letters, media or research
ding trading day or more recent prices before        companies are discussing concurrently the               Links to the website of the provider are al-
the respective publication.                          shares, companies and financial products             ways welcome and don’t need the approval
                                                     which are presented in all publications of           from the website provider. The presentation of
   It cannot be ruled out that the interviews        Swiss Resource Capital AG. This can lead to          this website in external frames is permitted
and estimates published in all publications of       symmetrical information and opinion generati-        with authorization only. In case of an infringe-
Swiss Resource Capital AG were commissi-             on during that time period.                          ment regarding copyrights Swiss Resource
oned and paid for by the respective company                                                               Capital AG will initiate criminal procedure.
or related third parties. Swiss Resource Capi-
tal AG as well as the respective authors are         No guarantee for share price forecasts
                                                                                                          Notes from Bundesanstalt für Finanzdienst-
receiving from the discussed companies and
                                                                                                          leistungsaufsicht (Federal Financial Super-
related third parties directly or indirectly ex-         In all critical diligence regarding the compi-
                                                                                                          visory Authority)
pense allowances for the preparation and the         lation and review of the sources used by Swiss
electronic distribution of the publication as        Resource Capital AG like SEC Filings, official
                                                                                                          You will find in brochures of BaFin (see links)
well as for other services.                          company news or interview statements of the
                                                                                                          additional notes that should contribute to pro-
                                                     respective management neither Swiss Re-
                                                                                                          tect against dubious offers:
                                                     source Capital AG nor the respective authors
                                                                                                          Investment – how to recognize dubious sel-
Exploitation and distribution rights                 can guarantee the correctness, accuracy and
                                                                                                          lers:
                                                     completeness of the facts presented in the
                                                                                                          http://www.bafin.de/SharedDocs/Downloads/
   Publications of Swiss Resource Capital AG         sources. Neither Swiss Resource Capital AG
                                                                                                          DE/Broschuere/dl_b_geldanlage.pdf?__blob=-
may neither directly or indirectly be transmit-      nor the respective authors will guarantee or be
                                                                                                          publicationFile
ted to Great Britain, Japan, USA or Canada or        liable for that all assumed share price and pro-
                                                                                                          Security transactions – what to watch out for
to an US citizen or a person with place of resi-     fit developments of the respective companies
                                                                                                          as an investor:
dence in the USA, Japan, Canada or Great             and financial products respectively in all publi-
                                                                                                          https://www.bafin.de/SharedDocs/Down-
Britain nor brought or distributed in their terri-   cations of Swiss Resource Capital AG will be
                                                                                                          loads/DE/Broschuere/dl_b_wertpapierge-
tory. The publications and their contained in-       achieved.
                                                                                                          schaeft.pdf?__blob=publicationFile
formation can only be distributed or published

