RARE EARTH OPPORTUNITIES!

    It seems as if China is about to invoke a ban on  Rare Earth mineral and metal exports,to the USA and its allies !
  This is in reply to the USA increasing tariffs on Chinese exports into America. At the moment  they have a massive trade surplus with America. The USA is trying to balance the "Playing field"as      China uses many underhand methods to prevent fair trade.
China produces at least 85%  of these rare earths and up to now has sold them at prices low enough to discourage any other country from developing their own sources.
 These minerals include cobalt,spodium(lithium) and many others that most people have never heard of!
1.This is now an opportunity for other countries to to jump in and produce their share of this developing bonanza as prices are starting to rapidly increase!
 2. A decade or so ago ,China was  in a spat with Japan which has no minerals of any kind. Japan simply in electronics and cell phones etc. started substitution successfully and thus suffered very little discomfort. They are prepared to share this knowledge with the world.
 3.Most of the minerals/metals are really not so rare but difficult to mine ,also the price being low and limited use has prevented much in development.
 4. The USA has one small mine/factory ,but private enterprise is already planning massive expansion. This is likely to take another three years and many companies will sign long term contracts as one cannot then rely on supplies that can be interrupted at a moments notice.
There is a move afoot for more  enterprises in this direction being planned which might take up to five years to be completely up and running.
  5 Australia and Namibia have vast amounts of Spodium . And South Africa can extract cobalt easily from mines. All that is required to mine other minerals is the will and sound government without corruption to mine the various resources.

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Lack of Patience in World Clean Air Events !

1. The drive to lithium is now well under underway. The British government is about to spend millions on lithium service points,as well I suspect probably the rest of the first world as well, as private enterprise could really not keep up. So far all lithium battery  auto companies are running at a loss.
 A few points to consider :- 
a. Lithium is a rare earth metal so not in unlimited supply (spodium).
b. Governments are at last admitting that solar power is not likely to be able or best at loading points to power battery chargers. Coal powered  electricity will still power  most of the loading points for the forsee-able future!
c. At the moment batteries have to be charged for at least half an hour every 500 km!
d.Lithium batteries have not to date had a good safety record!
e.It seems as if lithium might be hazardous to health in numerous ways as well.
2. Well proven methods with fuel cell technology although not receiving the attention of lithium and proven results is soaring ahead in Sweden Volvo,Ballard company and many smaller  companies in America and Toyota in Japan. supplies of Platinum will last for at least the next couple of hundred years.
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TRENDING COMPANIES AND MINERALS.

Ever since 2009 ,except for a couple of short periods ,I have been a PGM (Platinum Group metal) bull!
There is always a couple of them increasing in price. I have always maintained that Platinum is the more important than Palladium. The palladium price has for the last couple of years been higher than platinum,mainly because motor manufacturers lied about the loadings of platinum in catylitic converters . This damaged platinum use and speculators did the rest and chased prices down. Palladium is now in bubble territory,so is now easing against the platinum price.
THE GREAT FUTURE IN PLATINUM is now in FUEL CELL TECHNOLOGY 
Remember fuel cells produce no pollutants in every type of engine from autos to stationary engines. Japan is going full steam ahead with this production ,whilst the rest of the world is concentrating on lithium solutions which  has many drawbacks as the electricity to load these batteries will still mostly be produced by coal fired power stations for at least the next half centuary.
THE LEADING WORLD MINING COMPANIES THAT ABLE TO SUPPLY THESE NEEDS ADEQUATELY HAVE MANY OF THEIR ASSETS IN SOUTHERN AFRICA.
                DO WATCH 
ANGLO (AGL)
SYBANYE (SGL)
AMPLATS (AMS)
IMPALA (IMP)
RBPLATS (RBP)
NORTHAM (NHM)
1. 
A good idea is to also read Bvians Southern African mining and resources news on a monthly basis        AS WELL

2.
The latest  page updates are always at the top of the right hand column.

BVN Under-- THE-- Radar: South Africa's Recovery

BVN Under-- THE-- Radar: South Africa's Recovery: There seems a genuine air to make 2019 the year of recovery in our country.  There have been many commissions of enquirery and at last gove...

The New Hydrogen AGE, REVOLUTION !

