Each week our High Voltage column wraps all the news driving ASX battery metals stocks with exposure to lithium, cobalt, graphite, manganese and vanadium.

 

INDUSTRY FOCUS

China might be cutting subsidies for electric car buyers even further, another blow for the world’s most dominant — but noticeably flagging — EV market.

According to Bloomberg sources, Chinese regulators are discussing the idea “but are holding off on a decision until they weigh car sales data over the coming months”.

China has been subsidising EV purchases since 2009 to build the sector, but these are being rolled back to encourage automakers to stand on their own two feet.

The problem is that the last time the government cut subsidies, earlier this year, it sparked the country’s first drop in EV sales. This impacts the entire battery metals supply chain, as well as wider market sentiment.

 

 

And yet global automakers, playing the long game, are spending a lot of money to tap this massive market.Last week, VW celebrated pre-production at its first Chinese plant by rolling the very first China-specific all-electric Volkswagen ID off the production line in Shanghai.

The start of series production is scheduled for October 2020, VW says.

“The Volkswagen Group projects a total volume of 22 million all-electric cars worldwide by 2028, with more than 50 per cent of that from China,” Dr Herbert Diess, chairman of the board of management of Volkswagen AG, said.

“The country plays a crucial part in our electrification strategy, which will pave the way to Volkswagen’s goal of becoming net carbon-neutral by 2050.”

Even Toyota, an EV laggard, has just announced a 50-50 JV with Chinese electrification leader BYD — short for Build Your Dreams — to develop battery electric vehicles for the Chinese market.

Frontrunner Tesla has already constructed a $US2 billion ($2.9 billion) factory in Shanghai, its first manufacturing facility outside the US, where it hopes to start production by the end of the year.

Pic: Tesla.

In its Q3 report, Tesla said that Gigafactory Shanghai was built in 10 months and is ready for production. It was also “~65 per cent less expensive (capex per unit of capacity) to build than our Model 3 production system in the US”.

“China is by far the largest market for mid-sized premium sedans,” Tesla told investors.

“With Model 3 priced on par with gasoline powered mid-sized sedans (even before gas savings and other benefits), we believe China could become the biggest market for Model 3.”

 

SMALL CAP SPOTLIGHT

Of the companies on our list, 51 lost ground, 46 were ahead and 52 were steady this week.

Over the past year, we have 30 winners and 117 losers, which looks like this:

Kibaran Resources (ASX:KNL) +40%

Kibaran Resources wants to build a $US22.8m graphite processing plant in Kwinana, WA, for global lithium-ion battery customers.

Last week, crucial test work confirmed the effectiveness of its proprietary ‘EcoGraf’ purification process.

Kibaran — which is changing its name to EcoGraf — now has enough info to finalise the all-important process flow sheet design. It was enough to send the stock up about 40 per cent for the week.

The company says it remains on schedule to make a final investment decision on the development in the first half of 2020.

 

Panoramic Resources (ASX:PAN) +30%

One of the week’s biggest small cap news stories.

$3.8 billion market cap Independence Group (ASX:IGO) launched a takeover bid for nickel-cobalt play Panoramic on Monday last week.

The offer valued Panoramic at 47.6c per share – or $312m all up – which was a 51 per cent premium to the one-month volume weighted average price.

Still, that wasn’t enough for Panoramic’s ~35 per cent shareholder Zeta Resources (ASX:ZER), which said it “does not intend to accept Independence Group’s current offer”. Game on.

 

Altura Mining (ASX:AJM) +16%

Finally, some good news from WA’s cabal of struggling hard rock producers.

Altura Mining says that its Pilgangoora mine and process plant in the Pilbara region of WA is now effectively achieving nameplate annual production of ~220,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate.

Managing director James Brown said increased output meant lower costs – “helping to make Altura one of the most efficient Australian producers of spodumene concentrate”.

“Importantly, not only are we achieving excellent production results, we are continuing to sell and ship our product to our diverse customer base,” he says.