4

                             Swiss Resource Capital AG | Poststrasse 1 | 9100 Herisau | Schweiz
Lithium Report 2018 Everything you need to know about lithium! - www.resource-capital.ch | - Liberty One Lithium Corp.
Further legal texts of BaFin:                           the respective author but not always the opini-        Accordingly no liability is assumed for the un-
http://www.bafin.de/DE/DatenDokumente/                  on of Swiss Resource Capital AG.                       intentional transmission of data. The use of
Dokumentlisten/ListeGesetze/liste_gesetze_                                                                     contact data like postal addresses, telephone
node.html                                                                                                      and fax numbers as well as email addresses
                                                        Liability limitation for availability of website       published in the imprint or similar information
                                                                                                               by third parties for transmission of not explicit-
Liability limitation for links                             Swiss Resource Capital AG will endeavour            ly requested information is not permitted. Le-
                                                        to offer the service as uninterrupted as possib-       gal action against the senders of spam mails
   The http://www.resource-capital.ch – web-            le. Even with due care downtimes can not be            are expressly reserved by infringement of this
site and all sub-websites and the http://www.           excluded. Swiss Resource Capital AG reser-             prohibition.
resource-capital.ch – newsletter and all publi-         ves the right to change or discontinue its ser-
cations of Swiss Resource Capital AG contain            vice any time.                                            By registering in http://www.resource-capi-
links to websites of third parties (“external                                                                  tal.ch – website and its sub-websites or in the
links”). These websites are subject to liability                                                               http://www.resource-capital.ch – newsletter
of the respective operator. Swiss Resource              Liability limitation for advertisements                you give us permission to contact you by
Capital AG has reviewed the foreign contents                                                                   email. Swiss Resource Capital AG receives
at the initial linking with the external links if any      The respective author and the advertiser are        and stores automatically via server logs infor-
statutory violations were present. At that time         exclusively responsible for the content of ad-         mation from your browser including cookie in-
no statutory violations were evident. Swiss             vertisements in http://www.resource-capital.           formation, IP address and the accessed web-
Resource capital AG has no influence on the             ch – website and its sub-websites or in the            sites. Reading and accepting our terms of use
current and future design and the contents of           http://www.resource-capital.ch – newsletter as         and privacy statement are a prerequisite for
the linked websites. The placement of external          well as in all publications of Swiss Resource          permission to read, use and interact with our
links does not mean that Swiss Resource Ca-             Capital AG and also for the content of the ad-         website(s).
pital AG takes ownership of the contents be-            vertised website and the advertised products
hind the reference or the link. A constant con-         and services. The presentation of the adverti-
trol of these links is not reasonable for Swiss         sement does not constitute the acceptance by
Resource Capital AG without concrete indica-            Swiss Resource Capital AG.
tion of statutory violations. In case of known
statutory violations such links will be immedia-
tely deleted from the websites of Swiss Re-             No contractual relationship
source Capital AG. If you encounter a website
of which the content violates applicable law (in           Use of the website http://www.resource-ca-
any manner) or the content (topics) insults or          pital.ch and its sub-websites and http://www.
discriminates individuals or groups of individu-        resource-capital.ch – newsletter as well as in
als, please contact us immediately.                     all publications of Swiss Resource Capital AG
                                                        no contractual relationship is entered between
   In its judgement of May 12th, 1998 the               the user and Swiss Resource Capital AG. In
Landgericht (district court) Hamburg has ruled          this respect there are no contractual or qua-
that by placing a link one is responsible for the       si-contractual claims against Swiss Resource
contents of the linked websites. This can only          Capital AG.
be prevented by explicit dissociation of this
content. For all links on the homepage http://
www.resource-capital.ch and its sub-websites            Protection of personal data
and in all publications of Swiss Resource Ca-
pital AG applies: Swiss Resource Capital AG is             The personalized data (e.g. mail address of
dissociating itself explicitly from all contents of     contact) will only be used by Swiss Resource
all linked websites on http://www.resource-ca-          Capital AG or from the respective company for
pital.ch – website and its sub-websites and in          news and information transmission in general
the http://www.resource-capital.ch – newslet-           or used for the respective company.
ter as well as all publications of Swiss Resour-
ce Capital AG and will not take ownership of
these contents.”                                        Data protection

                                                            If within the internet there exists the possibi-
Liability limitation for contents of this web-          lity for entry of personal or business data
site                                                    (email addresses, names, addresses), this data
                                                        will be disclosed only if the user explicitly vo-
   The contents of the website http://www.re-           lunteers. The use and payment for all offered
source-capital.ch and its sub-websites are              services is permitted – if technical possible
compiled with utmost diligence. Swiss Re-               and reasonable – without disclosure of these
source Capital AG however does not guaran-              data or by entry of anonymized data or pseud-
tee the accuracy, completeness and actuality            onyms. Swiss Resource Capital AG points out
of the provided contents. The use of the cont-          that the data transmission in the internet (e.g.
ents of website http://www.resource-capital.            communication by email) can have security
ch and its sub-websites is at the user’s risk.          breaches. A complete data protection from un-
Specially marked articles reflect the opinion of        authorized third party access is not possible.

                                                                                                                                                               5

                                                  www.resource-capital.ch | info@resource-capital.ch
Lithium Report 2018 Everything you need to know about lithium! - www.resource-capital.ch | - Liberty One Lithium Corp.
Preface

