Pre-Open Market Overview, Canada

Canadian markets are showing a downtrend, aligning with Wall Street futures which are slightly down after Moody’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating outlook to “negative.” European shares experienced a boost, primarily in the healthcare sector, while Japan’s Nikkei index remained unchanged. Oil prices have seen a minor increase due to concerns over reduced demand in the U.S. and China, coupled with mixed signals from the Federal Reserve. Meanwhile, gold prices have risen marginally, and the U.S. dollar remains relatively stable against other major currencies.

Tax Selling Deadlines

For Canadian tax filers, December 27, 2023, marks the deadline for tax-loss selling. I mention this as we have a CMI Masterclass on Critical Minerals and Flow Through that I am hosting next Monday, November 20^th at 7PM EST that I urge you to attend. Use the promo code CMI3 and you can secure a complimentary pass. I am writing the news release today. Transactions post this date will be counted for the 2024 tax year. The U.S. deadline, as per the IRS, is December 29.

European Stock Futures

Euro STOXX 50 futures rose by 7 points to 4,215, FTSE futures gained 6 points reaching 7,378, and German DAX futures increased by 5 points to 15,297 as of 0530 GMT.

Asian Market Trends

Asian stocks saw an upward trend, taking cues from Wall Street’s Friday rally, despite Moody’s downgrade of the U.S. credit outlook. Oil prices, however, receded after the initial rally, influenced by concerns over diminishing demand in the U.S. and China.

U.S. Market and Economic News

U.S. markets have witnessed two consecutive weeks of gains. Key factors that could impact this trend include Moody’s recent downgrade of the U.S. credit outlook and the upcoming consumer price index release. Retail earnings reports from major U.S. companies are also anticipated.

Company-Specific News

• Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL): Google is in discussions to invest in Character.AI, with negotiations ongoing regarding the terms.
• Exxon Mobil Corporation (NYSE: XOM): Exxon plans to start lithium production in Arkansas by 2026. Also, Exxon has reached a settlement with Iraq over the West Qurna 1 oilfield.
• Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F): UAW workers at Ford’s Kentucky plants have mixed opinions on the new labor agreement, with production workers voting against it.
• Livent Corporation (NYSE: LTHM): Livent is set to meet Allkem investors regarding a merger that would create a significant lithium producer.
• Streaming Giants (Netflix, Disney, Warner Bros Discovery): They have agreed to pay significant bonuses as part of a labor deal with the SAG-AFTRA actors union.
• NVIDIA Corporation (NASDAQ: NVDA): The U.S. restrictions on China are prompting Nvidia to innovate to meet market needs.
• Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA): EG Group plans to buy Tesla ultra-fast charging units to expand its EV charging network in Europe.

Economic Data Release

• The Federal budget for October is expected to show a deficit of -$30.00 billion, compared to the previous -$171.00 billion.

Europe/Asia Political and Health Updates

• UK Interior Minister Suella Braverman was dismissed amid allegations of political bias against London police.

• Former UK PM David Cameron surprisingly returned as foreign minister.
• U.S. Senator Tim Scott withdrew from the 2024 Republican presidential nomination race.
• Japanese wholesale inflation slowed, indicating easing price pressures.
• Bayerische Motoren Werke AG (BMW) (OTC: BMWYY) is investigating operations at a Moroccan cobalt mine following reports of legal breaches.

In a significant news this morning, Lithium Ionic Corp. (TSXV: LTH | OTCQX: LTHCF) has announced the results of its Preliminary Economic Assessment (PEA) and an updated Mineral Resource Estimate (MRE) for its Bandeira project. Located in the mineral-rich state of Minas Gerais, Brazil, this wholly-owned project stands poised to make a seismic impact in the world of critical minerals and rare earths.

The PEA Findings

The PEA, independently completed by GE21 Consultoria Mineral Ltda with support from SNC Lavalin, unveils Bandeira’s promising potential. The project could be a massive producer of low-cost spodumene concentrate, ensuring its economic viability. Some key highlights include:

• A post-tax NPV8% of $1.6 billion
• An internal rate of return (IRR) of 121%
• A rapid payback period of just 14 months
• A 20-year mine life, with an average LOM annual production of 217,700t of spodumene concentrate at 5.5% Li2O equivalent

Expanded Mineral Resources

The updated MRE is no less significant. Bandeira’s M&I resources now stand at 13.72Mt grading 1.40% Li2O, and the Inferred resources amount to 15.79Mt at 1.34% Li2O. This growth was the result of extensive drilling, marking a 196% increase in the Indicated category from the last estimate.