HYDROGEN which can easily be extracted from water is likely to drive the  new clean air revolution.
This is the preferred fuel that works with Platinum catalityic fuel cells. Its half the price of pretroleum fuels and has the advantage of being 100 % free of pollution.
Of course there's talk of using boron etc .to cut out rare earth ,such as platinum altogether ,but these experiments are still unproven.
When platinum is used for catalysts the power produced is strong enough to drive the largest stationary engines or so little can be used for small engines.
Toyota and other car,bus and heavy duty manufacturers have all chosen platinum to drive their future plans.
Germany is also tooling up now. Their leading manufacturer Mercedes Benz is also getting in on the act.
South Africa is the leading country regarding supply of platinum in the world .Impala platinum mine is now gearing up to supply their own electricity.
There is genuine scope for down-line applications helping create work locally. Do read all the other posts that I have written on platinum group metals over the years. Click on labels below or in the side-bar.
SEE THE PAGE UPDATES EACH MONTH. THE LATEST UPDATE IS AT THE TOP OF THE LIST IN THE SIDE-COLUMN

NEW YEAR PROSPECTS

1.During the previous year the general investment climate in Southern Africa never really lived up to  expectations.
Stocks of course had over shot the true recovery from the 2008 recession. Further, very bad political decisions such as the land grab debate to curry favor  with the  uneducated part of the electorate had bad repercussions for our country as overseas investors sold off our stocks . Moving to the more safe countries of the world.
See the side bar as some stocks held up  and mid-capital stocks did rather well when based on sound principles .
As our government is now looking for overseas funds to prop up their program of aims they have to get a lid on corruption and general government wastage. It unlikely that they will do the absolute take overs as Europe and America put pressure on them to behave in a civilised manner!
One danger is that they are turning to China for more of their monetary needs,how  ever China itself being under threat of  trade wars is cutting back on more reckless lending.
2. Platinum group metals are now coming into their own. There is always at least a couple , out performing. At the moment Rhodium and Palladium are trending. Do look at our Mining website where reasons are discussed from time to time. 
See the top of right hand side-bar,for the latest updates .

The Brexit Fuss !

5/SEPT. 2019
I NEVER THOUGHT THIS ARTICLE WOULD BE SO PROPHETIC! I CAN NOT SEE WHY I SHOULD CHANGE IT IN ANY WAY
Politicians noses out of joint,because voters democratically chose to leave the European Union in a referendum, of course by the simplest vote and majority. If stay in the Union had won as they wanted they would have felt vindicated, as the vast majority of politicians wanted to stay ! 
  Crazy to have put a political stayer in the position to negotiate the withdrawel and civil servants adding to the doom and gloom by extrapolating what happen years later if a compromise is not taken. The civil servants views reminds me of market tipsters how ever well informed trying to predict the future peformance of a stock.More often than not they get it wrong over every period from short to long time periods.
  The stupidest wailing politicians are those wanting a perfect trade deal now without knowing what will be up for trade in the future. Even when within the Union a new trade deal is worked out it takes from months to years to get all the crinkels out.
   The British are not mostly coddled children that  must be protected from all events by self seeking politicians.Of course they are quite eccentric peoples, but tough and hard working and not  only overcome any challenge but will look forward of making a success of any situation.This is the only country in the world as far as I know that does not have a written constitution ,but an
outstanding working democracy.
   GATT(The general agreement of tariffs and trade) which will protect them if they leave with out an agreement is a good starting point to a bright future, they should then not seek to re-enter the European Union as they will then not be able to plot their independent way forward.The EU just loves encroaching on the British assets such as oil in the North Sea and fishing rights.
  Honestly I must add that the E Union has become top heavy and not my view only but many world wide has passed its "Sell by date   !" .MID- European states would do themselves a favour by forming their own union as they become increasingly dominated by the powerful Western European states. 

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See published now my two pages on My Specialist watch list

2.FUTURE PIVOTAL COUNTRIES !

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THE SOUTHERN PART OF SOUTH EAST ASIA ,INCLUDING ISLAND COUNTRIES ,PACIFIC ISLANDS AND AUSTRALASIA. 

 The country that eminently qualifies is Australia,with its democratically elected government that has been so since it became independent from the UK years ago. The population understand that the best way to change the government is always through the ballot box!
 As with all countries that surround it there is always an attempt at graft and criminal activity,but it is strictly dealt with and they have a fair judicial  system that they can be justly proud of.
 These hard working people have   great monetary policy and systems in place and a well regulated stock exchange in placeand good industrial growth. This country is endowned with plentiful resources in the ground and unlike our South Africa,encouraging legislation to start up miners to unlock this wealth for the benefit of all,with no threat of big-brother trying to grease their palms with ill gotten gains.
 I am sure they will resist taking loans from foreign countries in the East ,with terms that seem too good to be true,only as we Africans have found out are! When the handful of countries could not pay their best industries and mines were taken over with tens of thousands of their citizens dumped on us. Although promised no work for the locals ,i am afraid.They even brought their own furniture,hard to believe i'm sure.Of course they ignore rules that don't suit their nationals.
 Australia has a difficult climate in large parts of its country ,but manages this situation well.
 They are a great sporting nation and true to their allies.