Dear reader,

it is with great pleasure that we are ente-   clean local public transport with a range     Jochen Staiger is founder and CEO of
ring the second year of our Lithium Spe-      of over 300 km. Volkswagen wants to in-       Swiss Resource Capital AG, located in
cial Report. Swiss Resource Capital AG        vest around € 10 billion in the electro mo-   Herisau, Switzerland. As chief-editor
has made it its business to topically and                                               -   and founder of the first two resource
comprehensively inform precious metals        ting 2025 sell more than one million          IP-TV-channels Commodity-TV and its
and commodity investors, interested           electric cars per year.                       German counterpart Rohstoff-TV, he
parties and the individual who wants to                                                     reports about companies, experts,
become an investor in various commodi-        All this will be an enormous drive for the    fund managers and various themes
ties and mining companies. On our web-        lithium demand and in the interview with      around the international mining
site www.resource-capital.ch you will         Tobias Tretter you will read how and in       business and the correspondent
                                              which directions the developments ad-         metals.
well as articles about the topic commodi-     vance. Commodities are the base of our
ties.                                         economic activities. Without commodi-
                                              ties there are no technical innovations
A year ago, we started our series of spe-     and no products that can be manufactu-
cial reports with lithium because we con-     red with new materials.
sider this metal to be one of the great
future metals in the energy sector and, in    With our special reports we would like to
spite of the already happened boom, see       give you the necessary insights and in-
big chances and potentials in the short       form you comprehensively.
term. The battery development is only at      In addition, our two Commodity IPTV
the beginning of a long road and the          channels www.Commodity-TV.net &
electric automobile has to capture its                               are available to
place among consumers and in the auto-        you free of charge. For on the go we re-
mobile history. Lithium is the main com-      commend our new Commodity-TV App
ponent of all available large-scale pro-      for iPhone or Android which also provi-
duction batteries and accumulators and        des real-time charts, share prices and
therefore the crucial link in the electro     the latest videos.
mobility dream. The necessary charging
infrastructure is pushed along and ex-        My team and I hope you will enjoy rea-
panded in Germany which might accele-         ding this Special Lithium Report and          Tim Roedel is chief-editorial- and
rate the future trend.                        hope that we can provide you with new         chief-communications-manager at
                                              information, impressions and ideas. Only      SRC AG. He has been active in the
The annual Paris car show was dedica-         the one who gets broadly informed and         commodity sector since 2007 and
ted to the electro mobility in the past ye-   takes matters relating to investments in      held several editor- and chief-editor-
ars and the 2018 shows in Geneva as           his own hand will be in the winners and       positions, e.g. at the publications
                                                                                            Rohstoff-Spiegel, Rohstoff-Woche,
issue of the short range should resolve       times.                                        Rohstoffraketen, Wahrer Wohlstand
itself with new accumulator technologies                                                    and First Mover. He owns an
                                                                                            enormous commodity expertise and a
This will drastically increase the demand     Yours Jochen Staiger                          wide-spread network within the whole
for electric cars. According to experts                                                     resource sector.
the demand increase will be based on
the formula “500+200” meaning 500 km
range plus 200 km reserve. Then, it is be-
lieved, the die-hard driver of combustion
engines will switch to electric cars. Daim-
ler-Benz is already working on a bus for

                                                                                                                                9

                                   www.resource-capital.ch | info@resource-capital.ch
Lithium Report 2018 Everything you need to know about lithium! - www.resource-capital.ch | - Liberty One Lithium Corp.
Lithium – the most important substance of the 21st
century is just gaining momentum!

                 Carbon was the past – Lithium                  Usually metallic lithium is produced in a
                 is the future                                  multi-stage process starting from lithium
                                                                carbonate, and is traded mostly with a
                 Rarely was a chemical element of similar       purity of 99.5 %. The metallic lithium is
                 great importance as lithium will be in the     used as a catalyst in the chemical and
                 coming decades. Since the announce-            pharmaceutical industry as well as in the
                 ment of Tesla Motors’ plans to build up to     production of aluminum lithium alloys.
                 500,000 electric vehicles per year in its
                 mega-factory starting 2017, lithium, in        The industry distinguishes three basic ty-
                 connection with lithium-ion batteries, is      pes or qualities of lithium compounds:
                 on everyone’s lips. The metal in its future
                                                            -   1. “Industrial grade”, with a purity of over
                 bon that is not only important in daily life                                              -
                 in the form of plastics but also as energy         bricant;
                 source in form of coal and crude oil.          2. “Technical grade”, with a purity around
                 Whereas carbon above all is an energy              99.5 % for ceramics, lubricants and
                 supplier and energy source, lithium will           batteries; and
                 become more and more the energy sto-           3. “Battery grade”, with a purity of over
                 rage medium of the future.                         99.5 % especially for high end battery
                                                                    cathode materials.

                 What is lithium?
                                                                Main application area: batteries
                 Lithium is a light metal belonging to the      and accumulators
                 alkali metal group. It is the least dense of
                 all known solid elements. It has half the                                                  -
                 weight of water, is silver-gray and relati-    satile properties make lithium a
                 vely soft. Lithium is highly reactive and      sought-after material used in many appli-
                 therefore found in nature only as a lithium    cation areas. It is not a surprise that the
                 compound. Contact with air tarnishes           main application area of lithium was
                 the surface due to the formation of lithi-     constantly changing in the past. Initially it
                 um oxide and lithium nitride. In pure oxy-     was used primarily in medicine and in the
                 gen lithium combusts at 1800 Celsius           1950’s the element became commercial-
                                                                ly successful as an alloy component.
                 oxide. Lithium reacts with water violently     Due to its low weight and the positive
                 forming lithium hydroxide.                     properties regarding to tensile strength,
                                                                hardness and elasticity lithium became
                                                                an inherent part of the aerospace
                 The global lithium extraction is divided in    technique. During the past 20 years the
                 several branches producing the following       situation changed. In the course of the
                 types of lithium compounds:                    beginning of the electro revolution it was
                                                                recognized that due to the low standard
                 1. Lithium carbonate                           electrode potential of lithium the metal is
                 2. Lithium hydroxide                           almost perfectly suited as the anode in
                 3. Lithium chloride                            batteries. Lithium batteries are characte-
                 4. Butyl lithium and                           rized by a very high energy density and
                 5. Lithium metal                               can generate a very high voltage, but
                                                                they are not rechargeable. This property
                                                                is found in lithium-ion accumulators

