Friedland a skeptic on lithium, rare earths

Robert Friedland, a renowned mining financier and promoter, took the stage at the recent Mines and Money Americas conference in Toronto to highlight the need for platinum and copper, as rapid global urbanization continues. Both are key metals in projects his company Ivanhoe Mines (TSX: IVN; US-OTC: IVPAF) is developing in Africa.

“I am not here to depress the gold bugs in this room. I’m just here to get you excited about copper and other metals that we need in our new society,” Friedland said.

The executive — who sold the large nickel-copper-cobalt deposit Voisey’s Bay in Labrador to Inco for $4.3 billion in 1996, and whose company discovered the large Oyu Tolgoi copper-gold deposit in Mongolia in 2001 — noted that there will likely be a billion more people living in urban environments by 2030. As a result, more people would live in cities filled with “toxic smog,” he said, citing that 6.5 million people die a year from air pollution.

To combat air pollution from tradiotional vehicles, Friedland noted the automotive industry plans to use more platinum to make hydrogen-powered cars and more copper to produce electric cars.

Honda’s new hydrogen-powered Clarity Fuel Cell uses an ounce of platinum, Friedland said, noting that other car manufacturers, including part of the Volkswagen Group, would follow suit in making greener cars.

A drill site at Ivanhoe Mines’ Kakula copper project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Credit: Ivanhoe Mines.

Meanwhile Tesla’s Model 3 employs a copper induction motor, the executive said, noting newer electric cars contain more copper and no expensive rare earth metals. (The latter sector has typically been  dominated by Chinese suppliers.)

“I’m glad we finally killed this rare earth thing,” Friedland said.

“Don’t worry about the Chinese,” he added. “We don’t need them any more.”

According to the mining entrepreneur, rare earth metals, along with lithium, could fall out of favour. “Most lithium miners will also end in tears,” he predicted, citing that drones fly longer when powered by hydrogen fuel cells as opposed to lithium-ion batteries.

Strengthening his case for platinum, Friedland told the audience that China is spending $32 billion over the next four years to expand its hydrogen-powered tram system to address its air pollution problem.

Platinum is also conveniently a metal Friedland will extract at Ivanhoe’s large Platreef project in South Africa. The platinum-palladium-nickel-copper-gold-rhodium project sits on the northern limb of the Bushveld Complex, which is 280 km northeast of Johannesburg.

“The orebody is as thick as an eight-storey building,” Friedland said. It is also flat, high-grade and shallow, making it easy to mine.

The company expects to develop the underground mine in three phases. It would process 4 million tonnes per year, double this in the second phase and expand to 12 million tonnes per year in phase three.

Meanwhile, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ivanhoe is developing the large Kamoa copper project, where in August it made the even larger Kakula copper discovery.

Drilling at Kakula with seven rigs in the last 90 days delineated “45 million equivalent oz. gold,” Friedland said. An initial resource for Kakula should be out shortly.

After highlighting the potential at Kamoa-Kakula, Friedland noted that Chile’s aging copper mines, including El Teniente, are “like little old ladies lying in bed waiting to die.”

Also in DRC, Ivanhoe is working on the Kipushi zinc-copper project.