<story><title>Battery Reality: There’s Nothing Better Than Lithium-Ion Coming Soon</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-03/battery-reality-there-s-nothing-better-than-lithium-ion-coming-soon</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>airbreather</author><text>Western Australia, the Saudi Arabia of lithium, currently producing half the world&amp;#x27;s lithium and more coming on line.&lt;p&gt;Albermarle are building a LiOH plant in WA that will add 33% capacity to current world production on it&amp;#x27;s own, plus the Tianqi plant adding maybe 15% is half finished construction right now.&lt;p&gt;We are the also the Saudi Arabia of gas&amp;#x2F;LNG, plus as a state produce a metric fuckton of the worlds gold and iron ore, but a pity our state and federal governments practically give all our minerals away for trivial royalties and tax the sheeple to the hilt on personal tax...&lt;p&gt;(plus we have a homeless and public mental health problems due to &amp;quot;lack of funding&amp;quot;&amp;quot; in one of the richest mineral states in the world with only 2.6 million people in an area almost size of Western Europe).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>RobertoG</author><text>Maybe Australia should follow Norway sovereign fund idea:&lt;p&gt;&amp;quot;I don&amp;#x27;t think anyone expected the fund to ever reach $1 trillion when the first transfer of oil revenue was made in May 1996.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;From:
&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;money.cnn.com&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;19&amp;#x2F;investing&amp;#x2F;norway-pension-fund-trillion-dollars&amp;#x2F;index.html&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;money.cnn.com&amp;#x2F;2017&amp;#x2F;09&amp;#x2F;19&amp;#x2F;investing&amp;#x2F;norway-pension-fu...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Battery Reality: There’s Nothing Better Than Lithium-Ion Coming Soon</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-03/battery-reality-there-s-nothing-better-than-lithium-ion-coming-soon</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>airbreather</author><text>Western Australia, the Saudi Arabia of lithium, currently producing half the world&amp;#x27;s lithium and more coming on line.&lt;p&gt;Albermarle are building a LiOH plant in WA that will add 33% capacity to current world production on it&amp;#x27;s own, plus the Tianqi plant adding maybe 15% is half finished construction right now.&lt;p&gt;We are the also the Saudi Arabia of gas&amp;#x2F;LNG, plus as a state produce a metric fuckton of the worlds gold and iron ore, but a pity our state and federal governments practically give all our minerals away for trivial royalties and tax the sheeple to the hilt on personal tax...&lt;p&gt;(plus we have a homeless and public mental health problems due to &amp;quot;lack of funding&amp;quot;&amp;quot; in one of the richest mineral states in the world with only 2.6 million people in an area almost size of Western Europe).</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>mwill</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s a sad story on the ground:&lt;p&gt;* We absolutely squandered the previous boom, once the tap was turned off it almost felt like it hadn&amp;#x27;t happened at all, outside of new developments in the CBD.&lt;p&gt;* Created an absolutely venomous environment for the workforce. I know dozens of FIFO workers or industrial workers servicing the industry, and I can only think of a few that don&amp;#x27;t suffer from either substance abuse problems, crippling debt despite massive salaries, depression or other mental health issues, or chronic physical injuries they can&amp;#x27;t get comp for, not to mention the great strain it puts on their family, and toxic workplaces (Not everywhere, but its not uncommon)&lt;p&gt;* We&amp;#x27;ve let country towns supporting the industry wither on the vine. If you take Kalgoorlie for an example; Quite a lot of money is being spent in town, and if you take a drive over to the industrial estate most people will tell you that business is booming. The same people have been saying the town is just about ready to pick back up for a couple of years now, but it hasn&amp;#x27;t, and I don&amp;#x27;t believe it will. The industrial activity just isn&amp;#x27;t bleeding over into the town like it used to. The money washes straight back to Perth, back east, and overseas. Half the storefronts in the main drag are closed, and prime showrooms sit empty. The industry has raised the cost of travel to Kal so high that tourism is basically non-existent, and people who used to maintain two households in Perth and Kal are now having to chose one or the other, invariably leaving Kal for Perth&lt;p&gt;I honestly don&amp;#x27;t have the expertise to offer a solution to any of these, my gut says collecting fair royalties and using the money to fund services would be a start, but I don&amp;#x27;t have the background to really make that argument. But what I do know is, for the average punter on the street, it hasn&amp;#x27;t amounted to much, and one day it&amp;#x27;ll be gone. I look around sometimes and imagine where we&amp;#x27;d be if the prices dropped and the sector closed up shop, and it&amp;#x27;s a pretty grim picture.</text></comment>