Issue link: http://resourceworld.uberflip.com/i/937377
F E B R U A R Y / M A R C H 2 0 1 8 www.resourceworld.com 7 Editor's Comments Ellsworth Dickson Ellsworth Dickson, Editor-in-Chief Email: editor@resourceworld.com T: 604 484 3800 | 1 877 484 3800 A lmost every week I become aware of new developments of various ways to produce electricity that involve met- als and minerals. Some of these are already part of our daily lives such as the lithium-ion batteries in our cell phones, laptop computers, tablets and, increasingly so, electric vehicles. Since lithium-ion batteries use lithium, cobalt, manganese and graphite, exploration companies targeting these commodi- ties have caught the eye of resource stock investors. Elon Musk has now announced that Tesla will build an electric semi-truck. If his specs are correct and he accomplishes this feat, I can visualize electric semi-trucks spreading around the world. On top of that, Musk has also promised to build an electric pickup truck. In addition, while the world has been slow to buy electric cars due to range anxiety and high prices, as the range goes up and prices come down, it can only create more demand for battery min- erals, or as they are sometimes called, energy metals and minerals. Since all these vehicles require large lithium-ion batteries, one can only guess just how much demand there will be for energy metals in the next decade. How will these developments continue to impact energy metal explorers and miners? There are also recent cutting edge developments that utilize zinc and iron to produce electricity from batteries. In December 2017, MGX Minerals Inc. [XMG- CSE; MGXMF-OTCQB; 1MG-FSE] signed a definitive agreement to acquire all the issued and out- standing shares of ZincNyx Energy Solutions, Inc. Upon closing of the agreement ZincNyx will become a 100% owned subsidiary of the company. In my opinion, this could be a significant development as the ZincNyx battery generates power from zinc and air and solves the problem of storing intermittent electricity generated by solar panels and wind power. The ZincNyx modular energy storage system is designed for energy storage in the 5 kW to 1 MW range for extended periods of time and can be scaled up from the kilo- watt to megawatt range, providing low cost energy storage. Christopher Wolverton, a professor of materials science and engineering at Northwestern University, along with researchers at the Argonne National Laboratory, are experimenting with a lithium-iron-oxide battery that can cycle more lithium ions than its lithium-cobalt counterpart. He said this battery is suitable for cell phones and cars. Still in early days, the iron battery research is supported by the US Department of Energy's Energy Frontier Research Center Program. Chris Lewiki, President and CEO of Planetary Resources, just launched its Arkyd-6 Exploration Spacecraft, its second, as one of the preliminary steps to mining near-Earth asteroids. It is now in orbit. Asteroids can not only be a source of valuable metals, their water resources can be turned into rocket fuel by the astronauts more inexpensively than shipping water from Earth to outer space. The Arkyd-6 spacecraft is a secondary payload onboard the Indian Space Research Organization's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV- 40). The PSLV launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Center in Southern India. Down in Cape Canaveral, Florida, Dr. Bob Richards' company, Moon Express, is waiting to launch its first of three robotic Moon explorers that will be launched by Rocket One in New Zealand. The company's goal is to open to Moon for commercial explora- tion and mining. Let's not forget Nautilus Minerals [NUS-TSX; NUSMF-OTC; NASDAQ Int'l Designation] and Chatham Rock Phosphate [NZP- TSXV; CRP-NZAX], both of which have undersea mining projects underway. It looks like the future has arrived. n The times they are a changin' – quickly On the Road to Discovery Exploring the Kimberley Diamond Project, Western Australia TSX.V - LDI Contact: info@lithoquest.com | lithoquest.com 2000-1066 West Hastings | Vancouver, BC V6E 3X2