Clyde Russell of Reuters reports that mining investment conferences have a great track record of pointing to the next growth area for commodities, as they bring together early-stage investors and junior miners seeking to get projects off the ground. Russell writes:
A decade ago lithium was the popular metal, five years ago it was the turn of gold and more recently copper has been the flavour of the month at these events across Asia.
But at the 121 Mining and Energy Investment conference this week in Singapore there was no clear choice, and no real consensus on where the best opportunities lie. […]Much of the bearishness surrounding lithium has been about the slower-than-expected uptake of electric vehicles in the developed world.
But while sales may have been disappointing, lithium demand is set for strong increases in the next few years as electric heavy vehicles enter service, and as battery storage to firm renewables such as wind and solar become more widespread. […]
Another out of favour commodity is coal, but there was interest expressed in metallurgical, or coking coal, the higher quality fuel used mainly to make steel.
In effect this is an India play, with the expectation that as it continues its massive infrastructure build out, the South Asian nation will also produce more steel, and thus need to import coking coal given the lack of domestic resources.
While coal is the bogeyman of climate change, the view among some investors is that given the energy transition relies heavily on steel, coking coal can be acceptable given its role in producing steel. […]
The bottom line is that the energy transition is viewed as offering huge opportunities to miners, traders and investors, but it remains plagued by uncertainty over which technologies will emerge as the leaders, and also the lack of coordinated government policies such as incentives and carbon taxes.
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