10

          Swiss Resource Capital AG | Poststrasse 1 | 9100 Herisau | Schweiz
Lithium Report 2018 Everything you need to know about lithium! - www.resource-capital.ch | - Liberty One Lithium Corp.
where lithium metal oxides, like lithium      ge of lithium ions. Due to the high energy
cobalt oxide, are used as cathode mate-       density lithium-ion accumulators deliver
rial. For the production of accumulators      – in contrast to conventional mercury or
and batteries purity grades above 99.5        nickel based batteries – a constant per-
% are needed. Industrial grade lithium        formance throughout the discharge peri-
hydroxide is used, among other things,        od and not subjected to any memory ef-
as raw material for lubricants as well as     fect - that is, the gradual capacity loss
coolants and technical grade lithium          throughout their service life due to many
hydroxide is used in the production of        partial discharges. Therefore lithium-ion
accumulators and batteries. Lithium           accumulators have a clear advantage
carbonate – crystalline, granulated or as     over conventional nickel-cadmium accu-
powder – for example is used for the          mulators.
electrolytic production of aluminum, in
the ceramic and pharmaceutical industry
as well as in the alloy technique. For the    The production requires large
production of lithium-ion-accumulators,       quantities of lithium

                                              The “disadvantage”: the production of
(battery grade powder). The extraction        lithium-ion accumulators requires large
and processing of (especially high grade)     quantities of lithium. Every smartphone
lithium is considered to be very expensive.   contains 5 to 7 grams LCE (Lithium Car-
                                              bonate Equivalent). In a notebook or tab-
                                              let there are 20 to 40 grams. Power tools
Lithium-ion accumulators are                  like electric screwdrivers or electric saws
considered the non-plus-ultra                 need 40 to 60 grams for their accumula-
                                              tors. A storage unit with a capacity of
Currently research is conducted and           10KWh for domestic use contains around
works done globally on increasing the         23 kg LCE and the accumulators for
power of accumulators for electric cars.      electric cars contain 40 to 80 kg. A pow-
In the meantime, it has become evident        er storage unit with a capacity of 650MWh
that the lithium-ion accumulator is a clear   contains 1.5 tons of LCE. Billions of
favorite. One reason among others is          smartphones and the high millions of
that inside a lithium-ion accumulator the     notebooks, power tools, cars, e-bikes
voltage is generated through the exchan-      etc. adds up to a demand of several
                                              100,000 tons of LCE per year.

                                              Application in the area of rege-
                                              nerative energies

                                              The application of lithium in lithium-ion
                                              batteries or accumulators in car manu-
                                              facturing is only one of many possible
                                              uses. Corresponding energy storage
                                              systems will be increasingly used for the
                                              storage of electricity derived from alter-
                                              native energy sources. The phenomenal
                                              expansion of the power generation in
                                              wind farms or solar cells is a giant advan-

                                                                                            11

                                   www.resource-capital.ch | info@resource-capital.ch
Lithium Report 2018 Everything you need to know about lithium! - www.resource-capital.ch | - Liberty One Lithium Corp.
tage for the environment but an enor-
            mous challenge for the power grids. The
                                                           Supply Situation
            during power generation by regenerative        Two types of lithium deposits
            energy sources. When the wind blows or
            the sun shines large quantities of electric    In general lithium is derived from two dif-
            energy are “pumped” into the grid in a         ferent sources.
            very short time creating enormous short
            lived overcapacities that are not used.        1. Brine deposits: Lithium carbonate is
            According to calculations of the German           primarily derived by evaporating the
            Federal Association of Wind Energy 20             lithium bearing brines with addition of
            percent of the annual return of a wind            sodium carbonate in salt lakes. For
            farm is lost due to turbine shutdown du-          the production of metallic lithium, the
            ring power grid overload.                         lithium carbonate is dissolved in hy-
                                                              drochloric acid which produces car-
                                                              bon dioxide that escapes as gas and
            The biggest future field of                       lithium chloride in solution. This solu-
            application for lithium-ion                       tion is reduced in the vacuum evapo-
            accumulators: Decentralized                       rator until crystallization of the lithium
            Energy Storage                                    chloride.