Company Insights

Blake Hylands, the CEO of Lithium Ionic, commented on the PEA, stating, “We congratulate our team on advancing the Project to this stage in a short time span. Our aim remains clear: becoming the next major Brazilian lithium producer.” He believes that the PEA marks a significant step toward supplying top-quality spodumene concentrate to the global lithium and electric vehicle supply chains.

Hylands also highlighted the project’s environmental conscientiousness, adding, “Commencing with a highly attractive underground project will result in significantly less surface disturbance.”

On the other hand, Helio Diniz, the President of Lithium Ionic, emphasized the company’s drive, saying, “We believe that the best approach for all of our stakeholders is to develop a significant producing operation in the shortest possible time frame.”

Bandeira Project: An Overview

The Bandeira Project encompasses 175 hectares of Lithium Ionic’s vast 14,182 hectares land package. It’s situated between Araçuaí and Itinga in Brazil’s emerging “Lithium Valley”, hinting at its strategic importance.

The engineering design for the Bandeira project envisages dual underground mining operations. The primary orebodies, which make up about 90% of the deposit, will be extracted using the “sublevel stoping” method. In contrast, the secondary southeast orebody will be mined using the “room-and-pillar” technique.

Next Steps

With the PEA out, Lithium Ionic is gearing up for the next phases of the Bandeira project. A Definitive Feasibility and Environmental Impact Assessment is anticipated by the end of 2023. The company remains optimistic about the future, hoping that the Bandeira project will set the gold standard for further expansions and serve as a catalyst for more discoveries.

I am often asked to introduce technology metals based ventures to the sourcing/purchasing activities of the OEM automotive industry, based in Detroit, where I have lived for most of my 83 years, and for which I was a supplier of production parts and engineered materials for more than 30 years.

I find an almost complete lack of understanding of marketing and sales to the OEM automotive industry to be common among technology metals miners and refiners, who are of course the anchor companies of any and all production parts’ supply chains.

In the past this has been of little interest to the OEM automotive industry due to its standard operating procedures of choosing preferred vendors, known in the industry as Tier One Vendors, who then became responsible for choosing their own vendors of parts and services, subject to the acceptance of the Tier One product by the end-use customer’s internal Production Part Acceptance Protocol (PPAP), and even then, subject to on-time delivery, in the agreed quantities, to the customer’s specification at the agreed pricing. Failure in any one of these required categories could, at the discretion of the OEM, result in the “desourcing” of the (approved otherwise) vendor. To ensure security and continuity of supply, the end-user normally would have a primary Tier One vendor and at least two alternates, each of which would normally get a small percentage of the total “buy” to keep it in the game. The alternates would be required to have the capability and the capacity to supplement or even replace the primary in the event of partial, or even total, non-performance by the primary.

Such Tier One Vendors are of course operating companies with an existing output or capability to produce the parts in question. They will have positive cash flow and, typically, are public companies with a listing on a major exchange and a substantial market cap. The core competency of each and every company in the total supply for the part chain would be required and it is understood to be guaranteed to the OEM by the Tier One.

Nowhere is the decay of proven, verifiable, competence as the sine qua non “standard” more apparent than in the, most likely to be, disastrous exemption of the PPAP standard in the OEM automotive industry for lithium-ion battery manufacturing. Rare earth permanent magnet motor manufacturing may soon be compromised by the same decay of standards.

The pathetic and jejune industry “experts” who not only analyze but, even worse, advise the OEMs on the sourcing of production parts based on critical metals are unified by their almost complete lack of practical experience, education and knowledge of the origin, processing, fabricating and manufacturing engineering at commercial scale of the total supply chains for the critical metals enabled devices upon which the motive power, “engine” management, and supply of information for the drivers of EVs depend.

Last week we were told by this “expert” class of journalists and advisors that both germanium and gallium were “rare earths” and that they were used in batteries. Both “expert” statements were completely wrong and misleading.

Earlier this year we were told and continue to be told by an “expert” firm that the economy needs “only 300” more lithium mines to meet the needs of a zero-carbon economy. Apparently, these fools think that there is not only a standard size lithium mine, but also a standard predictable demand for lithium. Mining engineers and mining company CFOs will be delighted to find out about this development.

I’m going to try from now on to list the Erroneous Critical Minerals Supply and Demand statement of the Week each Friday.

Attention manufacturing executives and policy makers: You need to do a due diligence review of your “experts,” before you act on their advice.

Hint: Make sure that their jobs don’t depend on always agreeing with you.