 

Here’s a table of ASX battery metal stocks with exposure to lithium, cobalt, graphite, manganese and vanadium>>>

Scroll or swipe to reveal table. Click headings to sort. Best viewed on a laptop:

Code Name 1 Week Total Return % 1 Year Total Return % Price [intraday Monday] Market Cap
AYR ALLOY RESOURCES 50 -25 0.003 $ 6,266,488.50
KNL KIBARAN RESOURCES 40 -37 0.1 $ 30,047,058.00
MZZ MATADOR MINING 32 -24 0.225 $ 19,781,762.00
PAN PANORAMIC RESOURCES 30 -6 0.435 $ 281,321,344.00
PNN PEPINNINI LITHIUM 25 -48 0.002 $ 3,142,818.50
CZN CORAZON MINING 25 -58 0.0025 $ 4,076,721.25
HXG HEXAGON RESOURCES 24 -46 0.083 $ 23,342,672.00
SVM SOVEREIGN METALS 21 33 0.105 $ 39,520,104.00
LML LINCOLN MINERALS 20 -25 0.006 $ 2,874,918.50
ARL ARDEA RESOURCES 19 -13 0.62 $ 70,966,760.00
DHR DARK HORSE RESOURCES 17 -36 0.0035 $ 8,030,555.00
NWC NEW WORLD COBALT 16 -34 0.022 $ 19,210,124.00
AJM ALTURA MINING 16 -73 0.066 $ 158,310,336.00
MLM METALLICA MINERALS 15 -63 0.015 $ 4,860,711.00
AGY ARGOSY MINERALS 15 -62 0.092 $ 83,435,176.00
ADV ARDIDEN 14 -43 0.004 $ 6,762,081.00
LI3 LITHIUM CONSOLIDATED 13 -61 0.034 $ 4,341,966.50
GXY GALAXY RESOURCES 12 -59 1.09 $ 413,574,144.00
SYR SYRAH RESOURCES 12 -76 0.49 $ 179,817,856.00
MQR MARQUEE RESOURCES 12 5 0.083 $ 5,279,638.50
PM1 PURE MINERALS 11 33 0.021 $ 9,424,169.00
WKT WALKABOUT RESOURCES 11 223 0.31 $ 96,701,720.00
CUL CULLEN RESOURCES 8 -37 0.013 $ 2,463,042.75
RIE RIEDEL RESOURCES 8 -57 0.013 $ 5,434,906.00
TNG TNG 8 -25 0.095 $ 102,333,608.00
BSM BASS METALS 7 -58 0.008 $ 22,478,996.00
OMH OM HOLDINGS 6 -63 0.505 $ 369,311,680.00
SEI SPECIALITY METALS INTERNATIONAL 6 344 0.053 $ 51,101,940.00
LKE LAKE RESOURCES 6 -62 0.037 $ 18,947,324.00
ORE OROCOBRE 6 -36 2.81 $ 688,213,312.00
HWK HAWKSTONE MINING 6 -60 0.009 $ 8,153,180.00
NVA NOVA MINERALS 5 63 0.039 $ 35,417,296.00
SYA SAYONA MINING 5 -64 0.01 $ 21,392,772.00
JRV JERVOIS MINING 5 17 0.205 $ 131,534,696.00
BAR BARRA RESOURCES 5 -45 0.021 $ 12,526,831.00
LPI LITHIUM POWER INTERNATIONAL 5 -4 0.275 $ 74,816,464.00
MIN MINERAL RESOURCES 5 1 14.735 $ 2,729,644,032.00
SUH SOUTHERN HEMISPHERE MINING 5 -57 0.023 $ 2,117,597.75
IDA INDIANA RESOURCES 4 -52 0.025 $ 4,403,872.50
AML AEON METALS 4 -56 0.125 $ 80,888,368.00
CRL COMET RESOURCES 4 -19 0.026 $ 6,937,500.00
TLG TALGA RESOURCES 4 13 0.53 $ 117,742,920.00
BYH BRYAH RESOURCES 4 -45 0.054 $ 5,244,687.50
HAV HAVILAH RESOURCES 4 -47 0.1 $ 28,647,064.00
SRK STRIKE RESOURCES 3 -33 0.04 $ 6,518,236.50
GME GME RESOURCES 2 -24 0.057 $ 29,362,090.00
