Minerals, Mining and Industrial Ecology

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

Big Tech Isn’t As Clean As You Think

By Irina Slav - Jan 11, 2021, 3:00 PM CST

They are among the biggest—and most generous—backers of the renewable energy shift. They are advertising themselves as environmentally responsible companies that source their raw materials from ethical locations and cutting the offering of products that consumers don't use to reduce packaging-related emissions. And they are the driver behind a global electronic waste crisis. Meet Big Tech. Last year, Apple said its iPhone 12 will sell without a charging adapter, like the latest Apple Watches, to reduce the amount of electronic waste its products generate.

"There are also over 2 billion Apple power adapters out there in the world, and that's not counting the billions of third-party adapters. We're removing these items from the iPhone box, which reduces carbon emissions and avoids the mining and use of precious materials," Wired quoted Apple's VP of environment, policy, and social initiatives, Lisa Jackson.

Yet it's not the chargers that are the big problem, according to e-waste experts. Last year, the world generated a record amount of e-waste, topping 53.6 million metric tons, E-Waste Monitor said in its latest report. This amount represented a 21-percent increase over five years. And e-waste will continue growing, the report warned. It could reach 74 million metric tons by 2030.

Recycling rates, meanwhile, are meager. Last year, they stood at less than 20 percent of the total e-waste the world generated. Unless something changes very quickly and radically, this rate is unlikely to change much in the future, either.

"We don't have the technology to take a truck full of old iPhones, molt them down, grind them up and make new iPhones out of them. It's flat out physically impossible," the chief executive of repairs hub iFixit, Kyle Wiens, told CNBC's Dain Evans recently.

"Smartphones and tablets are challenging," according to John Shegerian, CEO of Electronic Recyclers International, who also spoke to CNBC's Wiens. "Many of them are no longer made with screws; they're made with glue. Glue makes things very hard to take apart and recover materials from because it degrades the value of the commodity product itself."

People are increasingly reliant on smartphones and other consumer electronics, and they don't last particularly long: the average productive life of a smartphone was about 24 months in 2018. This was becoming a problem for phonemakers: an average life of 24 months was two months longer than people used to keep their phones back in 2016, and this was hitting profits. Now, CNBC's Wiens noted in his article on e-waste, smartphones' lives are likely to start shrinking again as consumers shift to 5G devices.

A smartphone contains a host of precious metals and rare earths—not to mention the oil-sources plastic these metals and rare earths are encased in—and these have a substantial carbon footprint. Called invisible waste, the dirty trail of an average smartphone is about 86 kilos while that of a laptop is 1,200 kilos, according to Swedish waste management and recycling organization Avfall Sverige.

"Because the waste from manufacturing is not visible, consumers have trouble really understanding the full environmental impact the product has," the organization noted in its report. "It must be easier for consumers to take responsibility for their purchases. The invisible waste must therefore be made visible and knowledge about it must increase so we can reduce the quantities of waste over time."

Not everything is so gloomy, to be fair. A study published recently in the Journal of Industrial Ecology and cited by Yale Environment 360, reports that the amount of e-waste generated in the United States had fallen by 10 percent since 2015. However, this was not thanks to more responsible manufacturers or consumers but because of the replacement of bulky items such as CRT monitors with laptops and because of the multifunctionality of most devices.

The solution seems simple: Big Tech could simply start making more durable phones instead of launching a new model every 12 months. But this would be a problem for Big Tech's profits, which apparently depend heavily on the regular and frequent release of new products, as suggested by the trends from the last five years mentioned above.

Throwing away smartphones without recycling them meant throwing away materials worth $57 billion, according to E-Waste Monitor, and the report noted this was a conservative estimate. In other words, recycling smartphones and other consumer electronics could ultimately save tens of billions of dollars on top of the savings in manufacturing-related emissions.

Even better, waste could be a resource, according to the author of the e-waste shrinkage study, Shahana Althaf, a postdoctoral associate at the Yale Center for Industrial Ecology. Recycling can recover most of the precious and rare metals used in smartphones and other devices, reducing reliance on imported raw materials, which some have seen as a threat to national security that needs to be handled soon.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

 

Here is an earlier THREAD pertaining to MINERALS & MINING & INDUSTRIAL ECOLOGY...

https://community.oilprice.com/topic/22083-researchers-are-harvesting-precious-metals-from-industrial-waste/

On the THREAD, EnviroLeach Technologies   EVLLF on the U.S. exchange.  is mentioned

EnviroLeach is an industrial technology company focused on precious metals extraction formulas and technologies.

Our unique patented and proven technology offers a cost-effective, eco-friendly and domestic alternative to the use of cyanide and smelters for the recovery of gold from E-Waste and conventional gold ores and concentrates.

Silver and Health are mentioned

Lithium is mentioned

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

I want to mention that Irina Slav's article was picked up by Zero Hedge.

Big Tech Isn't As Clean As You Think

https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/big-tech-isnt-clean-you-think

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

Can Sea Water Batteries Solve Our Energy Storage Problem?

By Irina Slav - Jan 12, 2021, 1:00 PM CST

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Can-Sea-Water-Batteries-Solve-Our-Energy-Storage-Problem.html

The stakes are rising with each passing day for energy storage. The world needs it, and it needs it cheaply and urgently, given all the plans in Europe, Asia, and the United States to considerably boost the amount of renewable energy in the power generation mix. As a result, breakthroughs in energy storage tech have become more or less a regular occurrence. The latest of these breakthroughs promises to solve the two challenges of energy storage: price and capacity. 

It does that by using seawater for a battery's electrolytes instead of solvents, which are much more expensive but also less safe than water. 

"The world's energy needs are increasing, but the development of next-generation electrochemical energy storage systems with high energy density and long cycling life remains technically challenging," says Xhenxing Feng, a chemical engineer from Oregon State University, which published the research, as quoted by Science Daily.