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1.FUTURE PIVOTAL COUNTRIES !

    In the Americas 
Obviously the United States has secured its position, thanks mainly to its legal inhabitants exercising their rights thru the democratic process to invigorate its laws and rid themselves of older ways of doing things. This is now called the populist movement which might have started here,but is now sweeping the world. 
Politicians had been up to the 2016 election of making promises,then not keeping them ,thinking that they knew best which laws should be changed, also thinking globalisation was the best policy,always looking after their rich class of course. Many of their potential workers could not find work or had lost their jobs in this process. They chose a non politician to lead them in President Donald Trump who might not know the finer points of etiquette but tries to keep all his promises.
We see this as a world-wide  movement  which will sweep away older cob-webs  in law ,in fact all that have passed their "sell by dates !" and these countries will eventually form a loose alliance  of non interference in each others internal affairs.
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BVian's ACTIVE Stock and Share Trading Ideas: Thankful Response !

BVian's ACTIVE Stock and Share Trading Ideas: Thankful Response !:   Thanks to the British and the United  States for paying attention to the land question in South Africa,as the land grab with out compensat...

THE PRESIDENT TRIES TO BOOST THE ECONOMY BEFORE THE ELECTION IN 2019

Most of us are more than a bit worried by the direction this is taking.
First of all he has announced that there will be a change to the constitution by introducing a bill to take land with out compensation.What most of us find annoying is that the state already holds a vast amount of government land. The shaky assurance is given that fully productive land will not be included! 
WHO DECIDES THIS WE WONDER !
Africa states till now after gaining their independence have mostly all tried this approach with disasterous results to date as confidence in their countries has plunged them all to deep junk status !
Secondly as graft has lost ESCOM (electricity) their double AA rating and driven their lending terms into junk ,they can not secure a loan to carry on working.
ENTER CHINA for this and other state enterprises in trouble. I do hope that have firm accountability and will repay these loans on due dates,other wise China will find other less desirable methods of repayment such as introducing thousands more of their citizens to this country as an immigration destination. 
A NEW FORM OF COLONIALISM WE SUPPOSE!
Africa's motto has always been "Africa ruled by the Africans for the Africans" an admirable slogan.
Our neighbor Zimbabwe are so deeply in debt to China that they first went to China to ask their permission before they disposed of their long time dictator Mugabe !

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EXPECTATIONS !

We all expected that it would be plain sailing once we had got rid of the kleptomaniac government of Jacob Zuma in which he and his followers ruined the South Africa ,in his nine years in power. Unfortunately those followers especially at the lower levels are are still mostly in place and are reluctant to give up their ways as they continue to loot the state coffers in underhand ways thinking only of themselves and not the tax payers ,the helpless poor pensioners and poor starving populace that can not find work.
 President Ramaphosa has replaced many of the higher rank wrong doers. Of course things can not happen fast enough and the socialist elements within the ruling party namely the ANC makes wild promises which they cannot keep. 
So now to cover their sins they are pushing the land grab with out compensation! 
Also the mining charter which promised so much work is being pushed in a direction which bodes badly for the country as no investment is likely if it continues along the present path of quotas and instruction as to how mining houses must proceed. In fact there is no need for a charter at all,as we have adequate laws covering common law events the same as many advanced countries in Europe!
 It's a pity to see our President is now going along with these ideas in an effort to win the next general election in 2019.

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MINING TO BE INVIGORATED IN SOUTH AFRICA !

The Mandela Mining Precinct is being brought back to life with varying amounts of researches again .Anglo Plats is giving $60 million to investigate all facets of Fuel Cells. This effort is also being encouraged byt he government and the chamber of mines.
This was once the most important investigatory units in the world because of South African's producing and having the most reserves of platinum and gold and other minerals in abundance.
Our mines are amongst the deepest in the world with tunnels between four and six miles deep !

