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mineral  trends for 2015","critical-mineral-trends-for-2015","article/critical-mineral-trends-for-2015",{"_uid":557,"date":558,"tags":559,"editor":560,"content":570,"excerpt":578,"featured":50,"reporter":722,"_editable":726,"component":727,"seo_title":553,"categories":728,"visibility":732,"author_company":49,"featured_image":733,"seo_description":578,"author_full_name":49,"author_job_title":49,"formattedDate":738,"formattedArticleDate":739},"eb5bf46c-ce9e-4190-98c4-815c6778c6ac","2016-07-20 00:00",[],[561],{"slug":562,"name":563,"content":564},"matthew-bird","Matthew Bird",{"job_title":565,"image":566,"bio":568,"linkedin":569},"Senior Editor - Supply Chains & Data Visualisation",{"filename":567},"https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/512x512/14738033ec/matthew-bird.jpeg","Matthew writes, edits and produces content for Benchmark Intelligence and Benchmark Source across the whole mine to grid supply chain. He also acts as a liaison to the press. He has a PhD in electrochemistry from the University of Nottingham.","https://www.linkedin.com/in/birdmatthew/",{"type":571,"content":572},"doc",[573,580,587,592,597,602,607,612,617,622,627,632,637,642,647,652,657,662,667,672,677,682,687,692,697,702,707,712,717],{"type":574,"attrs":575,"content":576},"paragraph",{"textAlign":49},[577],{"text":578,"type":579},"From more robust pricing to China’s evolution, here Benchmark Mineral Intelligence outlines five trends expected to define upstream markets this year","text",{"type":581,"attrs":582,"content":584},"heading",{"level":583,"textAlign":49},3,[585],{"text":586,"type":579},"1 Stronger prices",{"type":574,"attrs":588,"content":589},{"textAlign":49},[590],{"text":591,"type":579},"Three consecutive years of price decreases have left many critical mineral markets at rock bottom.",{"type":574,"attrs":593,"content":594},{"textAlign":49},[595],{"text":596,"type":579},"While signs of an immediate recovery remain scarce, the majority of these markets have shown signs of bottoming out.",{"type":574,"attrs":598,"content":599},{"textAlign":49},[600],{"text":601,"type":579},"Although large inventories, following years of over-production, are likely to suppress any significant upturn in the near-term, tightening supply in many areas will be met by a steady recovery in the global economy is likely to fuel some more positive news for producers approaching the end of 2015.",{"type":581,"attrs":603,"content":604},{"level":583,"textAlign":49},[605],{"text":606,"type":579}," 2 Regional, the new global?",{"type":574,"attrs":608,"content":609},{"textAlign":49},[610],{"text":611,"type":579},"The importance of supply chain security has become a prominent industry trend and this looks likely to increase this year.",{"type":574,"attrs":613,"content":614},{"textAlign":49},[615],{"text":616,"type":579},"While tightening capital availability for the vast majority of companies is likely to prevent wide-spread vertical integration, the importance of supply security of the more scare minerals and metals is rising.",{"type":574,"attrs":618,"content":619},{"textAlign":49},[620],{"text":621,"type":579},"As a result, the willingness of consumers to pay premiums for consistency, stability, and long term security of supply will increase.",{"type":574,"attrs":623,"content":624},{"textAlign":49},[625],{"text":626,"type":579},"For niche minerals, being strategically located will become of growing concern to end users, certainly for the larger manufacturing nations such as the US, Germany and Japan.",{"type":581,"attrs":628,"content":629},{"level":583,"textAlign":49},[630],{"text":631,"type":579}," 3 Replacing China",{"type":574,"attrs":633,"content":634},{"textAlign":49},[635],{"text":636,"type":579},"As the leading low cost supply base for many niche minerals such as rare earths, graphite, fluorspar, and vanadium, China’s downstream push to produce value-added products will leave less supply available for the rest of the world.",{"type":574,"attrs":638,"content":639},{"textAlign":49},[640],{"text":641,"type":579},"This has opened up a window of opportunity for other nations to become the new low-cost supply in minerals previously dominated by the Chinese.",{"type":581,"attrs":643,"content":644},{"level":583,"textAlign":49},[645],{"text":646,"type":579}," 