 "Aqueous batteries, which use water-based conducting solutions as the electrolytes, are an emerging and much safer alternative to lithium-ion batteries. But the energy density of aqueous systems has been comparatively low, and also the water will react with the lithium, which has further hindered aqueous batteries' widespread use."

To solve the energy density challenge, the researchers made a whole new nanostructured alloy for the anode of their aqueous battery. The anode combines manganese, zinc, and other metals. The zinc boosted the battery's energy density because it could transfer twice as many charges as lithium, according to Feng. The other elements of the anode increased the battery's safety by preventing the formation of dendrites that tend to form in overcharged lithium-ion batteries, sometimes resulting in spontaneous combustion.

Scientists in Germany are also working on aqueous batteries, as labs around the world push the boundary beyond lithium ions. This team, however, focused on zinc-air batteries, which have a lot of advantages such as energy density and stability but are, unfortunately, non-rechargeable. 

Or at least they weren't rechargeable until now.

Working with scientists from China and the United States, the researchers from the Westphalian Wilhelms University in Münster developed a new electrolyte for a zinc-air battery that is based on seawater, replacing the alkaline solutions that are typically used. They also introduced an anode based on a zinc salt that made the battery not just rechargeable, but quite durable, too, potentially able to compete with lithium-ion battery chemistry.

Both batteries would need a lot more work before they get out of the lab and reach the market. So at least for now, lithium-ion technology's dominance is ensured. But it may not be ensured for long if efforts persist in finding safer and, perhaps more importantly, cheaper alternatives.

The United States alone plans to boost its energy storage capacity by as much as 525 percent by 2025. Storage is already being added at a fast rate: the amount set up in the third quarter of 2020 was 240 percent higher than the amount set up in the second quarter, all despite the raging pandemic.

At the same time, current storage capacity is very far from sufficient to power the grid for more than an hour or two, which makes it fit for a replacement of peaker plants but not much else, especially the complete replacement of fossil fuels with solar and wind. For that, the grid would need enough stored electricity to last for many hours in case weather patterns interfere with power generation at solar and wind farms, which is a frequent occurrence.

Utility-scale storage and EV batteries will seal the fate of the renewable revolution pretty much single-handedly. Falling costs of solar and wind technology are always good news, but without storage, these falling costs are not really relevant for the long-term.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

Sharyl Attkisson is one of the few journalists with true integrity.  If you don't know her history and how she stood firm for truth in reporting at the expense of losing her well paid job, then you have not been paying attention.

 

In the following 9 minute report, Sharyl brings out some alarming facts.  Microsoft and Bill Gates are evil as they come (as is all the Big Tech companies).  Don't believe any "altruistic" thing which Bill Gates says...he is not here to benefit the public good.  In the following story, find out how a man went to prison for viably recycling E-Waste.

 

E-Waste | Full Measure

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

Max Keiser gives his price predictions for gold, silver and bitcoin in 2021.  He was spot-on for 2020.

44 minutes

 

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

Europe’s Largest Oil Producer Bets Big On Deep-Sea Mining

By Felicity Bradstock - Jan 13, 2021, 3:00 PM CST

https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Europes-Largest-Oil-Producer-Bets-Big-On-Deep-Sea-Mining.html

In a shift away from fossil fuels, Norway is planning to deep dive for metals as part of its plan for a greener future.  Having gained most of the country’s wealth from its successful oil industry, Norway is now looking to get ahead of the curve in metals by mining copper, zinc and other metals found on the seabed. 

The deep-sea mining project, expected to commence in late 2023, will see metals mined for use in electric vehicle batteries, wind turbines and solar farms. 

However, environmentalists worry that disturbing the seabed could wreak environmental havoc. Huge polymetallic nodules - manganese, nickel, copper and cobalt - on the seabed are attractive to those trying to adapt to new technologies and move away from traditional energies such as oil and coal. But ocean experts are concerned about the environmental impact of deep-sea mining as it has not been done before, and the potential repercussions are still unknown. 

Reducing worldwide reliance on fossil fuels will require alternatives to be developed. Ditching oil and gas would mean using billions of kilograms of metal to fuel wind turbines and electric car batteries. For example, a wind turbine requires around a metric tonne of copper to work. 

At present, many of these metals come from terrestrial mines, which has led to deforestation and water pollution. Mining from the sea-bed, around 3 kilometres underwater, could provide a less harmful extraction option as global demand for these metals increases.

While the UN’s International Seabed Authority (ISA), established in 1994, has deemed deep-sea resources “common heritage of mankind” in recent years it has allotted 30 exploration contracts across an area of 1.4 million square kilometres. These contracts have been delivered to both private companies and governments, with the aim of developing these metallic resources. 

In response to environmental concerns, the Norwegian government plans to carry out an environmental impact assessment, after which the matter will go to vote in parliament in 2023. 

Norway presents an exception to ISA regulations as its metals are not in international waters. According to recent studies, Norway’s waters contain large quantities of these valuable metals. Higher estimates suggest the Norwegian continental shelf could provide as much as 21.7 million tonnes of copper and 22.7 million tonnes of zinc; figures well over the world’s annual output. 

If estimates are correct, Norway could see an annual revenue of up to $20 billion in metal mining within the next 30 years. While the country’s oil and gas industries contributed $61 billion in revenue in 2019, this is not insignificant as Norway adapts to greener energy practices. 

This week, Oil and Energy Minister Tina Bru told Reuters “We are moving forward on this, and the momentum is high”, explaining “This is an industry with great potential.”.