            Smart-Grid-Systems should prevent a            2. “Hard rock spodumene” deposits: in
            power grid overload but need a large              this case the lithium compounds are
            number of short and middle term energy            not derived from the salt of salt lakes
            storage systems to store the surplus              but from spodumene, a lithium bea-
            energy and feed it into the grid when the-        ring aluminum silicate mineral. The
            re is a lack of wind and solar power. Lithi-      spodumene is mined using conventi-
            um-ion accumulators could be the soluti-          onal techniques and processed to a
                                                              concentrate that is often transformed
            surplus energy and feeding it into the            to lithium carbonate with a purity of
            grid on demand. Many producers alrea-             more than 99.5 %. The necessary in-
                                                      -       tensive thermal and hydrometallurgi-
            tors that will be used decentralized in a         cal processes are considered as very
            family home with a photovoltaic system            expensive. This type of deposit is al-
            on the roof. An example is the Tesla Po-          most exclusively mined in Australia
            werwall, a solar battery for private homes        and the processing takes place pri-
            which is produced in the Tesla mega-fac-          marily in Chinese facilities.
            tory in Nevada, USA, since October
            2015. The electric energy storage system       Recently more and more exploration and
            consists of accumulators, charge control       development companies count on a third
            and a liquid cooling system. It is possible    source of lithium; the possibility to ext-
            for private customers to connect up to 9       ract lithium from old exploited oil reser-
            batteries to reach a total capacity of 57.6    voirs. The lithium is extracted from was-
            kWh. With this, Tesla got the ball rolling     tewater remaining in the reservoir. The
            and by doing so is making the decentra-        viability of this process was proven seve-
            lized energy storage cheaper as well as        ral times. In addition, this unusual lithium
                                                      -    production is economically feasible. The-
            portant driver for the lithium market.
                                                           become the focus of the lithium industry.

12

     Swiss Resource Capital AG | Poststrasse 1 | 9100 Herisau | Schweiz
Lithium Report 2018 Everything you need to know about lithium! - www.resource-capital.ch | - Liberty One Lithium Corp.
Currently, around 80 % of the total lithium
                                                                                             production worldwide originates in four
                                                                                             countries.(Source: USGS Mineral Commodity
                                                                                             Summaries / Lithium X)

Lithium is abundant                            Currently Lithium production is
                                               focused primarily in four coun-
In the past it was wrongly assumed that        tries and by four companies
a global switch from conventional com-
bustion engines to electric motors is im-      Currently, around 80 % of the total lithi-
possible due to lack of lithium. That is       um production worldwide originates in
not quite right. Lithium is not that rare in   these three South American countries
the earth, accounting for approximately        plus Australia and production is split bet-
0.006 % of the earth‘s crust, therefore        ween four companies. As a result, the
rarer than zinc, copper and tungsten but       whole lithium market is lacking transpa-
a bit more common than cobalt, tin and         rency. This is the reason the big battery
lead. According to estimates of the US         and accumulator producers like Panaso-
Geological Survey, there are 40 million        nic and the leading electric car manufac-
tons of lithium mineable globally, 65 % of     turers, above all Tesla Motors, are look-
that alone in the South American coun-         ing for long-term supply contracts with
tries of Bolivia, Chile and Argentina. Cur-    relatively small development companies
rently the biggest lithium carbonate pro-      that in part are not producing before
duction takes place in the Salar de            2020. As a result of this supply oligopoly,
Atacama, a salt lake in the northern Chi-      lithium is currently not traded in the mar-
lean province of Antofagasta. Approxi-         ket and the actual trading prices are
mately 40 % of the global lithium produc-
tion originates in this region.                mentioned by the supplier is that the
                                               available and produced lithium qualities
                                                                                      -
                                               ket place.

                                                                                                                                       13

                                   www.resource-capital.ch | info@resource-capital.ch
From 2017 on, the lithium market went into a
                              supply deficit.
        Source: Orocobre, Advantage Lithium

                                                Lithium production will increase             per ton lithium carbonate. Either way,
                                                sharply                                      this is a lucrative business for the pro-
                                                                                             ducer because the mining costs at cur-
                                                In 2015 the global lithium production (for   rent projects are US$ 3,200 to 6,500 per
                                                standardization reasons LCE = “lithium       ton. Lithium hydroxide shows similar
                                                carbonate equivalent” a universal con-       numbers. From a quantitative point lithi-
                                                version factor for all above mentioned
                                                lithium compounds) was approximately         battery, but accounts for only roughly 4-5
                                                175,000 tons LCE. According to projec-       % of the costs of a battery. Hence the
                                                tions, this number will increase to
                                                330,000 tons LCE by 2020. The latter is      the production of lithium ion batteries
                                                not based on concrete mine expansions        and could be kept at an economic level
                                                or new mines.                                for the lithium producer.