4 Finance falling",{"type":574,"attrs":648,"content":649},{"textAlign":49},[650],{"text":651,"type":579},"The wave of investment into critical minerals between 2009 and 2011, will continue to subside for the majority of the exploration sector in 2015, leaving many junior companies fighting for survival.",{"type":574,"attrs":653,"content":654},{"textAlign":49},[655],{"text":656,"type":579},"For Canadian traded juniors especially, it has been one of the toughest and longest investment slumps ever.",{"type":574,"attrs":658,"content":659},{"textAlign":49},[660],{"text":661,"type":579},"As the slow recovery in end market demand continues, driven by new product innovation, the need for supply chain security will increase.",{"type":574,"attrs":663,"content":664},{"textAlign":49},[665],{"text":666,"type":579},"This will provide some hope to development-stage companies.",{"type":574,"attrs":668,"content":669},{"textAlign":49},[670],{"text":671,"type":579},"Tightening finance markets are likely to force some juniors out of the market, however projects with good resources, secure economics, and/ or a unique story to tell are likely to weather the storm.",{"type":581,"attrs":673,"content":674},{"level":583,"textAlign":49},[675],{"text":676,"type":579}," 5 New generation of suppliers",{"type":574,"attrs":678,"content":679},{"textAlign":49},[680],{"text":681,"type":579},"Despite turbulence in capital markets, a number of mineral and metal projects have managed to move ahead of the crowd and will attempt to position themselves as producers over the coming year.",{"type":574,"attrs":683,"content":684},{"textAlign":49},[685],{"text":686,"type":579},"In the graphite market, for example, some projects have already begun produce small quantities, lithium has welcomed its first new producer in a generation (p.17), while rare earths has seen two new operations come on-stream in the US and Australia.",{"type":574,"attrs":688,"content":689},{"textAlign":49},[690],{"text":691,"type":579},"Meanwhile, other industries have struggled to bring new resources to the market.",{"type":574,"attrs":693,"content":694},{"textAlign":49},[695],{"text":696,"type":579},"The lack of available capital, however, has prevented a glut of new producers coming on-stream.",{"type":574,"attrs":698,"content":699},{"textAlign":49},[700],{"text":701,"type":579},"A new generation of suppliers are slowly filtering into these niche mineral and metal industries, however, and this trend is expected to continue in 2015.",{"type":574,"attrs":703,"content":704},{"textAlign":49},[705],{"text":706,"type":579},"With China seeking to close many of the older, large flake graphite mines in Shandong province, there are likely to be restrictions in the supply of large flake product over the longer term assuming no new supply enters the market.",{"type":574,"attrs":708,"content":709},{"textAlign":49},[710],{"text":711,"type":579},"Considering these supply-side restrictions, and with four battery megafactories slated to come onstream in the next three years, the question is: will the natural graphite industry be able supply these new projects or will buyers have to turn to its synthetic counterpart?",{"type":574,"attrs":713,"content":714},{"textAlign":49},[715],{"text":716,"type":579},"It also raises the point of where new supply will come from to satisfy existing markets let alone the emergence of a potentially huge market in batteries.",{"type":574,"attrs":718,"content":719},{"textAlign":49},[720],{"text":721,"type":579},"Regardless of what the future holds, one thing is clear in the present: the days of low cost, abundant graphite from China are over.",[723],{"slug":562,"name":563,"content":724},{"job_title":565,"image":725,"bio":568,"linkedin":569},{"filename":567},"\u003C!--#storyblok#{\"name\": \"article\", \"space\": \"\", \"uid\": \"eb5bf46c-ce9e-4190-98c4-815c6778c6ac\", \"id\": \"\"}-->","article",[729],{"slug":730,"name":731},"critical-minerals","Critical Minerals","private",{"id":49,"alt":734,"name":734,"focus":734,"title":734,"source":734,"filename":735,"copyright":734,"fieldtype":736,"meta_data":737,"is_external_url":51},"","https://a.storyblok.com/f/287943243085208/d041d55252/bm-trends.png","asset",{"alt":734,"title":734,"source":734,"copyright":734},"Jul 20, 2016","20th July 2016",[],[],1792765770878]