Cyprus-based Seabird Exploration plans to develop a deep-sea mining subsidiary, to be registered with the Euronext Growth Oslo small-cap stock exchange this year. The company aims to use existing oil and gas sector techniques to extract metals from the seabed by the late 2020s. Nordic Mining is also expected to request mining licenses if the plans go ahead. 

Several other countries already hold contracts for seabed exploration including Germany, China, South Korea, Brazil, Russia, and Japan. And others are highly interested in getting involved as regulators call for greener energy practices. Some of the countries that have so far shown interest include Poland, India, France, the UK, Belgian, Singapore, and the Pacific islands of Kiribati, Cook Islands, Tonga, and Nauru. 

However, many of these countries must rely on the ISA to grant permissions for exploration following a full environmental impact assessment of the area in question. This could significantly delay hopes of mining, as well as hinder development plans if the assessment deems the potential impact too high. 

Following recent interest in metal extraction from the world’s seabeds by several countries across the globe, as well as the increase in contracts issued by the ISA, it seems inevitable that mining will go ahead. The question now is when will this mining take place and what the environmental impact of the extraction will be in practice as we move into a “greener future”. 

By Felicity Bradstock for Oilprice.com

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

Related to the story above...

During the Cold War, there was the nuclear arms race. Today, there's a lesser known race that's taking us to the bottom of the ocean. We’ll tell you why we need the rare minerals that lie beneath, and the boost they provide for our technology and weapons.

Full Measure is a weekly Sunday news program focusing on investigative, original and accountability reporting. The host is Sharyl Attkisson, five-time Emmy Award winner and recipient of the Edward R. Murrow award for investigative reporting. She is backed by a team of award winning journalists.

(8 minutes)

 

[Boat + 1,323]

Tech being clean is just another conspiracy. Like clean coal and clean nat gas. The cleanest thing we can do is drop demand and forget growth. Overpopulation is the cheapest lowest hanging fruit. All the clean talk is bs. The debate is what is cleaner, not clean. 
Data bases create as much carbon as the airline industry. Bitcoin which is one of humans more stupid products, like 120 GW per sec. 

Humans will never give up transportation, housing, work and all the bells and whistles so let’s not talk clean but common sense says do it cleaner and more efficient.

Edited January 14, 2021 by Boat

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

13 hours ago, Boat said:

Overpopulation is the cheapest lowest hanging fruit.

"Overpopulation" is a myth.  This is a Eugenics carry-over agenda, and that is why Bill Gates has always mentioned "Population Control" and pushing the vaccine agenda  (He helped to sterilize many, many thousands with his vaccine push).  Heck, they were sterilzing Native American Indians up until the 1970's...I remember.   Do some research on the topic of "Overpopulation". 

I encourage you to watch "Why Big Oil Conquered the World" for this New Biden Agenda, this "Great Reset"..  If you watch "How Big Oil Conquered the World" you will discover how Big Oil intentionally destroyed Mass Transit and alternative fuels for automobiles, and how they manipulated the entire educational system and how Big Oil helped to install income tax, The Federal Reserve private banking structure, and how Big Oil brought about the medical system which is Pharma based, rather than healthy natural based.

https://www.corbettreport.com/bigoil/

 

[footeab@yahoo.com + 2,190]

14 hours ago, Boat said:

 Overpopulation is the cheapest lowest hanging fruit. All the clean talk is bs. The debate is what is cleaner, not clean.

Ah yes, the do as I say, not as I do crowd.  I have noticed all of the eco's aren't exactly grabbing the lowest hanging fruit, but always demanding others commit hari cari instead of  themselves.  At least most of them have few to no children...  So, we will give them a 2/5 rotten tomato score.

IF they truly wanted to "save the planet" they would be all be signing up for work gangs where they 24/7/365 build greenhouses reducing human footprint per acre down to a tenth of what it is today. 

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

3 minute video - Many famous people are mentioned here...

The Rise of Eugenics - Why Big Oil Conquered The World

The Rise of Eugenics - Why Big Oil Conquered The World

Edited January 15, 2021 by Tom Nolan

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

The Green New Deal will make these metals skyrocket in value - Gianni Kovacevic

The “future” is already happening now, and copper stands to benefit the most from the electrification of our economy, said Gianni Kovacevic, CEO of CopperBank.

 

[ronwagn + 6,290]

On 1/11/2021 at 5:26 PM, Tom Nolan said:

Big Tech Isn’t As Clean As You Think

By Irina Slav - Jan 11, 2021, 3:00 PM CST

They are among the biggest—and most generous—backers of the renewable energy shift. They are advertising themselves as environmentally responsible companies that source their raw materials from ethical locations and cutting the offering of products that consumers don't use to reduce packaging-related emissions. And they are the driver behind a global electronic waste crisis. Meet Big Tech. Last year, Apple said its iPhone 12 will sell without a charging adapter, like the latest Apple Watches, to reduce the amount of electronic waste its products generate.

"There are also over 2 billion Apple power adapters out there in the world, and that's not counting the billions of third-party adapters. We're removing these items from the iPhone box, which reduces carbon emissions and avoids the mining and use of precious materials," Wired quoted Apple's VP of environment, policy, and social initiatives, Lisa Jackson.

Yet it's not the chargers that are the big problem, according to e-waste experts. Last year, the world generated a record amount of e-waste, topping 53.6 million metric tons, E-Waste Monitor said in its latest report. This amount represented a 21-percent increase over five years. And e-waste will continue growing, the report warned. It could reach 74 million metric tons by 2030.

Recycling rates, meanwhile, are meager. Last year, they stood at less than 20 percent of the total e-waste the world generated. Unless something changes very quickly and radically, this rate is unlikely to change much in the future, either.

"We don't have the technology to take a truck full of old iPhones, molt them down, grind them up and make new iPhones out of them. It's flat out physically impossible," the chief executive of repairs hub iFixit, Kyle Wiens, told CNBC's Dain Evans recently.

