Have I been doing
tremendous due diligence and believe New World Resources (NW-TSX) warrants
your attention. New World is active in Lithium, amongst other metals, but
unlike many, they were one of the first to see tremendous demand pressure for
lithium and acquired a significant project last year.
Many have seen front page headlines regarding the huge demand and potential
shortages of Lithium due to our increased use of electronics that require long
life batteries and hybrid cars, most of which using lithium to store
energy.
To understand why Lithium is so important and why New World is in a opportune
position in the great lithium land grab read the below timely article titled Japan and China fight it out for right to mine
lithium under Bond's battlefield http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/industry_sectors/natural_resources/article6498591.ece
New World is trading at $.13, 20m shares outstanding. In my opinion, the shares
are significantly undervalued.
Introduction
The Pastos Grandes Property is located in the Sud Lipez province within the
Department of Potosi Bolivia, at an elevation of approximately 4000 metres.
Bolivia is known to host the world's largest undeveloped lithium (Li) brine
resource. This area in the Altiplano is also home to New World Resource's new prospect,
Laguna Pastos Grandes and is part of a series of alkaline-saline lakes and salt
crusts known as salars. Salars are composed of brines and salts rich in many
minerals including lithium, potassium and boron.
The Pastos Grandes property is 125 km2 and covers the entire laguna which is
located in a basin surrounded predominantly by mountainous terrain with
intermittent rivers and thermal springs that discharge waters into a central
lake. The area is accessible via numerous roads, with services available at the
nearby town of Uyuni 100 miles to the NE. This town of approximately 10, 600
people is an important transport hub, accessed via a network of packed dirt
roads.
Geological Setting
Laguna Pastos Grandes is one of some 200 alkaline, saline lakes and salars in
the area. It covers approximately 125 km2 trending NW-SE, composed of a thick
sequence of sediments with a late Miocene pyroclastic basement.
Chemical analysis of the brine show that Pastos Grandes fits the Alkaline Type
Salar based on the concentrations of (Na-Ca-SO4-Cl), with high concentrations
of lithium, boron, and potassium totaling: 1.64g/L Li (0.165%), 945mg/L B,
14.2g/L K (1.42%)
Pastos Grandes as seen from space. Note the central
lake and several streams, photo courtesy of NASA
Pastos Grandes is one of the larger salars in the Altiplanto. It has been
prospected in the recent past for lithium, boron, and potassium which is often
found in enriched chloride brines from basins draining felsic to intermediately
volcanic rocks. Brines have quickly become an increasingly important source of
lithium.
The size of other major brine deposits range globally from 200 million to 1.3
billion metric tons with grades ranging from 0.015% to 0.125% lithium. One
historic sample from Pastos Grandes yielded 0.165% lithium.
Economic Potential
Lithium is considered to be the 33rd most frequently occurring mineral, however
hard rock concentrations are generally too low for economically viable
extraction.
Historically, the main method by which North American producers, namely FMC and
Cyprus Foote recovered lithium carbonate was from mining mineral deposits of
spodumene in North Carolina, and from Gwalia Consolidation Mine Ltd., in
Australia with typical hardrock mining techniques.
However, the cost-effectiveness of brine operations and the added capacity to
the industry forced most hard-rock producers to develop their own brine sources
or buy raw materials from brine producers. FMC closed its North Carolina mine
in 1998, and Cyprus Foote, now Chemetall Foote Corporation, has concentrated on
its brine operations. Gwalia Li hard rock mine ceased production in 1999,
citing pricing and volume pressures from alternative lithium sources, and
halted production while it studied ways to reduce costs. Lithium production
from salt brine operations is so much more efficient than hard rock sources
even large producers in China and Russia have closed plants and are now
importing lithium carbonate from Chilean salars.
The richest lithium source currently being harvested is the Salar de Atacama
basin located in the Atacama desert in Chile. Chemetall and SQM both obtain
lithium product from its brine. The major trend in the lithium industry has
been a transition from hard rock mining-based sources of lithium to brine-based
ones. The economics of obtaining lithium carbonate from brine are so favorable
that most of the mine-based production has been priced out of the market during
the last few years.
Since the mid 1970s, lithium prices have seen steady growth as demand from
technology and manufacturing industries also grew. Lithium has been in common
use since the late 1940s, but has recently experienced a surge in price for its
use in lithium ion batteries, fuel efficient vehicles, heat transfer contacts
in electronics (cell phones, computers), glass and ceramics production,
aluminum hardening in aviation industries and many other industrial
applications.
Though traded internationally, lithium it is not traded on the public market
and is sold directly to end use markets for a negotiated price per ton or pound
of (Li, K)Cl or carbonate compounds. This makes price data difficult to confirm
but some recent deals have reached $5500USD/ton driven by high demand from end
use buyers and relatively low global production.
Pastos Grandes has excellent potential for volume production of the lithium
rich salt compounds as well as other minerals commonly associated with alkaline
type salars.
