In theory, manganese is the next hot battery metal. In practice, it’s a commodity which ought to have a warning attached as a price slump threatens.
Interest in mining companies exposed to manganese surged two years ago when it was named by Tesla founder Elon Musk as a metal which could become an important component of the batteries used in electric vehicles.
Manganese miners and explorers enjoyed a short-term share-price jolt but since then it’s been mainly downhill as the reality of an over supplied market over-powers battery-metal mania.
Investors retreat from manganese
“Demand turning down as supply turns up,” was the sobering warning for the manganese cheer squad from big name investment bank Morgan Stanley in a research note published last week.
The potential for a steep fall in the manganese price can be seen in a retreat by investors from manganese-exposed stocks on the ASX, led by one of last year’s stars Jupiter Mines (ASX: JMS), which has fallen 44% since February from $0.38 to $0.21 thanks, in part, to the manganese price outlook and operational problems at its South African mine.
Euro Manganese (ASX: EMN) and Element 25 (ASX: E25), which is named after the atomic number for manganese, have done better on a year-to-date basis (both are up 15%), but their performance over the past month tells a different story (down 18% and 16% respectively).
Even encouraging exploration news couldn’t help Black Canyon (ASX: BCA) and Carawine Resources (ASX: CWX), which lost a...
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