65figuredoutwaystorecyclerhenium,
causingthepricetoslump.It’sstill
essential,butwithanannualproduc-
tionofabout 50 tonsin2018,it’stoo
nicheforbiggertradingcompanies.
Lipmann—whosemantrais “lowin
volume,highinvalue”—remainsa
fan,though.
Slightofbuild,heoftenwears
bookish glasses and has gray,
disheveledhair,givinghima look
morescienceteacherthanadven-
turer.Yetspeaktohimfora fewminutes,andhecomesalive,
talesofhisexploitstumblingout.“Ametalstradercanspend
hiswholecareerwithouteversettingfootona mine,”hesays.
“ButI’mnotinterestedinthattypeoflife.”
Becauseraremetalvaluescanskyrocketovernightandcol-
lapsejustasfastwiththeadventofnewtechnologies,neither
producernorconsumertendstowantmorethannecessary
ontheirbalancesheets.Lipmannwillassumethisrisk.Unlike
brokerswhosticktomatchingbuyerswithsellersinexchange
forcommission,hebuys,transports,andstoreshiselements
unhedged,exposedtothevagariesofthemarket.
Onetimea customerreneged,andLipmannwoundupwith
some1.5tonsofrheniumparkedina warehouse.Thatcaused
somesleeplessnightsuntila randomcontacthe’dmadewhile
scouringjunkyardsinnorthernEnglandinformedhimthat
Rolls-RoyceHoldingsPlcneededrheniumfora newjetengine
design.Lipmannlandedthecontractinthemid-1990sandhas
beenstockingthestuffeversince.Forhimthestorysumsup
thelifeofa metalsmerchant:“Thecostis beingattotalrisk.
Theprivilegeis thatyouhavecustomers.”
Rightnow,Lipmannis excitedaboutgermanium,whichis
usedforfiber-opticcablesaswellasinthesolarindustry.The
marketis tiny,butsupplieshaverecentlybeenconstrained.
“Idid 10 kilosofgermaniumscraplastnight,”hesays. “I was
doingit at 10 o’clockintheevening.”
Hispathtothislifewasn’tstraightforward.His father
foundedthecompanyheruns,butneitherforesawthat he’d
becomea metalstrader,too.TheyoungerLipmanndreamed of
becominga writer;armedwitha degreefromOxfordin English
literature,hegota jobasa cubreporterata provincial British
newspaper.Hisjournalisticcareerburnedfastandinno way
bright.“Attheendofmyfirstweek,myeditorsaid,‘Anthony,
is thereanythingyouprefertodo?’” Lipmannrecalls.
Heboardeda traintoLondonforaninterviewand landed
a jobwitha smallmetalsbroker.Thesewereunreformed days
fortheLondonMetalExchange,a worldofroughEast End
kidswhoindulgedinboozylunchesandfistfightsand who
hazed colleagues by leaving them bound in chairs on eleva-
tors. Despite his somewhat posh upbringing, Lipmann gained
acceptance by reeling in big clients, notably one who ordered
thousands of tons of aluminum a day. Yet he yearned to be
more hands-on. History provided an opportunity. The for-
mer Soviet Union was full of master metallurgists, and when
it unraveled, metal began to flow from East to West. Lipmann
reopened his father’s mothballed business, which handily car-
ried his name. As word got out, faxes came rolling in. Did he
have any use for some T-42 tanks? How about some MiG wings?Such military gear, some of it black market, carried its share
of pedestrian metal but also more interesting materials. He
speaks fondly of a special type of magnesium.
On visits to submarine bases, spaceports, and junkyards
across Russia and the rest of the former USSR, Lipmann
encountered sellers who were sometimes dangerous and often
desperate. “We had deals where I shouldn’t have done it,” he
says. Cash, usually dollars, was the preferred payment—say,
$100,000 in big notes—with helpful Estonian banks facilitat-
ing the transactions. “It really was cowboy land out there, but
he was able to take it and make a success of it,” says Douglas
Hunter, a metals trader at Wogen Resources Ltd. in London
who worked with Lipmann in the 1990s.
In Armenia, Lipmann was led on a long journey through
fields of tomatoes and cucumbers to arrive at a pigsty. He
feared it was a trick or a trap, but it wasn’t. Inside was a vodka
still, fashioned from titanium, that had once belonged to the
state. Lipmann laid hands on the apparatus, which his com-
panions took as a commitment to purchase. He went through
with it. “You bought it because you’d gone six hours and
tapped something,” he says.
Lipmann, who subscribes to the notion that “atoms have
no allegiances,” tries not to let politics interfere with business.
“If Iran offered me rhenium, I would buy it” for as long as it’s
allowable under European law, he says. That said, he has lim-
its: North Korea and the Democratic Republic of Congo, where
he says corruption is rife, are two countries he won’t deal with.
But of course he’s happy to benefit from politics when the
opportunity presents itself. The escalating global trade war is
a case in point—the more barriers are erected between coun-
tries, the more work there will be for middlemen like him.
“It’s going to be a delight,” he says with a grin.
And he retains a journalist’s curiosity about the world. In
Chile, his itinerary was a mix of homage to the past and peek at
the future. He asked his hosts to detour to Chuquicamata’s cem-
etery, where he walked between miners’ graves while jotting
down notes in a journal. Buried among the Chileans, Bolivians,
and Brazilians there was an Ernest Alexander Smart, born in
Durham, England, on Sept. 28, 1885—a reminder that Lipmann
wasn’t the first Briton to be lured to this mineral-rich desert.
The next stop was Codelco’s rhenium plant, a bright orange-
and-green building in the port district of Mejillones, a three-and-
a-half-hour drive from the mine. The process is an industrial
secret, but in somewhat simplified terms, the molybdenum-rich
material left from copper extraction is roasted to remove sul-
fur, with rhenium captured from the resulting gas. What you get
after a couple more steps are pellets. Lipmann was impressed,
proclaiming the facility “the NASA of rhenium” after his tour.
The entire process takes about two months, so even if
prices are low, the supply side of the market can be slow to
react, which means Lipmann sees good potential for it to
increase. Besides which, he says, metals go in and out of fash-
ion. Zirconium, a byproduct of the nuclear industry, was once
used mainly to harden copper alloys. Now it’s at the heart
ofwhathecalls“theincrediblenewworld”ofamorphous
alloys,whichareshowingupin5G-compatiblemobilehand-
sets.Lipmannhassomeinstockthathebought 20 years ago
on a hunch, or perhaps as a calculated bet. All he’ll say is he
liked it because it’s shiny. <BW>Rhenium pelletsBloomberg Businessweek / SEPTEMBER 2, 2019 THE ELEMENTS