"Smartphones and tablets are challenging," according to John Shegerian, CEO of Electronic Recyclers International, who also spoke to CNBC's Wiens. "Many of them are no longer made with screws; they're made with glue. Glue makes things very hard to take apart and recover materials from because it degrades the value of the commodity product itself."

People are increasingly reliant on smartphones and other consumer electronics, and they don't last particularly long: the average productive life of a smartphone was about 24 months in 2018. This was becoming a problem for phonemakers: an average life of 24 months was two months longer than people used to keep their phones back in 2016, and this was hitting profits. Now, CNBC's Wiens noted in his article on e-waste, smartphones' lives are likely to start shrinking again as consumers shift to 5G devices.

A smartphone contains a host of precious metals and rare earths—not to mention the oil-sources plastic these metals and rare earths are encased in—and these have a substantial carbon footprint. Called invisible waste, the dirty trail of an average smartphone is about 86 kilos while that of a laptop is 1,200 kilos, according to Swedish waste management and recycling organization Avfall Sverige.

"Because the waste from manufacturing is not visible, consumers have trouble really understanding the full environmental impact the product has," the organization noted in its report. "It must be easier for consumers to take responsibility for their purchases. The invisible waste must therefore be made visible and knowledge about it must increase so we can reduce the quantities of waste over time."

Not everything is so gloomy, to be fair. A study published recently in the Journal of Industrial Ecology and cited by Yale Environment 360, reports that the amount of e-waste generated in the United States had fallen by 10 percent since 2015. However, this was not thanks to more responsible manufacturers or consumers but because of the replacement of bulky items such as CRT monitors with laptops and because of the multifunctionality of most devices.

The solution seems simple: Big Tech could simply start making more durable phones instead of launching a new model every 12 months. But this would be a problem for Big Tech's profits, which apparently depend heavily on the regular and frequent release of new products, as suggested by the trends from the last five years mentioned above.

Throwing away smartphones without recycling them meant throwing away materials worth $57 billion, according to E-Waste Monitor, and the report noted this was a conservative estimate. In other words, recycling smartphones and other consumer electronics could ultimately save tens of billions of dollars on top of the savings in manufacturing-related emissions.

Even better, waste could be a resource, according to the author of the e-waste shrinkage study, Shahana Althaf, a postdoctoral associate at the Yale Center for Industrial Ecology. Recycling can recover most of the precious and rare metals used in smartphones and other devices, reducing reliance on imported raw materials, which some have seen as a threat to national security that needs to be handled soon.

By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com

cell phones are nothing compared to solar panels and wind turbines. Add in printers and all the other tech junk we now have. 

See https://www.prageru.com/video/whats-wrong-with-wind-and-solar/

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

The Miraculous Material Transforming Energy Storage

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Jan 17, 2021, 6:00 PM CST

A material discovered less than two decades ago could become the key to safer, faster-charging and lighter batteries that power electronic devices, electric vehicles, and stationary energy storage.    Since the ‘supermaterial’ graphene was first isolated in 2004 by researchers at The University of Manchester in the UK, a growing number of graphene-making start-ups have been developing battery technologies which, the companies say, will usher in a future of fast-charging devices and electric vehicles (EVs), with higher energy capacity and without risks of overheating. 

Graphene is only a single atom thick. It’s a superconductor of electricity and heat, and very light. It’s more than 100 times stronger than steel, but also 6 times lighter. Graphene slows the heating process in lithium batteries and allows up to five times faster charging speeds. Because it has low resistivity, graphene conducts heat evenly across the battery to help it cool, says one of the start-ups working with graphene, Real Graphene...  [ARTICLE CONTINUES]

https://community.oilprice.com/topic/22083-researchers-are-harvesting-precious-metals-from-industrial-waste/#comment-143754

Stuart Englert: Why Precious Metals Price Rigging Happens, How it Could End

https://community.oilprice.com/topic/22083-researchers-are-harvesting-precious-metals-from-industrial-waste/#comment-143701

Low Lithium Prices Could Hold Back The EV Revolution

By Alex Kimani - Jan 16, 2021, 6:00 PM CST

https://community.oilprice.com/topic/22083-researchers-are-harvesting-precious-metals-from-industrial-waste/#comment-142304

 

 

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

Lithium Americas Corp. (LAC)

26.80 +6.27 (+30.54%) - at close on Tuesday January 19th

https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/LAC?p=LAC

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Fri, January 15, 2021, 5:52 PM - Reuters

U.S. regulators approve Lithium Americas' Nevada lithium mine

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/u-regulators-approve-lithium-americas-235255914.html

Jan 15 (Reuters) - The U.S. Bureau of Land Management gave final approval on Friday to Lithium Americas Corp's Thacker Pass lithium mine in northern Nevada, part of a push by policymakers to boost domestic output of the white metal for electric vehicle batteries.

The Vancouver-based company now plans to seek financing for the project, which could be producing lithium by October 2022. The approval comes in the waning says of U.S. President Donald Trump's administration, during which a raft of mining projects have been approved. (Reporting by Ernest Scheyder; Editing by Leslie Adler)

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

Not As Green As You Think - Global EV Push Sparks Cobalt Chaos

Sunday, Jan 24, 2021 - 7:35

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/electric-vehicle-push-sends-cobalt-prices-higher

Global cobalt prices per metric ton are up more than 20% since the beginning of this year as increasing electric vehicle demand has strained global supply chains. 

WSJ spoke with auto and battery experts about cobalt, a metal found in lithium-ion batteries. Besides EVs, the blue metal is found in virtually every consumer electronics like cell phones, laptop computers, and tablets. 