A final comment: Germanium and gallium are critical to chip manufacturing, LEDs, and military optics. The “CHIPs” act and the “IRA” pledged more than $50 billion in subsidies for domestic chip manufacturing and battery manufacturing, but not ONE CENT for domestic gallium or germanium production.

Is this how policy experts in Washington think we can become independent of Chinese dominance in critical minerals production and processing?  

Demand for lithium-ion batteries (and hence lithium) in North America is set to surge 13.8 fold from 2022 to 2035. The US Inflation Reduction Act has led to a massive increase in planned battery manufacturing in North America to support a North American supply chain for electric vehicles and energy stationary storage.

The main problem now is supplying these planned battery factories with key raw materials, especially lithium. Today’s company is focused to fill that lithium supply gap.

North American lithium-ion battery manufacturing is forecast to increase from 47 GWh in 2022 to 650 GWh in 2035 (a 13.8x increase)

Consolidated Lithium Metals Inc.

Consolidated Lithium Metals Inc. (TSXV: CLM | OTCQB: JORFF) (“CLM”) (formerly Jourdan Resources Inc.) is a North American hard rock lithium explorer and developer. CLM is focused on exploration in Quebec for hard rock spodumene lithium in the heart of the Abitibi Greenstone Belt.

CLM’s lithium projects are located ~30kms north of Val-d’Or with over 18,000 hectares of claims strategically located adjacent to the North America Lithium (“NAL”) (Sayona Mining Limited (ASX: SYA | OTCQB: SYAXF) 75%: Piedmont Lithium Inc. (Nasdaq: PLL | ASX: PLL) 25%) restarted lithium operation.

Location map showing CLM’s projects (red shading) 30kms north of Val-d’Or, Quebec, Canada

CLM’s 4 lithium projects have drill-ready targets with confirmed lithium bearing pegmatite already identified on two flagship projects, Vallée and Baillargé. The vast majority of claims are 100% owned by CLM.

CLM’s 4 lithium projects are:

• Vallée JV (75% CLM: 25% SYA) & East Vallée (100% CLM) – The Vallée JV Project is located adjacent to and along strike of the NAL mining operation claims. The mineralized spodumene pegmatite dykes that NAL is mining continue directly onto the claims. A C$4 million, 14,000 meter, drill program is planned for 2023. Sayona can earn up to 50% interest by solely funding C$10 million in exploration in the next 3 years. East Vallée is at an earlier stage but also shows strong potential.
• Baillargé (100% CLM) – Potential high-grade lithium in 3 dyke systems with several hundred meters of strike length and with a C$1.5 million, 4,500 metre, diamond drilling exploration program underway. A small drill program in 1955 encountered high-grade lithium averaging 2.48% Li2O over 2.19 metres.
• Preissac-LaCorne – Hosts multiple lithium showings along the producing Vallée Lithium Trend. CLM state: “The Preissac-La Corne property covers three (3) underexplored prospective areas that include series of showings which host significant amounts of mineralization in Lithium (Li) Molybdenum (Mo), Cesium (Cs), Rubidium (Rb), Tantale (Ta), Niobium (Nb) and Berylium (Be) associated with granite and pegmatite.”
• Duval – Early stage grassroots project with several historical lithium showings over a 6.5 km section of the highly prospective Vallée Lithium Trend.

CLM’s 4 lithium projects near the very large NAL lithium restarted mine and on, or near, the Vallée Lithium Trend

Closing remarks

CLM is an exciting lithium junior with 4 very well located lithium projects adjacent and near the NAL lithium mine and operation claims in Quebec. CLM is actively exploring for lithium with over 18,000 metres of drilling planned and underway on CLM projects in 2023.

Consolidated Lithium Metals Inc. trades on a market cap of C$27 million and is in process of completing the last stage of an up to C$2 million flow through financing. The current drill program results are a key factor to watch in the near term. Any nice lithium drill hits should be very well received by the market given the region’s history and large NAL mine nearby. One to follow closely in 2023.

Sometimes it’s interesting to see a company take a slightly different approach to getting things done. In the mining world, it seems like the playbook says to stake some land, prospect, do some drilling, start to establish a resource, drill some more, come up with a reserve estimate and then start moving forward with a Preliminary Economic Analysis (PEA) or Preliminary Feasibility Study (PFS), then eventually to a Feasibility Study (FS). At that point, you can start the decision making process whether or not to go ahead and build a mine.

