Stuff That Interests Me

I’ve seen it happen with so many niche commodities - potash, graphite, antimony, rare earth metals, cobalt, vanadium - and I am pretty sure it is happening again.There is some substance you’ve barely heard of. Suddenly, it’s essential to some new technology which is going to save the earth in some way, but nobody’s producing it. Why is nobody producing it, if it’s so essential? Because prices are so low.Prices then start going up, because everybody wants it and nobody’s producing it. Suddenly, a load of natural resource companies which aren’t going anywhere, especially in Canada and Australia, “change their focus” and “pivot” They start exploring for said commodity. Some of them acquire half-explored development projects and re-drill them.Investment capital piles in. Some of the above companies actually make discoveries that start producing. Existing producers up their output.Within a few years, there is a surplus of said commodity, where once there was a shortfall, and the price comes back down again. The bi