Strategic Metal Report

Evaluating and Valuing Minor Metals: Tellurium

“Tellurium: Nerd’s Gold”, an article recently published on Resourceinvestor.com, examines the potential demand growth for tellurium in contrast with its relatively low natural occurrence. Like many minor metals, the potential demand for tellurium is significant, particularly due to its use in cadmium-telluride solar cells. However, to date, this demand has largely not materialized and global production has kept prices relatively stable.

The article provides an interesting analysis of the applications and potential demand for tellurium, but due to some fundamental mistakes in assessing the supply and demand characteristics of tellurium is misguided in its efforts to value the metal. Investors, analysts and traders must be cautious of such mistakes so as not to under- or over-value their investments.

Coverage from Minor Metals & Rare Earths 2010 - Xiamen, China [Part II: Minor Metals]

A wide range of reports were presented at Metal Pages’ Minor Metals & Rare Earths conference this year, which not only covered a variety of metals, but also included perspectives from privately held and publicly traded producers, exploration and development companies, as well as research organizations.

Two presentations specifically examined the current indium market. Growing use in liquid crystal display (LCD) and cadmium-indium-gallium-selenide (CIGS) photovoltaic applications have attracted much attention to the indium market over the past five years. Feng Yuncong, from the Antaike research group, however, expressed doubt about any large indium price increases in the near future due to the high number of large-scale producers that are capable of extracting at high recovery rates. Claire Mikolajczak, Director of Metals and Chemicals at Indium Corp., discussed the effect of the flat panel display (FPD) industry on indium demand. Currently accounting for about 56 percent of indium demand, according to Ms. Mikolajczak, the FPD market is the primary driver of indium prices. Moreover, although the LCD growth rate is decreasing, it still remains strong and demand for indium continues to be supported by growth in the photovoltaic cell (PV), CIGS and light-emitting diode (LED) industries. Consequently, some estimates have world demand for indium nearly doubling over the next decade. However, despite strong end-use growth estimates, most in the industry believe production can keep pace over the long-term, leaving only temporary periods of price volatility