DEV DEVEX RESOURCES 0 140 0.105 $ 15,300,856.00
BOA BOADICEA RESOURCES 0 125 0.225 $ 12,509,043.00
CAZ CAZALY RESOURCES 0 100 0.048 $ 16,267,324.00
VML VITAL METALS 0 57 0.011 $ 25,711,336.00
CHN CHALICE GOLD MINES 0 54 0.17 $ 53,443,288.00
JRL JINDALEE RESOURCES 0 11 0.295 $ 11,355,805.00
E25 ELEMENT 25 0 11 0.2 $ 17,921,918.00
AZI ALTA ZINC 0 10 0.005 $ 13,032,892.00
HIP HIPO RESOURCES 0 6 0.017 $ 6,570,678.00
INR IONEER 0 2 0.255 $ 347,208,640.00
LPD LEPIDICO 0 1 0.0175 $ 74,777,360.00
BDI BLINA MINERALS 0 0 0.001 $ 5,454,882.50
FEL FE 0 -6 0.016 $ 8,307,927.50
INF INFINITY LITHIUM 0 -7 0.066 $ 13,965,579.00
MTH MITHRIL RESOURCES 0 -7 0.006 $ 2,942,335.25
HNR HANNANS 0 -10 0.01 $ 17,891,590.00
SI6 SIX SIGMA METALS 0 -11 0.004 $ 2,580,012.50
TON TRITON MINERALS 0 -12 0.037 $ 35,231,248.00
NMT NEOMETALS 0 -19 0.19 $ 103,443,264.00
RNU RENASCOR RESOURCES 0 -22 0.014 $ 14,994,516.00
PIO PIONEER RESOURCES 0 -24 0.013 $ 19,613,864.00
EMH EUROPEAN METALS 0 -25 0.32 $ 51,275,024.00
SRN SUREFIRE RESOURCES 0 -26 0.008 $ 5,025,229.00
COB COBALT BLUE 0 -38 0.14 $ 19,487,328.00
CZR COZIRON RESOURCES 0 -38 0.008 $ 16,664,410.00
KOR KORAB RESOURCES 0 -38 0.016 $ 5,075,191.50
MTB MOUNT BURGESS MINING 0 -40 0.003 $ 1,560,388.13
RLC REEDY LAGOON 0 -43 0.004 $ 1,609,086.88
BEM BLACKEARTH MINERALS 0 -44 0.055 $ 5,796,431.50
WCN WHITE CLIFF MINERALS 0 -47 0.006 $ 3,292,449.25
VRC VOLT RESOURCES 0 -50 0.012 $ 19,264,888.00
IEC INTRA ENERGY 0 -50 0.006 $ 2,326,344.25
CLQ CLEAN TEQ 0 -53 0.245 $ 182,882,752.00
SBR SABRE RESOURCES 0 -56 0.004 $ 1,901,534.75
BUX BUXTON RESOURCES 0 -57 0.067 $ 8,843,603.00
MLS METALS AUSTRALIA 0 -57 0.002 $ 2,957,197.75
MLL MALI LITHIUM 0 -60 0.079 $ 25,070,500.00
KAI KAIROS MINERALS 0 -60 0.011 $ 9,844,002.00
VR8 VANADIUM RESOURCES 0 -62 0.044 $ 15,493,607.00
MRR MINREX RESOURCES 0 -63 0.009 $ 862,899.56
CGM COUGAR METALS 0 -67 $ 1,176,583.25
SVD SCANDIVANADIUM 0 -68 0.008 $ 2,814,928.75
MCT METALICITY 0 -71 0.005 $ 3,616,049.75
ARE ARGONAUT RESOURCES 0 -72 0.005 $ 7,771,903.00
BAT BATTERY MINERALS 0 -72 0.008 $ 10,544,732.00
TMT TECHNOLOGY METALS AUSTRALIA 0 -74 0.145 $ 12,257,583.00
AEE AURA ENERGY 0 -74 0.0055 $ 6,575,953.00
THR THOR MINING 0 -77 0.006 $ 5,609,881.00
CLA CELSIUS RESOURCES 0 -78 0.013 $ 9,843,835.00
WML WOOMERA MINING 0 -79 0.016 $ 2,148,671.50
CFE CAPE LAMBERT RESOURCES 0 -83 0.004 $ 4,417,896.00
ANW AUS TIN MINING 0 -89 0.002 $ 4,978,992.50
POS POSEIDON NICKEL -2 0 0.049 $ 129,492,392.00