Pastos Grandes Historic Sampling
Sample
|
Li
|
B
|
K
|
Na
|
Mg
|
Ca
|
Crust
|
750 ppm
|
1200 ppm
|
1.8%
|
15%
|
1.4%
|
3.5 %
|
Brine
|
1.64 g/L (0.164%)
|
945 mg/L
|
14.2 g/L
|
101 g/L
|
3.48 g/L
|
3.1 g/L
|
Spring (north)
|
0.78 ppm
|
1100 ppm
|
7 ppm
|
69 ppm
|
4.4 ppm
|
9.5 ppm
|
Streams
|
0.080
|
0.600 ppm
|
6 ppm
|
18 ppm
|
14.5 ppm
|
41 ppm
|
Ulexite
|
730 ppm
|
|
4600 ppm
|
|
|
|
New World and Pastos Grandes
The letter of intent with the underlying claim owner has been finalized into a
joint venture agreement ("Joint Venture"). The Joint Venture has a
term of 20 years and the initial participation interests are 99% for the
Company's subsidiary, New World Bolivia S.A. ("New World Bolivia")
and 1% for Gonzalo Miranda Salles. The concession covers approximately 60 km2
of this highly prospective lithium brine salar.
"Pastos Grandes presents a new exciting opportunity for New World
Resources in a country within which we have already established an excellent
technical, logistical and legal team. Brines and their associated valuable
mineral complexes are an easily extractable and an increasingly in-demand
resource."
From The Times
June 15, 2009
Japan and China fight it
out for right to mine lithium under Bond's battlefield
Leo Lewis, Asia Business
Correspondent
The desolate, sun-baked deserts of southwestern Bolivia are poised to become
the energy battleground of the 21st century, with China and Japan staking early
and aggressive claims in the great lithium land-grab.
Japan, observers say, may have won the first round, but, with its mainstream
resource ambitions thwarted on the Rio Tinto deal, China could redouble its
efforts to gain a foothold in the salt flats of South America and the
all-important technology metals.
The flurry of ruthlessly competitive diplomatic and corporate overtures to
Bolivia from both Tokyo and Beijing is driven by the same dream: ultimate
control of the future global market for electric vehicles. An ample supply of
lithium, at least using current technology, is the critical weapon in that
quest and Bolivia is to lithium what Saudi Arabia is to oil, say geologists.
Masao Kando, director-general of the metals strategy department of the Japanese
Government, told The Times: ?We all know that China is becoming the world's
biggest car producer and we see them as our biggest rival. Looking at the Rio
Tinto case, we see that China is moving to secure resources by throwing
incredibly abundant capital at the effort and it is sometimes hard to compete
with that.?
At present, Chile is the world's biggest annual producer of lithium, but half
the planet's known reserves of the metal are thought to lie under the Salar De
Uyuni in Bolivia. The right relationship with La Paz will hold the key to
everything, according to senior Japanese officials.
For the two rival Asian economic giants, control of lithium supplies - or at
least a firm guarantee of stable future flows - is vital. For Japan, whose
export-led economy is dominated by the lithium-hungry auto and electronics
industries, it is a fight for survival of the status quo. With reliable
long-term sources of lithium, Japanese companies can continue producing
batteries for the world's laptops, digital cameras and mobile phones. With the
same guarantee, Japanese car companies will be able to convert their
manufacturing prowess to mass production of electric vehicles.
Yet for China the motivation for lithium dominance is even more compelling: the
United States, Germany and Japan led the world in the development of
petrol-driven cars in the 20th century and it would take many years for Chinese
carmakers to match that expertise. Electric vehicles, on the other hand,
represent a blank slate: these are pioneering days in the post-combustion
engine era and a potentially huge opportunity for China to lunge for early
leadership, increasingly nervous Japanese automaker executives believe.
Japan's latest gambit in the rush for Bolivia's lithium resources involved a
delegation of corporate and government figures, including executives from
Sumitomo and Mitsubishi, and what is understood to have been a promise that
Japanese mining technology would be shared with their Bolivian counterparts.
While the reserves under Salar de Uyuni, where Quantum of Solace, the most
recent Bond film, was shot, are thought to be vast, they are not as readily
extractable as sources elsewhere. Japan's expertise is thought to be the
solution.
China, whose lands hold about a tenth of the estimated global reserves of
lithium, is the world's third-largest producer and several of its companies
have rapidly grown to become substantial global players in lithium battery
production. Beijing's efforts to butter-up the authorities in La Paz have
included a donation of cash to help to build a school in the town where
President Morales was born and a gift of about 50 military vehicles, including
two ships.
For further information
call:
Luc St-Pierre
Phone: 514 904-1333 Phone: 514 904-1333
Email: luc@mi3.ca
OR:
Mario Drolet, President
Phone: 514 904-1333 Phone: 514 904-1333
Email: mario@mi3.ca