But what if you were pretty sure you had at least some mineable product and said what the heck, let’s just start processing what’s available and roll the dice that there is a lot more where that came from. Perhaps a little (or a lot) risky, but it certainly gets you to self sustaining cash flow a lot quicker. And if you are right, in that there does end up being a lot more where that came from, you are likely now years ahead of a competitor who went down a more conventional path. Again, this isn’t the normal strategic path for a reason but sometimes fortune favors the bold.

So who might that bold company be? Gratomic Inc. (TSXV: GRAT | OTCQX: CBULF), a multinational company with projects in Namibia, Brazil, and Canada. The Company aims to become a leading graphite supplier and to secure a strong position in the electric vehicle battery supply chain through the development of its flagship Aukam Graphite mine and ongoing exploration at the Capim Grosso property.

Of course, my intro might be a little dramatic. It’s not like Gratomic simply stumbled across a graphite vein and went thundering down the path of building a processing facility. The Aukam Graphite Project, located in southern Namibia close to the port city of Luderitz, already hosted five underground adits which were mined periodically between 1940 and 1974. Five surface stockpiles from the historical mining occurred on the property and 73 composite samples were taken from the lower three stockpiles, assayed and averaged 42% Carbon as graphite (Cg). Gratomic has also undertaken a few thousand meters of exploratory drilling of its own to get a better understanding of what is there.

However, the Company goes to great pains in its communications (press releases, quarterly reports) to emphasize that no PEA, PFS, or FS has been completed to support any level of production. In fact, no mineral resources let alone mineral reserves demonstrating economic viability and technical feasibility, have been delineated on the Aukam property. But that hasn’t stopped them from constructing and operating an initial pilot facility in 2018. With the critical operating data gathered from the pilot, Gratomic has now built a state-of-the-art custom designed production facility that is currently at the operational readiness stage. Commercial production is anticipated from Aukam sometime in August.

This begs the question, how can you commercially produce graphite in two months without a resource or even an estimated reserve. Gratomic takes quiet comfort from the fact that on September 20, 2022 the Aukam mining team began extracting graphite from a newly discovered graphite vein, unearthing more than 150 tonnes of graphite in one working shift and breaking the record of graphite extracted at Aukam in a single day. By mid-October, its bench-mining program had extracted a cumulative total of 2,600 tonnes of graphite. Armed with data points like this, the Company is looking to steadily ramp up production at Aukam to 22,000 tonnes per year of graphite production.

It’s definitely not your traditional approach to building out a mining company. Committing to the expenditure of capital on a processing facility without having any sort of official reserve life or mine life is unconventional to say the least. But then again, the common way isn’t always the right way. Time will tell if Gratomic got it right.

Gratomic Inc. trades at a market cap of C$56 million.

The Critical Minerals Crisis excerpt — “We are now at an inflection point for our society. If we can secure the supplies and the processing capacity for the minerals critical for the technologies we now take for granted in our daily lives, then our nations will flourish and grow. If not, then our standard of living will decline, and those who have the critical minerals and the industrial bases to refine and fabricate them surge ahead of us. Our politicians and policymakers are woefully ignorant of this reality. This is the greatest danger of all to our lifestyle and security.” — Jack Lifton, Co-Founder & Co-Chairman, Critical Minerals Institute

————————

Jack Lifton asks where are the “experts?”

In American Common Law an “expert” is defined as someone who knows more than the ordinary person about the subject matter at hand. In my youth, after attending graduate school and while attending Law School, I was frequently retained and asked to appear in court as an “expert witness” for litigation around electrical, electronic, and chemical accidents, fires, and explosions. In the fifty years since then I have continued to observe, and, I hope, learn about the operation and management of the material world. This has led me to characterize myself as an “observer” rather than as an expert. Here are my most recent observations and some of my thoughts about them:

The production and volume of production of an individual chemical element in any form, compound, metal or alloy, is a function of its value to society at any given time. The need will be determined by the importance of societal values of the moment. Up to and including 1945 that need was determined almost entirely by war. Since 1945 a new factor, civilian consumerism, has become the dominant driver for the production of many formerly little-known, and rare, and difficult to produce in volume, chemical elements. Although the chemical engineering necessary to produce these rare elements in useful forms and relatively large quantities was paid for as a necessity for future war needs by the U.S. Defense Department (formerly known as the War Department). That funding mechanism faded away along with the lunar exploration program in the 1970s when cold war replaced hot war as the policy of the then two hegemons, the USA and the Soviet Union.