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A Good Step in the right Direction Great

The new minister of mines has come out with a plan to put mining in the right direction after the previous ministers have have been blundering around for the last 23 years have achieved very little taking mining into the dark ages, worrying more about racial quotas and extracting tax from mining at a time when mineral prices were declining.
GWEDE  MANTASHE the new minister of mining has proposed  a longer time frame for mining called VISION 30 . As we all know it can take up to ten years to ramp up a mine to full production and a lot longer to show a reasonable profit. 
At the moment no major explorers have shown any interest in their field.Mr. Mantashe is instituting a process where all stake holders are been consulted before publishing a new mining charter.
All that the mine owners ask is that this document should be made tinker proof as following ministers might not be as knowledge-able as the present minister and then spoil the package . There are copious amounts amounts of platinum ,yes and even lithium and other rare earth minerals  and chrome waiting to be developed.
Something I don't really talk about is during the last three month a great deal of interest is been shown by the Eastern nations ,in the past this was the exclusive working area of the WEST.
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THE UNFORSEEN CONSEQUENCES OF CONFISCATION !

GOOGLE- BVIANS EDGE -FOR EXCITING NEWS!
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The confiscation of land with out compensation is abhorrent in the Western Civilized World, and rightly so!
It would seem as an extreme left-wing with in the African National Congress and sister party the EFF have exploited a weakness in the change over of power to Ramaphosa the new President as a sop for their votes that helped topple the former president Zuma.
The new president has done much in his short time in power to reverse the looting of the state coffers which has brought us to one notch above junk status. Moodys seems willing to give us the benefit of the doubt for at least the next six months and has even upgraded us to stable from likely down grade! 
Ramaphosa latest move by replacing the revenue services head who was helping Zuma with state capture for his own ends.The revenue will recall former well educated persons and their independence will be restored.
One of the unforseen consequences of the land grab legislation which has not come into law yet and has to go thru two more stages where it is being vigouresly  opposed by opposition,is the largely unreported illegal occupation of so-called land farmers are letting lie fallow so as to preserve the ecology, by bus loads of obese, extreme  party supporters.Six police or so might turn up,then beat a hasty retreat when threatened.
Its not as if there is no land available as roughly three thousand farms were sold to the state at reasonable prices when the new constitution was adopted in 1994. They now are mostly in the hands of Zuma officials or lying dormant.
If it were not so sad it would be funny as these paid idle land invaders dwindle  noticably as the harsh conditions of being on farms without amenities is obviously not for the feint-hearted! Startling to see half built shacks completely only a a handful to claim squatter rights.Costs farmers a great deal to legally remove these.A great deal of intimindation towards the farmers,plus the locust mentality apply, they really do not want to farm,but are interested in making a quick buck !
According to these left-wingers,an unproved 70% of producing farms is still in "white hands  ! " In this number they include Europeans,Asians 
 and what they call sell-out blacks and companies belonging to all races.It would seem any body that bought the arable lands and cattle farming areas some times from the present government and are successful and pays 90% of the farming area tax are being targeted. If their move succeeds there will be starvation as witnessed in our neighboring country Zimbabwe.

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THE BIGGER PICTURE !

Hats off to the Japanese industrialists and government for recognizing the fact that Fuel Cells are far superior to batteries to keep the environment free from pollutants. All the big auto manufacturers and industrial engine manufacturers are on board.Also used in catalytic converters, the Platinum Group Metals are tops.
The rest of the world manufacturers are taking the line of least resistance and falling over each other to produce mostly lithium long life batteries.
Already countries are complaining about the use of electricity that simply will not be enough to reload these batteries and are already suggesting that they will have to recharge them at night, which  by the way usually will take all night  to recharge. 
This electricity will mostly be produced by coal fired power stations for almost the next century.
Talk of pollutants!
On the other hand Fuel Cells can get a recharge in about fifteen minutes at special points that will continue to be added to existing garages and larger sites for industrial use.
SEE THE LATEST UPDATES IN THE SIDE-BAR

A SOUTHERN AFRICAN MINING REVIVAL ON THE CARDS !

Already some exploration companies from Canada and Australia are coming to our country to" test the waters" so to speak. That is to see if the new president elect can make this country mining friendly again. Optimistic talk is  on the increase again, as more mining friendly announcements are made. Unfortunately the new head of state is only likely to take over  next year, unless the incumbent is removed earlier,a difficult task at best.
  Our country is mineral rich  in quantities  that make mining worth while. Unfortunately very little exploration has been done for a couple of decades as the environment was hostile with seizing assets the talk of the day and increasing impossible taxes proposed .
 We locals feel  quite confident these days and feel the future is bright in providing much work for the population and a decent income for workers.
1.CLICK ALSO MINING AND RESOURCES NEWS IN SIDE-BAR FOR GREAT UPDATES

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3. See the NEW  Medium Cap Shares in the side-bar as well as all the other updates.