LARGER GRAPHIC - https://cms.zerohedge.com/s3/files/inline-images/cobalt.jpg?itok=JmQcj_5B

Ying Lu, an analyst at London-based commodity research firm Roskill, was quoted by WSJ as saying, "demand is not going to shrink any time soon, while the supply remains tight mainly due to logistics disruptions in South Africa during the pandemic." 

As explained by InsideSources, every EV battery contains cobalt, with most of it mined in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

DRC has sustained years of destabilization as the Congo government and armed militants duke it out over the control of mines. Much of the DRC cobalt is then hauled to South Africa and shipped to China for processing.

It's not just automakers and suppliers buying cobalt from DRC, many are trying to recycle cobalt from old batteries and exploring other regions around the world for alternative sourcing.  

As a reminder, the Trump administration has signed an executive order in the US mining industry, highlighting America's dangerous overdependence on China for rare-earth metals. 

In 2016 and 2018, massive interest poured into EVs with the Model 3 Tesla launch. Cobalt prices nearly quadrupled in that timeframe before crashing down in 2019. A recent move higher in prices could suggest that speculators have entered the market with the idea that President Biden's effort for a greener economy could result in higher demand for the metal.

Biden plans one million new auto industry jobs in manufacturing, supply chains, and infrastructure for an economy powered by new technologies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The government's push to electrify the economy would increase demand for cobalt, nickel, and manganese, among other components needed for battery-making. 

Even with the US expected to boost EV production and supply chains under a new administration, China will continue to dominate the EV space. 

What a difference six months makes. The last time we reported on cobalt, prices fell to a ten-month low on waning demand from aerospace and EVs. 

Automakers need lithium-ion battery packs around $100 per kilowatt-hour mark for automakers to manufacture mass-market EVs - currently, at $137 per kilowatt-hour, surging prices for battery components is terrible news for automakers who are still not turning a profit on selling EVs. 

Are speculators about to dive headfirst into cobalt markets and push prices higher based on Biden's new green economy?

 

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

Tom Nolan here:  For some folks, the following video will go over their head without grasping the significance.  If a person is not aware of who played a role in EVENT 201 nor all the lead up to the Covid era and demolition of the economy, they'll miss it,   Again, as usual, I highly recommend "Why Big Oil Conquered the World" published 4 years ago.  TRANSCRIPT AND MP3: https://www.corbettreport.com/bigoil/   -- VIDEO - https://youtu.be/0wlNey9t7hQ

Below, you will see that we have "Elite Wealthy Characters Buying Massive Quantities of Physical SILVER".  Also, one should look at the timeline of Central Banks “not buying”, then later “buying gold” with a delivery date by 2020.  Add to that, they started their gold buying spree well ahead of the BIS Tier One gold asset definition.  No one can tell me that 2020 wasn’t a pre-planned demolition.  There are too many coincidences and too many blatant lies from the actions of “The Powers That Should Not Be”.

Andy Schectman, President of Miles Franklin is interviewed by Charlotte Macleod with the Investing News Network.  Unlike traditional coin dealers, Miles Franklin is both a full service company and a low overhead discount broker; one of only 27 U.S. Mint authorized resellers.

https://www.milesfranklin.com/

Around the 8:38 mark, Andy talks about the U.S. Mint running out of Gold Eagles in January of 2021 which is unprecedented for the beginning of a new year.  He then goes into the supply chain for silver and gold.

https://youtu.be/lw21PLPnewk

At the 10:15 minute mark, Schectman says:  TRANSCRIPT (with minor edits) FOLLOWS

…I think 2020 was very eye-opening to me on one particular level -- has to do with what happened on the COMEX market and I think your listeners should understand that.  

But I want to explain a trend that I’ve been seeing since 2017 and it's a trend that I think explains where we're headed with gold…

…In 2017, out of nowhere, first of all was the worst year to own a precious metals company, bitcoin was going to the moon, and at the time six out of every 10 phone calls we had were people selling.  The Central Banks were net sellers of gold.   Gold was dead.  No one wanted it in 2017.  

And then out of nowhere the German Bundesbank (Deutsche Bundesbank is the Central Bank of Germany) comes out and says we want our gold sent back to us.  And it was very unusual to see that they said we want it back by 2020.  Shortly thereafter we saw the Bank of Austria, the Bank of Hungary, the Bank of Poland, the Dutch National Bank, Bank of Turkey, and on and on and on, a continuing exodus of gold being requested back from the New York Federal Reserve,  in the Bank of England, ALL earmarked by 2020.   It was kind of interesting.

In 2018, the next year, the Central Banks went from net sellers of gold the year before to accumulating more gold than at any time in the previous 60 years combined, out of nowhere.   It was very interesting.

The following year, 2019, that trend exacerbated by 90% - increased by 90%.   So the Central Banks are wickedly buying gold and they're pulling it off of the Bank of England and the New York Fed and bringing it home. 

Central theme here that we'll see in a moment…

…And now they're buying copious amounts of it after being net sellers for gosh knows how long.

April of 2019, the BIGGEST EVENT of my career happens and that is the (BIS) Bank of International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland.   They are the Central Banker of “Central Bank”.   They reclassify gold as a Tier One asset from a Tier 3 asset joining U.S. Treasuries as the only real Tier 1 assets that Central Banks use and a Tier 3 asset meant that only 50% was calculated on the balance sheet.   That, combined with the fact that there was no interest charged or paid on gold, the fact that the market was unpredictable, and that it cost money to store; Central Bankers never wanted it.   In fact, they were always net sellers of it… 

…Well out of nowhere, after 80 years of it just being Treasuries that the banks would use or U.S. Dollars, they reclassify gold. Huge, huge event.   And the central banks of course front ran that decision by a year and a half, and all asked for it to be sent back.   So we see a pattern.   Now, its gold is levitated up to the highest form of collateral.  It is a riskless asset now.   Tier one means riskless.  The banks all bring it home.  They reclassify it.  They buy the heck out of it for a year and a half.  