                                                The price is always crucial but              Development companies work
                                                relatively negligible for the                under high pressure at new
                                                accumulator production!                      projects, …

                                                In the end the price is only important for   As the big companies Albemarle, SQM,
                                                the economic extraction of the existing      FMC and Tianqi have plans to increase
                                                lithium deposits. In the past months the     their production and at the same have no
                                                price has risen sharply. In mid-2015 the     interest in falling lithium prices, many de-
                                                price for a ton lithium carbonate was        velopment companies work on the ad-
                                                around US$ 6,000 and has climbed to          vancement of new lithium projects and
                                                the presently over US$ 25,000 and surely     the delineation of concrete deposits and
                                                just a snap shot. We can assume that the     resources.
                                                price will settle, in the middle to long
                                                term, between US$ 10,000 and 12,000

14

                                     Swiss Resource Capital AG | Poststrasse 1 | 9100 Herisau | Schweiz
… in part at new lithium hot                 Summary supply side
spots
                                             The lithium production is (still) in the
Therefore, besides the typical lithium re-   hands of a few producers. The worldwi-
gions South America and Australia, new       de biggest lithium producer Albemarle
regions in North America and especially      acquired Rockwood Holdings, the owner
Canada, Mexico and (due to the proximi-      of the two largest lithium deposits in Chi-
ty to the future top consumer Tesla Mo-      le at the beginning of 2015. Albemarle
tors) the US, especially the US-state Ne-    and three other companies, SQM, FMC
vada emerge as lithium hot spots. In the     and Tianqui (i.a. Albemarle’s joint venture
past years the Clayton Valley in Nevada      partner in Australia) share the lithium
has become the Lithium-Eldorado              market mostly between each other. Al-
because it hosts Albemarle’s Silver Peak     though there is seemingly enough lithium
Mine, the only operating brine lithium       on the planet, the extraction can be cost-
mine in North America. The Clayton Val-      ly and time consuming so that higher
ley is one of the few areas worldwide        prices are not an automatically leading to
where commercially mineable lithium bri-     a supply increase. The supply should in-
nes are found. Recently, Pure Energy Mi-     crease in the coming years but forecas-

Tesla Motors. Another important hot spot     due to current lack of data for potential
is in Argentina’s northwest where Oro-       mine extensions or construction of new
cobre operates the Olaroz lithium mine.      mines. Increased exploration activities
In this region and in nearby Chile, some     by (smaller) development companies are
development companies like Millenial         indications of the potential establishment
Lithium and Lithium X are active and         of new mines.                                 Development of the lithium carbonate price
were also be able to announce some gre-                                                              and transformational bull events
at results.                                                                                (Source: Asian Metals, Navigant Research,
                                                                                                                    Wealth Minerals)

                                                                                                                                 15

                                  www.resource-capital.ch | info@resource-capital.ch
Demand situation                               sible that Tesla will purchase the neces-
                                                                                           sary lithium from its previous cathode
                                                                                           partner Panasonic. On the other hand,
                                            The demand is rising rapidly!                  there is the possibility to buy the needed
                                                                                           lithium hydroxide and lithium carbonate
                                            One reason for the current rapid price         directly from the relevant producer. The
                                            development is a constantly rising de-
                                            mand. In 2000 the demand was at appro-         agreements with only two lithium develo-
                                            ximately 65,000 tons LCE and reached           pers in Nevada and Mexico. These two
                                            184,000 tons LCE by 2015. For 2025,            companies (Pure Energy Minerals and
                                            experts are estimating a LCE demand of         Bacanora Minerals plus their joint ven-
                                            more than 530,000 tons!                        ture partner Rare Earth Minerals) will
                                                                                           most likely not start with production be-
                                                                                           fore 2020 and satisfy only part of Tesla’s
                                            The driving factor will primarily be the de-   demand. This indicates that Tesla has no
                                            mand from the battery and accumulator          reliable lithium supplier between 2017
                                            sector in association with the automotive      and 2020 and they still have to secure
                                            industry. But also, the energy storage
                                            sector will create an immense demand.          time afterwards to guarantee acceptable
                                            2015, only one third of the lithium de-        prices and to become independent from
                                            mand came from the battery sector; by          middlemen like Panasonic.
                                            2025 it will probably reach 70 %.

