Creative Destruction: Will Coal Mining Companies replace coal with Lithium mining?

There is a lot of buzz about clean energy and the Green movement occurring simultaneously with bankruptcy announcements from Coal Mining Companies that are watching their revenues tumble. More renewable power and cleaner burning fuels such as Natural Gas means there is less dependency on Coal burning power plants, which directly affects revenues of anyone connected with the Coal business (i.e. Miners, Railroads, Equipment Mfg, etc.). With all of the projections of expanded battery storage technology on the Grid and in Electric Vehicles, it makes me wonder if any of these Coal Mining Companies are contemplating this "Who moved my Cheese" situation they find themselves in? I'm also wondering if Lithium could be the next logical step for these companies as it would seem that Lithium is on the rise while Coal is on the demise. This is the very essance of what Joseph Schumpter was referring to in his explanation of "Creative Destruction".

What's your opinion: Will Coal Mining Companies make the jump over to Lithium as they search for their next batch of cheese or will they just ride the coal train all the way to the bottom? Do you see another train for these Coal Mining Companies to jump on to take advantage of the energy transition?

 

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