2020, last year, that trend continued: central bankers are buying gold.  (13:45 mark)

But here's where it gets real interesting on the COMEX market.

Normally the COMEX market never delivers gold or silver.   It's a platform to hedge exposure…

(Andy Schectman explains hedging as a way to guarantee a price on gold in the warehouse and avoid risk)

…It is used to hedge risk, and very, very few contracts would ever stand for delivery but on a platform that is the worldwide mechanism for setting price you have to deliver if people ask for it or the platform is rendered a sham.   So if you're gonna set the price and someone says, “Okay, fine.  I'll take it at that price but I want delivery.” Then you have to deliver…

Normally on the (COT) Commitment of Traders report - the report that the Commodity Exchange publishes - there's two groups of traders.   There's the commercial banks and the speculators, which would be the hedge funds.  And they:  “one goes one way”, the other goes the opposite.  Always if the hedge funds go “long”, the commercials go “short”, and vice versa.  And it's always been a battle commercial banks usually win.

In 2020, we saw the rise of a new group of people listed on the COMEX report called “THE OTHERS”.   These people are family offices and sovereign wealth funds and the wealthiest people in the world.

I will submit, though I have no proof of this, but sure as heck seems to me that they know the people, maybe they know the Central Bankers.   They know the people accumulating gold and bringing it home, because the central theme this year is:  These “OTHERS” pulling more gold off of the COMEX market through deliveries in one month than we ever see in a year! 

They pulled almost a decade's worth of metal off of the exchange this year.  

Right now, “THE OTHERS” into the next contract and silver are, last I looked, over ten thousand contracts long at 5,000 ounces a piece, 50 million ounces of silver. 

These people aren't playing around. 

They're the wealthiest, most sophisticated, well-funded, well-informed traders that are standing up to the commercial banks.

A central theme of acquisition of gold and silver at any price and pulling it off of the exchanges, taking possession, removing counterparty risk.

I believe these people are doing this ahead of what's coming next.  These people know what's coming next. 

Obviously, it's a digital currency.

And when the digital currency comes, if you want to be outside the system, then you have cryptocurrencies, you have precious metals.  Next to that, you're trapped inside the system that I think is coming.  And by the movements of the most sophisticated players on the planet, I think you can see that through it - they're telegraphing something's coming…. (17:00 minute mark)

Edited January 25, 2021 by Tom Nolan

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

19 hours ago, Tom Nolan said:

In 2020, we saw the rise of a new group of people listed on the COMEX report called “THE OTHERS”.   These people are family offices and sovereign wealth funds and the wealthiest people in the world.

I will submit, though I have no proof of this, but sure as heck seems to me that they know the people, maybe they know the Central Bankers.   They know the people accumulating gold and bringing it home, because the central theme this year is:  These “OTHERS” pulling more (PHYSICAL) gold off of the COMEX market through deliveries in one month than we ever see in a year! 

They pulled almost a decade's worth of metal off of the exchange this year.  

Right now, “THE OTHERS” into the next contract and silver are, last I looked, over ten thousand contracts long at 5,000 ounces a piece, 50 million ounces of silver. 

These people aren't playing around. 

They're the wealthiest, most sophisticated, well-funded, well-informed traders that are standing up to the commercial banks.

A central theme of acquisition of gold and silver at any price and pulling it off of the exchanges, taking possession, removing counterparty risk.

I believe these people are doing this ahead of what's coming next.  These people know what's coming next. 

The demand for PHYSICAL GOLD and SILVER has spiked in an unusual way.   Peter Hug, director of global trading at Kitco Metals noted this surprising move in his interview of Friday January 22nd.

(watch about 5 minutes)

 

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

The following has some excellent interviews and is a good source of information.

MiningStockEducation.com

WEBSITE -  https://www.miningstockeducation.com/

YouTube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC9Xnap-g3EZuddiUeauMlNQ/featured

Sample recent video from January 25th, 2021 - See the show notes of the video for links and full description.

CopperBank’s 10-Bagger Strategy Explained by CEO Gianni Kovacevic

https://youtu.be/RVn1MNMxyzY

 

 

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

I will plug an advertisement banner here at OILPRICE.COM.

If you have an interest in NICKEL , this might be a value.  Sprott is part of it.

EXCERPT...

So who owns Minago?

The company that bought Minago is Silver Elephant Mining Corp (TSX: ELEF, OTC: SILEF, www.silverelef.com), which calls itself a premier mining and exploration company of energy metals. It is listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. The company is amassing large quantities of nickel, silver, and vanadium metal resources in the ground.

Could Nickel Melt Up? It Not Only Could, It Inevitably Will

https://www.nickelprice.com/topnickelstock/?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI_-Ot3N657gIVUr3ACh28-gnHEAEYASAAEgJtkfD_BwE

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

If you have been paying attention, then you know that the "Short Squeeze" on SILVER is "ON"  since Wednesday evening.

Get ready for much more.

First Majestic Silver (NYSE:  AG  ) – Short Interest Data –   23% Short Position !?!

Short Percent of Float: 23.30%

Float Size – 196,590,000 shares

1/15/2021 Current Short Volume – 45,800,000 shares

First Majestic Silver Corp. versus Short Sellers with CEO Keith Neumeyer

 (QUEUED at 12:09 minute mark – About 4 minutes)

 

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

Saturday January 30th, 2021

Reddit Preparing To Unleash "World's Biggest Short Squeeze" In Silver

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/reddit-preparing-unleash-worlds-biggest-short-squeeze-silver

EXCERPTS

...and judging by the unprecedented flows into the Silver ETF (SLV) they just got started...