LIT LITHIUM AUSTRALIA -3 -62 0.038 $ 18,165,242.00
GLN GALAN LITHIUM -3 -32 0.18 $ 25,317,254.00
PLS PILBARA MINERALS -3 -60 0.3275 $ 744,940,928.00
NZC NZURI COPPER -3 31 0.32 $ 94,689,760.00
ASN ANSON RESOURCES -3 -64 0.032 $ 19,198,776.00
AXE ARCHER MATERIALS -4 69 0.13 $ 25,621,932.00
BPL BROKEN HILL PROSPECTING -4 -36 0.025 $ 3,697,085.00
PSC PROSPECT RESOURCES -4 -56 0.13 $ 27,134,452.00
CXO CORE LITHIUM -5 -26 0.039 $ 30,820,318.00
SO4 SALT LAKE POTASH -5 70 0.78 $ 215,029,056.00
MZN MARINDI METALS -5 -76 0.073 $ 5,835,974.50
N27 NORTHERN COBALT -6 -37 0.065 $ 4,934,233.00
MTC METALSTECH -6 -66 0.015 $ 1,754,308.25
BKT BLACK ROCK MINING -6 10 0.044 $ 27,392,238.00
AVZ AVZ MINERALS -7 -48 0.049 $ 99,078,384.00
DGR DGR GLOBAL -7 -39 0.083 $ 50,894,096.00
KTA KRAKATOA RESOURCES -7 52 0.041 $ 7,095,000.00
LTR LIONTOWN RESOURCES -8 344 0.096 $ 167,259,040.00
CHK COHIBA MINERALS -8 71 0.012 $ 7,975,371.00
RMX RED MOUNTAIN MINING -8 -14 0.006 $ 5,082,220.50
HRZ HORIZON MINERALS -8 -25 0.12 $ 51,357,024.00
GPX GRAPHEX MINING -8 -24 0.185 $ 18,116,138.00
PGM PLATINA RESOURCES -8 -65 0.022 $ 7,504,348.50
AVL AUSTRALIAN VANADIUM -8 -73 0.012 $ 28,080,822.00
PLL PIEDMONT LITHIUM -9 -16 0.105 $ 85,614,936.00
EUR EUROPEAN LITHIUM -9 -27 0.084 $ 50,653,084.00
TKL TRAKA RESOURCES -10 -73 0.009 $ 3,604,166.75
PUR PURSUIT MINERALS -10 -75 0.009 $ 2,971,978.00
LRS LATIN RESOURCES -10 -92 0.009 $ 1,401,292.13
VMC VENUS METALS -11 15 0.17 $ 20,269,330.00
FGR FIRST GRAPHENE -11 -3 0.15 $ 78,328,816.00
KSN KINGSTON RESOURCES -11 -33 0.16 $ 30,020,650.00
AMD ARROW MINERALS -11 -50 0.008 $ 6,701,705.50
CNJ CONICO -11 -65 0.008 $ 3,075,185.75
NXE NEW ENERGY MINERALS -11 -72 0.016 $ 2,446,327.00
GPP GREENPOWER ENERGY -11 -80 0.008 $ 2,612,018.75
JMS JUPITER MINES -12 -6 0.255 $ 519,132,608.00
GBE GLOBE METALS AND MINING -13 43 0.022 $ 9,318,447.00
GED GOLDEN DEEPS -15 -55 0.022 $ 6,943,098.50
MNS MAGNIS ENERGY TECHNOLOGIES -15 -66 0.115 $ 70,822,120.00
MEI METEORIC RESOURCES -16 286 0.059 $ 55,254,072.00
BSX BLACKSTONE MINERALS -16 -25 0.11 $ 21,090,462.00
TAR TARUGA MINERALS -16 -68 0.021 $ 1,835,174.13
DTM DART MINING -17 -29 0.006 $ 6,422,257.00
4CE FORCE COMMODITIES -17 -40 0.015 $ 7,614,821.50
LCD LATITUDE CONSOLIDATED -18 -18 0.014 $ 3,852,506.00
POW PROTEAN ENERGY -20 -83 0.004 $ 1,245,749.00
ZNC ZENITH MINERALS -22 -29 0.054 $ 11,508,194.00
AUZ AUSTRALIAN MINES -25 -75 0.014 $ 55,115,880.00
PSM PENINSULA MINES -33 -67 0.002 $ 3,050,616.25
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