                                                                                           … but the action is elsewhere
                                            North America is Tesla                         by now!
                                            Country …
                                                                                           Although Tesla’s share at the global lithi-
                                            Outside Asia, North America in particular      um demand will be 10% after completi-
                                            is dominating the lithium demand. Tesla        on of its Gigafactory 1 it is already clear
                                            Motors is playing an important part abo-       that Asia will need much more lithium.
                                            ve all. The company is constructing its so     China alone accounts for one third of the
                                            called “Gigafactory 1” in Nevada. Since        total demand, today. Experts estimate
                                            2016 lithium-ion cells, battery packs,         this will not change soon because China
(Source: McKinsey, Bloomberg New Energy     electric motors and drive units for up to      produces the most accumulators, batte-
Finance, Deutsche Bank, Wealth Minerals)    500,000 electric vehicles per year are         ries, glass, lubricants, air conditioning
                                            built there. In the future it could be pos-    units and synthetic rubber by far. This
                                                                                           stimulates      the   immense       lithium
                                                                                           consumption of the country. According
                                                                                           to expectations China will have the
                                                                                           strongest yearly increase in lithium de-
                                                                                           mand of all important market partici-
                                                                                           pants during the coming 5 to 10 years
                                                                                           due to an expected tripling of the quan-
                                                                                           tity of rechargeable batteries. Additional
                                                                                           important suppliers of lithium-ion batte-
                                                                                           ries including South Korea and Japan
                                                                                           will also guarantee a robust increase of
                                                                                           the lithium demand. The highlights are
                                                                                           by far the electronic giants Sony, Panas-
                                                                                           onic, Samsung, LG, BYD, Boston Power,
                                                                                           Lishen and CATL.

16

                                     Swiss Resource Capital AG | Poststrasse 1 | 9100 Herisau | Schweiz
In the coming years, around 300 new electric
                                                                                          car models are in the pipeline
                                                                                          (Source: Benchmark Mineral Intelligence,
                                                                                          Nemaska Lithium)

Additional giga-factories in the            2. The car manufacturers and (initially)
construction stage                             above all Tesla Motors, but also from
                                               all other leading car manufacturers.
Tesla is not the only lithium consumer      3. The producer of power banks i.e.
who plans a bigger production of lithi-        decentralized energy storage units
um-ion accumulators. LG Chem has al-           which are used in the private and in-
ready begun production for Chevy in Mi-        dustrial sector where electricity is
chigan in October 2015. Also, Foxconn,         produced by photovoltaic cells as
BYD (largest producer of rechargeable          well as wind power stations and used
accumulators especially for cell phones),      for their own needs.
Lishen, CATL and Boston Power are buil-
ding their own giga-factories for, among    This constellation will increase the lithi-
other things, so called power banks, i.e.   um demand by 100% and beyond during
decentralized energy storage units. The-    the coming 5 years whereby the power
refore, the produced capacity of lithi-     banks will generate the biggest demand
um-ion accumulators could more than         increase and could eclipse the other sec-
triple by 2020.                             tors.

Summary demand side                         Conclusion

                                            Currently, the lithium market is clearly a
                                            supply oligopoly-market. This means few
                                            suppliers face many customers. Unlike
1. The Asian electronic groups, which       rare earth elements the market power is
   aim primarily for the mass production    not with one country (China) but with four
   of powerful lithium-ion batteries and
   accumulators for the daily use in mul-   four countries: Australia, Argentina, Boli-
   timedia devices etc.                     via and Chile. Currently, several (smaller)

                                                                                                                                     17

                                 www.resource-capital.ch | info@resource-capital.ch
In the coming years, around 300 new electric
car models are in the pipeline
(Source: Scharfsinn/shutterstock.com)          development companies advance and
                                               try to bring to production good projects       not interested in a lower market price.
                                               not only in the previous production coun-      This is the reason why smaller lithium
                                               tries but also in Canada, USA (above all       companies will have very good develop-
                                               in Clayton Valley a downright playground       ment and production opportunities. Be-
                                               for lithium developers), Australia, Zim-       sides, from a quantitative point lithium
                                               babwe, Mexico, Serbia and some other                                                     -
                                               countries. One reason is the rapidly gro-      tery, but it accounts for only roughly 4-5
                                               wing demand which, in the course of the        % of the costs of a battery. Hence the
                                               electro revolution, is exploding. The low                                                -
                                               price for crude oil is playing, if at all, a   duction of lithium ion batteries and could
                                               minor part because lithium is used above       be kept at an economic level for the lithi-
                                               all as a medium for energy storage and         um producer. The lithium companies
                                               not for energy generation.                     whose projects are at a very advanced
                                                                                              stage should see the biggest upward
                                               emerging on the market from now on,            price potential in the coming months and
                                               because the demand increase will               possibly consolidation that is via takeo-
                                               exceed the supply expansion in the fu-         ver scenarios.
                                               ture. Because there is no end of the de-
                                               mand increase in sight past 2025 and           Following we present a few of these acti-
                                               there are no big noteworthy lithium pro-       ve lithium development companies.
                                               duction projects in the pipeline, that con-
                                               dition could last for a foreseeable time.
                                               In addition, the few suppliers have a sig-