SLV saw inflows of almost one billion dollars on Friday, almost double the previous record inflow for this 15 year-old ETF.

Source: Bloomberg

...

This surge came after Reddit user 'TheHappyHawaiian' posted the following thesis on buying silver noting that "the worlds biggest short squeeze is possible and we can make history."

'TheHappyHawaiian' cites two reasons to buy - The Short Squeeze and Fundamentals.

The short squeeze:

Buy SLV shares (or PSLV shares) and SLV call options to force physical delivery of silver to the SLV vaults.

The silver futures market has oscillated between having roughly 100-1 and 500-1 ratio of paper traded silver to physical silver, but lets call it 250-1 for now. This means that for every 250 ounces in open interest in the futures market, only 1 actually gets delivered. Most traders would rather settle with cash rather than take delivery of thousands of ounces of silver and have to figure out to store and transport it in the future.

The people naked shorting silver via the futures markets are a couple of large banks and making them pay dearly for their over leveraged naked shorts would be incredible. It's not Melvin capital on the other side of this trade, its JP Morgan. Time to get some payback for the bailouts and manipulation they've done for decades (look up silver manipulation fines that JPM has paid over the years).

The way the squeeze could occur is by forcing a much higher percentage of the futures contracts to actually deliver physical silver. There is very little silver in the COMEX vaults or available to actually be use to deliver, and if they have to start buying en masse on the open market they will drive the price massively higher. There is no way to magically create more physical silver in the world that is ready to be delivered. With a stock you can eventually just issue more shares if the price rises too much, but this simply isn't the case here. The futures market is kind of the wild west of the financial world. Real commodities are being traded, and if you are short, you literally have to deliver thousands of ounces of silver per contract if the holder on the other side demands it. If you remember oil going negative back in May, that was possible because futures are allowed to trade to their true value. They aren't halted and that's what will make this so fun when the true squeeze happens.

Edit for more detail: let’s say there’s one futures seller who gets unlucky and gets the buyer who actually wants to take delivery. He doesn’t have the silver and realizes it’s all of a sudden damn difficult to find some physical silver. He throws up his hands and just goes long a matching number of futures contracts and will demand actual delivery on those. Problem solved because he has now matched the demanding buyer with a new seller. The issue is that the new seller has the same issue and does the exact same thing. This is how the cascade effect of a meltup occurs. All the naked shorts trying to offload their position to someone who actually has some silver. My goal is to ensure that I have the silver and won’t sell to them until silver is at a far higher price due to the desperation.

The silver market is much larger than GME in terms of notional value, but there is very little physical silver actually readily available (think about the difference between total shares and the shares in the active float for a stock), and the paper silver trading hands in the futures market is hundreds of times larger than what is available. Thus when they are forced to actually deliver physical silver it will create a massive short squeeze where an absurd amount of silver will be sought after (to fulfill their contractually obligated delivery) with very little available to actually buy. They are naked shorting silver and will have to cover all at once and the float as a percentage of the total silver stock globally is truly miniscule.

The fundamentals:

The current gold to silver ratio is 73-1. Meaning the price of gold per ounce is 73 times the price of silver. Naturally occurring silver is only 18.75 times as common as gold, so this ratio of 73-1 is quite high. Until the early 20th century, silver prices were pegged at a 15-1 ratio to gold in the US because this ratio was relatively known even then. In terms of current production, the ratio is even lower at 8-1. Meaning the world is only producing 8 ounces of silver for each newly produced ounce of gold.

Global industry has been able to get away with producing so little new silver for so long because governments have dumped silver on the market for 80 years, but now their silver vaults are empty. At the end of WW2 government vaults globally contained 10 billion ounces of silver, but as we moved to fiat currency and away from precious metal backed currencies, the amount held by governments has decreased to only 0.24 billion ounces as they dumped their supply into the market. But this dumping is done now as their remaining supply is basically nil.

This 0.24 billion ounces represents only 8% of the total supply of only 3 billion ounces stored as investment globally. This means that 92% of that gold is held privately by institutions and by millions of boomer gold and silver bugs who have been sitting on meager gains for decades. These boomers aren't going to sell no matter what because they see their silver cache as part of their doomsday prepper supplies. It's locked away in bunkers they built 500 miles from their house. Also, with silver at $23 an ounce currently, this means all of the worlds investment grade silver only has a total market cap of $70 billion. For comparison the investment grade gold in the world is worth roughly $6 trillion. This is because most of the silver produced each year actually gets used, as I have mentioned. $70 billion sounds like a lot, but we don’t have to buy all that much for the price to go up a lot.

**If the squeeze happens, it would be like 40 years worth of their gains in 4 months **

The reason that only 8 ounces of silver are produced for every 1 ounce of gold in today's world is because there aren't really any good naturally occurring silver deposits left in the world. Silver is more common than gold in the earth's crust, but it is spread very thin. Thus nearly every ounce of silver produces is actually a byproduct of mining for other metals such as gold or copper. This means that even as the silver price skyrockets, it wont be easy to increase the supply of silver being produced. Even if new mines were to be constructed, it could take years to come online.

Finally, most of this newly created silver supply each year is used for productive purposes rather than kept for investment. It is used in electronics, solar panels, and jewelry for the most part. This demand wont go away if the silver price rises, so the short sellers will be trying to get their hands on a very small slice of newly minted silver. The solar market is also growing quickly and political pressure to increase solar and electric vehicles could provide more industrial demand.

The other part of the story is the faster moving piece and that is the inflation and currency debasement fear portion. The government and the fed are printing money like crazy debasing the value of the dollar, so investors look for real assets like precious metals to hide out in, driving demand for silver. The $1.9 trillion stimulus passing in a month or two could be a good catalyst. All this money combined with the reopening of the economy could cause some solid inflation to occur, and once inflation starts it often feeds on itself.

