Issue 38, July 15th – August 15th CONTENT Introduction 1We have released the fourth issue of the signumBOX Analysis report “Lithium, Batteries and Vehicles: Perspectives and Trends” . Some of the conclusions of the report: Batteries • Lithium demand is estimated at 119,000 MT expressed as lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) in 2011 and Vehicles • The estimated growth for this year will be driven by the use of lithium Wanxiang and Ener1 received in batteries for electronic devices and for hybrid and electric cars including two wheel electric cars. approval for Joint Venture • By 2025 around 16 million of hybrid/electric cars would be on the BYD signed agreement with roads. These would represent an additional lithium demand of 181,000 Shenzhen Public Bus MT LCE by that year. We calculated the use of lithium according to each battery specification per type of car/automaker. SAFT Batteries results for H1 2011 • Considering known lithium reserves and resources we have calculated the lifetime for lithium resources. Nevertheless, the estimation does A123 Systems will supply lithium not consider several deposits which are currently not attractive in an batteries to General Motors economic perspective, but might be in the future. Additionally, does not consider future lithium recycling for used batteries. China BAK Battery: Sales of high power battery cells triple in Q2 • For the first time we present a deep analysis of lithium exports from major lithium producer countries. Lithium Carbonate, Hydroxide and Chloride exports from Chile, Argentina, Australia and China are presented in volumes with their FOB prices as well. • An update of the ranking of the lithium projects is presented. Galaxy Resources has ben included for the first time as part of the lithium supply since it has already sent spodumene product to China. After Galaxy, Canada Lithium and Nemaska Explorations are the projects with the highest ranking. • The top three lithium projects based on Salar brines are Orocobre with its Olaroz lithium project, Lithium Americas with its Cauchari-Olaroz Lithium Industry lithium project and Lithium One with its Sal de Vida lithium project. All of these projects are located in Argentina, the first two are located in Critical Elements updates resource Jujuy province while the Sal de Vida lithium project is in Catamarca, estimate at its Rose pegmatite close to FMC´s operations at the Salar de Hombre Muerto. project • We have also included potential lithium projects in Chile, which might Orocobre released quarterly report be part of the lithium supply if the Chilean government removes the ban that does not allow extracting lithium in other salars besides FMC announced price increase Salar de Atacama and Salar de Pedernales (currently owned by of organolithium products and Codelco). reported financial reports If you are insterested in buy/subscribe to this report, I invite you to visit www.signumbox.com/subscribe/ or send an email to sales@ Chemetall announced price signumbox.com increase of organolithium products and reported financial results Galaxy Resources reported higher spodumene production in July LITHIUM, BATTERIES AND VEHICLES Batteries and Vehicles2 BRIEF NEWS HIGHLIGHTS Valence Technology Lithium Phosphate batteries passed Wanxiang and Ener1 received approval for Joint first phase of Ford Testing Program Venture Date: July, 18th Date: July, 20th Source: Yahoo Finance/BAK Source: Valence Technologies Valence Technology announced The Chinese government approved – an already signed – the joint that its lithium phosphate batteries venture between Wanxiang Electric vehicle, a Chinese’s automotive earned favorable first phase components manufacturer, and Ener1 an American company that reviews during a large electric develops lithium batteries. As a result, the new company - Zhejiang vehicle assessment program Wanxiang Ener1 Power System Co., Ltd, will provide lithium-ion that was conducted by Ford in batteries for electric vehicles and utility grid applications, among Germany. The cars utilized have a other projects, to the Chinese’s market. range of up to 165 kilometers with a top speed of 80 km/hour. BYD signed agreement with Shenzhen Public Bus Date: July, 25th Celgard will expand lithium Source: BYD ion battery separator capacity for electric cars BYD announced that it has signed an agreement with Shenzhen´s Date: July, 25th major public bus operations for leasing contracts, which establish Source: Celgard BYD as the exclusive provider of electric cars and buses for the 2011 International Universiade Games. After the games, the electric The US company Celgard buses and taxis will continue serving as public transportation for the announced that it would expand city. A lithium-iron phosphate battery developed by BYD powers