A GREAT BOOST FOR THE NEW YEAR !

THE OLD YEAR ENDS ON A VERY POSITIVE NOTE FOR SOUTH AFRICA AS THE  RAND SURGES TO LEVELS LAST SEEN MONTHS A GO ON THE BACKGROUND
 OF CHOOSING 
A NEW PRESIDENT NOT MIRED IN SCANDAL AND ONE THAT IS A  SUCCESSFUL 
BUSINESS MAN AND SHOULD BE  FAVORABLE  TO BIG BUSINESS THAT WILL CREATE JOBS AND REVERSE THE PROCESS OF DOWNGRADES.

How ever the mood is still sombre in more enlightened circles as the president elect did not have a clear run as the former president nominated his wife who won almost half the seats and many radical resolutions were adopted that are supposed  to be implemented by the new president.
The worst of these is land grabs, that is taking good agricultural producing land with out compensation and re-distributing it to the peasants . Our neighbor ,Zimbabwe did this under the dictator Mugabe . The result was disasterous as their economy collapsed completely. That country was the bread basket of  Africa. As usual the majority land was distributed to Mugabe relatives. They had no money to pay for imports and no food to eat.Days of celebration followed  the overthrow of Mugabe after thirty seven years of hardship and death of many from starvation.
South Africa considers itself more sophisticated ,but such populist veiws are held by a vast amount of tribal people ,who want to this to be extended to the cities as well. 
Although the racial card is played as it is said whites hold most of the profitable enterprises,this is not simply true.After three hundred years in this country there very few pure white families left!
The civil service is 95% black now,which leads to another point that their pension fund is wholly dependent on shares on the stock exchange to grow their pensions,if these are seized they would end up with no pensions.
Another call is for the mines to be nationalised. 
These mines also pay heavy taxes and in some instances royalties which would immediately be lost to the fiscus if nationalised. 
 As the rulers now can not even run the government or semi-parastatals properly how earth will they manage the mines!
Do remember that the government already runs the national airways and electricity supply at increasing  huge losses !

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Lessons and Surprises !

Do check out the side-bar for all the latest updates on a variety of subjects from Shares,Derivatives and items such as Bitcoins. The latest updates are always near the top of the list


1.The eyes went open of many of our South African socialist politicians when they observed how the population of our neighbor state ZIMBABWE  went wild celebrating in the streets for days at the fall of the socialist leaning tyrant Mugabe was deposed after 37 years in power. 
At independence Zimbabwe was referred to as the breadbasket of Africa. Our local politicians held him up as some one they would aspire to be like!

2. Agro-mining is likely to be the the in thing in future. That is using plants to take up metals especially on worked out mines ,then to extract this from the plants to get the minerals from the harvested plants and then process the contents.

3. At the moment lithium batteries are over shadowing fuel cell technology especially in passenger autos. 

4. All these resource subjects will be further commented upon on the Bvians Abacus Information Alerts website. So be sure to check it out.

NOW TRENDING OIL !

 Oil is now trending as surprising as this now sounds. 
 Oil has clawed its way back and it now is less volatile and likely to stay above $60 per barrel for Brent for the for see-able future. 
 The reason it would seem is that Saudi Arabia the leader in Opec has been able to curtail the amount of oil produced by the cartel more successfully than the former times when there was over production.

(Also visit... Bvians Abacus information 
Alerts... for comment on new ideas usually first discussed there)

Do remember it is likely to take another decade before alternate so called "clean energy " will start to diminish the use of fossil fuels and even longer to phase them out.
 Opec has now also consulted the shale producers and has pointed that its in every producers  interest to curtail oil production as a glut leads to not only falling prices,but large losses and companies going under. As we understand it there is no formal signed agreement between them but relies on mutual advantages at the moment.
 When the price falls too far there is no advantages for frackers 
either as now banks are adverse to lending them extra monies to continue their drilling as there is a social aspect as ground water does in some instances become contaminated.
 On the sidelines of course are deep water drills standing idle as this costs the companies billions of US Dollars. So they would not require a higher price to cover their debts.

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