Walmart, Pepsi, UPS, Annheuser-Busch and Loblaw are all buying Tesla Electric Semis with a Two Year Payback
California Going Carbon Neutral
Momentum Public Relations
Blog: September 18 2018
Early September featured a couple of announcements that bode well for Mother Nature, energy efficiency, battery metals and battery metals investors.
First there was an announcement by Walmart Canada that it had ordered 30 Tesla 18 wheelers for its delivery fleet. This joins an earlier order for ten all electric 18 wheelers for a total of 40 and joins orders from Fortigo Transport and Loblaws.
The Canadian Press story by Ross Marowits appeared on September 6th and quoted Walmart as saying that the electric transportation trucks would cost less than diesel to run.
Walmart intends to electrify 20% of its transportation fleet by 2022 and the entire fleet by 2028. Half of the fleet will be used in Mississauga while the other half will go to Walmart’s Surrey distribution center which is under construction with a 2022 move-in date. The Surrey operation will be Walmart’s first completely electric distribution facility.
According to Tesla the trucks will be able to go from 0-100km/h in 20 seconds, fully loaded. Tesla also maintains that the trucks will be the safest trucks on the market because of enhanced autopilot, and blind spot cameras. The driver’s seat will be in the middle of the cab offering the driver an improved ability to see everything on the road. The top of the line model will have an 800 km range.
Tesla also claims that because there are fewer automotive systems to maintain and because electricity cost less than half the price of diesel that the Tesla Semi will provide $200,000 in energy savings and a scant two year payback period.
In April, Business Insider stated that Pepsi had ordered 100 trucks, Anheuser-Busch 40 and UPS 125. The story also said that Loblaws had ordered 25 of the trucks and intended to be 100% electric by 2030.
The good news for battery metals investors is that despite Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate accord major American industry is moving away carbon and towards fleet electrification.
Further good news for battery metals investors and producers came when Jerry Brown, Governor of California announced that the state would be carbon neutral by 2045. In a story published in the Guardian on September 11, 2018 Oliver Millman reported that not only was California going carbon neutral, with all of its electricity generated by renewable resources but that Brown had also signed an executive order that the state eliminate all net emissions across its economy including transportation and agriculture by the same date.
The story goes on to note that Brown had successfully reduced greenhouse gases from the state back to 1990 levels and done so during a time of strong economic growth. By doing so Brown proved false the claims that promoting energy efficiency and reducing emissions strangled the economy.
A May 5, 2018 story in Fortune stated that California, with an economy valued at US$2.7 trillion and a population of 39.5 million had a larger economy than the entire UK with a population of 65.6 million. In terms of global economies California ranks fifth after the USA, China, Japan and Germany.
A May 1, 2018 story in mining.com by Cecilia Jasmasmie should provide those who have already bought into battery metals confidence in their investments. According to the story, credit rating and investors research house Moody’s has predicted a slowing in electric vehicle uptake because of a looming shortage of battery metals. Nothing drives price like demand.
Moody’s analysts posited that declining copper ore values and a lack of investment in new copper mines would hobble EV production. Moody’s has also predicted that the amount of copper used in EV production could multiply by a factor of six.
The company also predicts that cobalt, lithium and nickel will be in short supply.
All of the above argues a robust future for the right kind of battery metal mine. The wiley investor might be delighted by the thought that because electric cars and their batteries are the future that it might be more than a good idea to invest in a battery metal miner that could also be described as having found a way to bring mining technology into the future.
Canada Cobalt Works, (TSXV: CCW) fits that description. The company’s flagship property is the Castle Mine Silver/Cobalt Project located on a 128 square km land package in Cobalt, Ontario. Cobalt has been primarily seen as silver camp and the Castle Mine was a big silver producer until it was shut down because of low silver prices.
Now it is rising again thanks to the vision and ability of CEO and President Frank Basa. Basa understands the mineralization at Castle because he worked there during the 1980s when silver production was in full bloom. Castle was one of the highest grade silver producers in the camp with head grades of 15+ ounces of silver per ton.
Cobalt is usually found in small percentages mixed in with other ores. In Cobalt the cobalt was found mixed in with silver, nickel and at Castle recent bulk sampling has shown some gold. In general 0.05% cobalt is considered a good grade.
Recent bulk sampling at Castle showed 1.05% to 5.2% cobalt, averaging out to 2.3%. In the world of cobalt this is high grade ore. Canada Cobalt Works has a host of advantages going for it and management that means to wring value out of every penny spent. There are 11 different levels at Castle which means that mine infrastructure doesn’t need to be built.
The company started bulk sampling in June. Thanks to Basa, who has invented a proprietary green technology processing method, Re-20X the company doesn’t have to build a smelter because Re-20X produces 99% recoveries for cobalt and 81% for nickel. This is a value added proposition because it will also allow the company to produce cobalt sulphate, the very building block of lithium-ion rechargeable batteries.
As well the company plans to process the waste rock from the time that cobalt was simply thrown away and use Re-20X to recover the battery metals from computers and cell phones. All in all, CCW has the ability to produce, cobalt, silver, manganese and nickel. An added plus is that they have also recently found gold showings. If you believe in the future you should take a look at Canada Cobalt Works.
This blog has been written for information purposes only and should not be construed as investment advice.