Jack Lifton is an Independent consultant and commentator, focusing on the market fundamentals and future end use trends of the rare metals. He specializes in the sourcing of nonferrous strategic metals and on due diligence studies of businesses in that space. His work includes exploration and mining, and the recovery of metal values by the recycling of not only metals and their alloys but also of metal-based chemicals used as raw materials for component manufacturing.
Mr. Lifton has more than 47 years of experience in the global OEM automotive, heavy equipment, electrical and electronic, mining, smelting, and refining industries. His background includes the sourcing, manufacturing, and sales of platinum group metal products, rare earth compounds, and ceramic specialties used to make catalytic converters, oxygen sensors, batteries, and fuel cells. He is knowledgeable in locating and analyzing new and recycled supplies of 'minor metals' including tellurium, selenium, indium, gallium, silicon, germanium, molybdenum, tungsten, manganese, chromium, and the rare earth metals.
Today he primarily consults to institutional investors doing due diligence on metals related opportunities.
Jack wrote a weekly column on minor metals for Resource Investor for three years until December 2008, during which he authored more than 125 original articles. He is also speaks on minor metals fundamentals and end-uses at private, public, and professional meetings. In 2008 he spoke in Barcelona, Toronto, New York, Saskatoon, Hong Kong, Las Vegas, London, and San Francisco.
In 2009, Jack has spoken at conferences in New York and Washington, DC,(2), and on "Thorium" in Beijing, "Tellurium and The Rare Metals for Solar" in Chengdu (China), "Rare Metals as Investments" in Hong Kong, "The Closed Loop Recycling of Rare Metals" in Seattle, "Risk management of Critical and Strategic Metals" in Washington, DC, (Jack is the co-chairman of that conference), and on November 21-22 "Rare Metals as Rare Opportunities for Investors, Winter 2009-10" in San Francisco.
Jack has agreed for 2010, so far, to speak at Lithium 2010 in Las Vegas, to give a talk entitled "The Geology of Thorium at the SME annual meeting in Phoenix, and one called "Pan-African Rare Metals at INDABA in Cape Town."