What to buy:

I will be putting 50% directly into SLV shares, and 50% into the $35 strike SLV calls expiring 4/16

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~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Tom Nolan here:  This past week was pretty exciting

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

Tom Nolan here:  I am sure the smart ones will climb on board this week's coming "WallStreetBets" silver play.  I got in last week.  In fact, I got in early and bought physical "U.S. Mint 2021 Silver American Eagles" from MILES FRANKLIN (see video/transcript on post above about Miles Franklin) on Wednesday morning prior to silver's run-up.  On Thursday/Friday, I doubled the amount of silver stocks in my Brokerage account, with plans to buy more this week.   In the meantime, some folks might be interested in this...

SILVER - Debunking the “JFK Silver Certificate Myth” by James Corbett at the JFK Lancer Event in Dallas

“Lancer” was the Secret Service's code name for President John F. Kennedy from 1961-63.   Since 1996, the JFK Lancer Conference has gathered people together in Dallas to commemorate John F. Kennedy’s life and assassination during late November.

There are many people who will tell you that JFK was assassinated because he was trying to end the Federal Reserve and replace the Federal Reserve note with silver certificates. Not only is this not true, it’s the exact opposite of the truth. Join James for this presentation to the JFK Lancer conference as he separates fact from fiction in the JFK assassination investigation.   SOURCE documents & links - https://www.corbettreport.com/jfkfed/

(32 minutes)

 

https://community.oilprice.com/topic/21718-silver-debunking-the-“jfk-silver-certificate-myth”-by-james-corbett-at-the-jfk-lancer-event-in-dallas/

 

[Tom Nolan + 2,443]

"Everyone Is Afraid Ahead Of The Open" - Reddit-Raiders Spark Nationwide Physical Silver Shortage

Sunday, Jan 31, 2021 - 10:29   (With updates coming to the article)

https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/reddit-preparing-unleash-worlds-biggest-short-squeeze-silver

Update (1100ET): For some background on just how unprecedented this weekend's action in silver markets is, Tyler Wall, the CEO of SD Bullion writes the following (emphasis ours): 

In the 24 hours proceeding Friday market close, SD Bullion sold nearly 10x the number of silver ounces that we normally would sell in an entire weekend leading to Sunday market open.

In a normal market, we normally can find at least one supplier/source willing to sell some ounces over the weekend if we exceed our long position (the number of ounces we predict we will sell over the weekend).

However, everyone we talk to is afraid of a gap up at Sunday night market open.

This is about ready to get really interesting as there was very little inventory left from suppliers/mints going into Friday close.

Our direct AP supplier informed us after close on Friday that the "US Mint will be on allocation for the remainder of Type 1" (Current Silver Eagle Design).

Our sales for the month of January exceeded any one month last year during the heart of the pandemic. It was an all-time record month in our company history. 

And, perhaps most importantly, as QTR tweets so succinctly, "this is a red pill moment for many, and it's beautiful."

TWITTER QUOTE:

The thing is that no matter what happens with #SilverSqueeze, a lot of younger people are for the first time informing themselves that metals are the only true real money. That realization sticks for life, even when squeezes end. This is a red pill moment for many & its beautiful

 

Additionally, there are also signs of a notable regime shift, as Bloomberg points out, investors are holding onto silver they own, rather than trying to take profits.

“Now we’re seeing nothing, no single offer, which is scary,” Peter Thomas, senior vice president at Zaner Group, said by phone from Chicago.

“Whatever we sell, people are holding it. There’s no inflow of metal at all.”

*  *  *

Update (1030ET): It would appear the run on silver has begun. With the market closed, traders have rushed to secure some exposure to silver ahead of what WSB suggests could be "the world's biggest short squeeze" and that has left bullion dealers.

As we noted below, the premium for physical silver had soared late Friday and into Saturday (after the massive flows into SLV), but as Sunday rolled around, bullion dealers are now facing massive shortages of physical coins.

Source: APMEX

And as one investor noted, the shortages are widespread...

We can only imagine where SLV will open after this.

*  *  *

While all eyes have been focused on GameStop and a handful of other heavily-shorted stocks as they exploded higher under continuous fire from WallStreetBets traders igniting a short-squeeze coinciding with a gamma-squeeze, the last few days saw another asset suddenly get in the crosshairs of the 'Reddit-Raiders' - Silver.

On Thursday, we asked "Is The Reddit Rebellion About To Descend On The Precious Metals Market?" ... One WallStreetBets user (jjalj30) posted the following last night:

Silver Bullion Market is one of the most manipulated on earth. Any short squeeze in silver paper shorts would be EPIC. We know billion banks are manipulating gold and silver to cover real inflation.

Both the industrial case and monetary case, debt printing has never been more favorable for the No. 1 inflation hedge Silver.

Inflation adjusted Silver should be at 1000$ instead of 25$. Link to post removed by mods.

Why not squeeze $SLV to real physical price.

Think about the Gainz. If you don't care about the gains, think about the banks like JP MORGAN you'd be destroying along the way.

...

Tldr- Corner the market. GV thinks its possible to squeeze $SLV, FUCK AFTER SEEING $AG AND $GME EVEN I THINK WE CAN DO IT. BUY $SLV GO ALL IN TH GAINZ WILL BE UNLIMITED. DEMAND PHYSICAL IF YOU CAN. FUCK THE BANKS.

Disclaimer: This is not Financial advice. I am not a financial services professional. This is my personal opinion and speculation as an uneducated and uninformed person.

...and judging by the unprecedented flows into the Silver ETF (SLV) they just got started...

SLV saw inflows of almost one billion dollars on Friday, almost double the previous record inflow for this 15 year-old ETF....

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