I first published this article in November 2020. It is largely unchanged, except I have added share price and other data for May 2021. Where relevant, I have updated the text for each company. Most have seen very good gains, helped in no small part by the impressive gains in…
Helium is the only element not discovered on earth, but in the spectrum of the sun’s radiation. On earth helium is formed through the radioactive breakdown of uranium and thorium. It typically occurs with natural gas at up to 1% concentration, but it can also occur with other elements such…
Current worldwide recycling of lithium-ion batteries (“LIB”) is negligible. In fact, in the US, the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) considers that LIB are safe for disposal in landfill. In the US this amounts to 2 billion batteries disposed of annually. However, with the increasing production of electric vehicles LIB recycling…
The world produced 270,000t of tin in 2020. The biggest producers were China, Indonesia, Myanmar (Burma), Peru and Australia. Total reserves were 5.5Mt and resources 15.4Mt, enough for over 70 years of consumption at current rates. Tin is a soft, silvery metal with a low melting point. Because it is…
The primary nutrients for plants are nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. Intermediate nutrients are sulphur, magnesium and calcium. Trace elements are calcium, iron, boron, manganese, zinc, molybdenum and copper. All elements are necessary for plant health however the three primary elements are required in the greatest volume. The main supply of…
Silica sands must be at least 95% silica (SiO2) and less than 0.6% iron oxide. Lower grade sand is usually called regular sand or construction sand. The world consumes about 300M tonnes of silica sand every year. The largest consumers are China and North America Some are predicting a looming…