The Alchemist, Issue 34: The Australian dollar traded at a January average of US$0.795/A$ and ended the month at US$0.807/A$. This recent appreciation has largely been due to the broad, positive macroeconomic outlook and the ongoing expectations for an interest rate increases in the near future. For the full report please click here.
The Alchemist, Issue 33: Graphite has been threatening to take off since 2014, when Tesla Motors announced plans to build a lithium-ion (Li-ion) battery gigafactory (despite their name, Li-ion batteries require significantly more graphite than lithium to produce). Since the announcement, graphite prices have fallen, with demand not increasing to the high levels that were forecast, and a number of…
The Alchemist, Issue 32: Brief – Currency Update Introduction The Australian dollar is near its two-year high at US$0.797/A$ Recent strength in the Aussie dollar’s value has widely been attributed to Australian macroeconomic and global factors: The Australian unemployment figure of 5.6% in June is near its lowest point in 3.5 years The Prime Minister, among others, has suggested that…
The Alchemist, Issue 31: Cobalt has had a meteoric rise in 2017. In this issue of The Alchemist, we delve into the cobalt market and try to piece together the demand story for the metal in order to try and understand what is driving demand and whether existing or likely supply could match it. Our investigations have led us to…
The Alchemist, Issue 30: In January 2017 we finally saw a significant pick-up in spot market uranium prices. This commodity has been on a downward trend since a 2007 peak of US$136.22/lb; the current price sits at US$25.50/lb, a fall of 81%. Increasing supply, the devastating Japanese tsunami of March 2011 and advances in alternative energy supply continue to plague…