its production capacity of battery the electric bus. separators for electric cars. The expansion program considers an investment of US$ 105 million. LITHIUM, BATTERIES AND VEHICLES A123 Systems will supply SAFT Batteries results for H1 2011 lithium batteries to Dongfang Date: July, 27th Electric Corporation Source: SAFT Batteries Date: July, 26th Source: A123 Systems SAFT Batteries reported that revenues reached € 311.6 million during the first half of the year, 7.45% more than revenues during same A123 Systems announced that it period in 2010. Net income, on the contrary, was reduced in 30.7% has been selected by Dongfang because of the increased losses from the Johnson Controls – SAFT Electric Corporation to supply 500 Joint Venture. KW batteries to Dongfang Electric Sales of the industrial battery group were 10.7% higher mainly Corporation, the third largest because of the stationary back-up power market. The transportation manufacturer of wind turbines in segment was also important, driven by the rail market, which China. According to the release, returned to growth. It is interesting to comment that markets for this project will be A123’s first small nickel batteries showed lower sales in the period. Sales of the energy storage system in China, Specialty Battery Group were up by 6.2% in the period, because of where only about 72 percent of military activities. the country’s total wind power generating capacity is connected to the power grid, according to data from the China Power Union. A123 Systems will supply lithium batteries to General Motors Ener1 will supply lithium Date: August, 11th batteries to Lightning Source: General Motors Motorcycles General Motors announced that it has selected A123 Systems as Date: July, 28th a provider of lithium ion batteries and systems to be used in future Source: Ener1 electric vehicles. GM tested and validated the A123 battery Ener1 announced that it would chemistry at GM´s laboratories in Michigan; and from now teams supply lithium ion batteries to from both companies will start working in preparation for production. Lightning Motorcycles. According to the release, the lithium ion battery cells which are designed China BAK Battery: Sales of high power battery cells for plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and pure electric vehicles will be triple in Q2 used as energy storage systems Date: August, 9th Source: Yahoo Finance/BAK in commuter motorcycles and scooters. The Chinese battery manufacturer BAK released financial results for the quarter ended in June 30, 2011. Total revenues in the period were US$ 47,130,000; 19.51% less than revenues in Q2 2010. According BMW unveiled electric to the Company, the decline revenues was mainly attributable to vehicle concepts a decline in sales volume as a result of the introduction of built-in Date: July, 29th high capacity polymer batteries being adopted by domestic OEM Source: BMW Group customers. BMW Group unveiled the BMW Despite that, it is important to highlight that revenues from the i3 and i8 Concepts, which would segment “high power lithium battery cells” increased from US$ be launched in 2013 and 2014, 697,000 in Q2 2010 to US$ 2,054,000 this year. Applications such as respectively. The BMW i3 has been electric bicycles, power tools and uninterruptible power supplies designed for cities, with a battery explain this growth. Revenues from lithium polymer cells, on the charger that achieves an 80% of contrary, were down from US$ 2,274,000 in Q2 2010 to US$ 2,009,000 battery charge in one hour. The in Q2 2011. According to the release, the decrease in sales volume BMW i8 is a plug-in hybrid with was due to a slowdown in orders from new customers and the autonomy of 35 kilometers. postponement of new product offerings by some of the Company´s current customers. LITHIUM, BATTERIES AND VEHICLES Lithium Industry3 BRIEF NEWS HIGHLIGHTS Lithium Americas released financial and operating results for three months ended in May 2011 Critical Elements updates resource estimate at its Rose Date: July, 18th pegmatite project Source: Lithium Americas Date: July, 27th Source: Critical Elements During the three months ended May 31, 2011 the Company reported Critical Elements announced an update of its resource estimate of US$ 3.4 million that has been spent its Rose pegmatite project. According to the release, the deposit in property rights and exploration would contain 26,500,000 tones of indicated resources containing costs to evaluation activities in order 1.30% Li2O and 163 ppm Ta2O5. According to the release, the current to advance with the project to the resource estimate “demonstrate that the Rose Tantalum project is definitive feasibility study stage and US$ one of the more important resources of “ethical” tantalum”. 30.9 million that