18

                                        Swiss Resource Capital AG | Poststrasse 1 | 9100 Herisau | Schweiz
Interview with Tobias Tretter –
Manager of Structured Solutions Lithium Index
Strategic Fund

Mr. Tretter you are the manager of the
Structured Solutions Lithium Index              doing so. Currently the resources graphi-
Strategic Fund. Which strategies do             te, cobalt or magnesium are very interes-
you follow and what does the fund               ting. For example, cobalt used as catho-
represent?                                      de has some superior properties like a
                                                faster recharging of batteries. But cobalt
The fund was established in 2010 becau-         is not fully used by the battery producers
se we were aware of the potential for the       because the biggest part of the global
resource Lithium at that time. We couldn’t      production comes from the Congo and is
realize our original idea of a physical ba-     thereby not a reliable source of this metal.   Tobias Tretter has been active in the
                                                Also, the mining conditions in the Congo       mining sector since 2000. During his
                                            -   are very questionable and not only inves-      activity at Dr. Jens Ehrhard Wealth
delible and cannot be stored in a safe.         tors but buyers as well avoid this produc-     Management he supported the
The only interesting possibility for our cli-   tion. The demand for reliable sources and      management of the DJE Gold &
ents was a public fund which invests di-        ethically and environmentally clean mined      Resources Fund, which was awarded
rectly into the 25 biggest producers and        cobalt is enormous and will be another         as the best performing commodity
developers of lithium deposits. We didn’t       trend in the years to come. We have di-        fund of 2003. From 2005 to 2008 he
want to invest directly into the battery                                                   -   co-managed the Stabilitas Funds,
producers, because in contrast to the lit-      versify even more in the future. Regarding     which have been awarded as the
                                                the risks we think that it is not too risky.   "best performing Gold Fund" in 2006.
the higher lithium prices in the long term      As soon as the trend weakens and other         Since 2009, Mr. Tretter acts as CEO
but rather have to pay these. Our inves-        resources due to a shift in demography or      and responsible person for the
                                                the reduced exploration activities, beco-      Index- and Portfolio-Managements of
directly from the coming boom for lithium       me interesting the fund can be realigned       Commodity Capital AG. He is
brought on by the demand for lithium bat-       at any time. The fund is a niche product       managing the Commodity Capital
teries, based on electric cars or power         and thought as an addition in a broad di-      Global Mining Fund (ISIN:
walls, without the risk of single invest-                                                      LU0459291166), the Structured
ments. In the past year we rearranged the       in the success of electric cars and power      Solutions Lithium Index Strategie
investment universe of the fund from pure       walls he has the choice to buy shares of       Fund (ISIN: LU0470205575) and the
lithium investments to battery metals. We       one or two companies in the sector or a        Managed Accounts of Commodity
think that besides lithium the demand for                                                -     Capital. Tobias Tretter holds a
cobalt, magnesium, graphite or zinc will        tions of the sector the investors should       business diploma degree from the
also increase in the coming years and we                                                 -     University of Bayreuth.
want to give our investor the possibility to    tments in order to minimize the risk of a
                                                single stock. That it can be useful having
                                                a “niche product” in the portfolio for the
                                                long term we could demonstrate last year
Is such a fund which is focused at a            with the receipt of the Lipper Fund Award
niche resource not too specialized and          for the best resource fund of the past
thereby too risky?                              three years.

Yes and no. The fund is very specialized,
but the success of the lithium sector con-      In the past 10 years we have observed
                                          -     once in a while the formation of
tial for the resource lithium but also see      bubbles in “trend resources”. The
the demand for other resources needed           uranium bubble and the hype around
in lithium batteries. Therefore, we have        the rare earth elements, graphite etc.
together with the restructuring of the fund     comes to mind. Why should it be
expanded our investment universe and            different for lithium?

                                                                                                                                 19

                                    www.resource-capital.ch | info@resource-capital.ch
You can also read