It was, at first, and for a long time not necessary for the big mining, chemical, or metallurgical companies to produce large quantities of the minerals and metals required for the mass production of the consumer and military devices necessary for the modern economies of the rich nations, because those necessary quantities, until the second decade of the 21^st century, were small.

Then, in the second decade of the twenty-first century, the political push for EVs and then alternate energy entered the picture through the currently fashionable “fight against climate change.” Unlike, “global winter,” the “covid crisis,” and now the AI “disaster”, all of which were previously, and in the case of “AI”, currently, existential the fight against climate change has manifested itself in a battle to see who can most rapidly (appear to) destroy the cheap energy century that brought so much growth to the West. In North America and Europe, this has materialized as a rush to build out a wind turbine and solar infrastructure to replace fossil fuels as the major source of the energy required to produce electricity. On top of that it has been decreed by the ruling classes of the elected and the elect (the wealthy) that no one who is worthy shall drive any vehicle not powered by the electricity stored in a rechargeable battery that feeds an electric motor.

Thus the relatively small and manageable demand for rare technology metals has exploded into an intense drive to expand the production of these materials. This has driven a focused increase not only in exploration, but more importantly in the researching and developing of new technologies for extracting, refining, and fabricating end-user forms of the rare technology metals. Commercially, so far, there has been little success in developing new extraction and processing technologies. And, ominously, exploration has discovered few “new” discoveries of high enough grade and accessibility to be nominated as “deposits” to be developed into economical mines.

The policymakers, nonetheless, continue to ignore their own failings in understanding the economics of natural resource production and the self-defeating hypocrisy of the anti-mining lobby.

The academic and bureaucratic observers of the economy who advise the policymakers are not at all experts in those things in which they have no hands-on experience.

One of the largest gaps in the North American EV metals supply chain is the need for ‘western supply’ of lithium iron phosphate (“LFP”) cathodes used in most standard range electric cars, smaller electric cars, commercial vehicles, and stationary energy storage. These demand areas are set to surge this decade, yet where is the non-China supply of LFP going to come from?

At Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA) 2023 Annual Shareholder Meeting on May 16, 2023, Elon Musk showed a very interesting slide that stated solar and wind production needs to increase by 3x/yr, battery production by 29x/yr, battery electric vehicle (“BEV”) production by 11x/yr. The takeaway from the slide is that the greatest area of forecast demand is battery production. Another key thought is that Tesla sees most, if not all, of their standard range electric cars, smaller electric cars, and stationary energy storage batteries using LFP cathode chemistry.

Solar and wind production needs to increase by 3x/yr, battery production by 29x/yr, BEV production by 11x/yr to reach a 100% renewable energy world

Source: Tesla 2023 shareholder meeting

All of Tesla’s current LFP batteries come from China, which results in US-made Tesla electric cars with LFP batteries only receiving half of the IRA clean vehicle tax credit of US$7,500. Similar to other EV OEMs using China batteries from Contemporary Amperex Technology Co., Limited (SHE: 300750) (“CATL”), Gotion High-tech Co., Ltd. (SHE: 002074), and others.

The next big thing will be North American and European LFP battery production. LFP cathodes and batteries could be made in North America using a Western supply chain. There is just one company currently able to supply a small volume of LFP cathode material from North America.

Nano One Materials Corp.

The Company is Nano One Materials Corp. (TSX: NANO) (“Nano One”). Nano One owns the only existing North American lithium iron phosphate (“LFP”) production facility (“the Candiac facility”). Nano One is a battery materials focused company that has developed and patented numerous more effective ways to produce cathode materials that are cost-effective with no waste streams and an improved environmental footprint.

Nano One is converting its 2,400tpa LFP Candiac facility in Québec to the One-Pot process with small pilot plant volumes targeted for end of 2023 for evaluation with partners and scaling up to approx. capacity of 2,000tpa by end of 2024.

On April 24, 2023, Nano One updated the market on their commercial plans for LFP and other cathode materials. Highlights of the plan were quoted as follows:

• “Nano One’s technology, manufacturing hub and plans represent a game-changing opportunity to secure sustainable and clean battery supply chains in North America.
• Nano One’s systematic plans jump start the commercialization of its One-Pot process starting at 200 tonnes per year in 2023, expanding in steps to 2,000, 10,000 and hundreds of thousands of tonnes per year.
• $40 million in cash, $7 million in grants remaining to draw down and multiple proposals for additional government support.“

Nano One’s Candiac facility in Québec is being retrofitted with its new One-Pot reactors (using Nano One’s patented one pot process), and will be commissioned initially as a Pilot Plant with 200tpa in Q3 2023, ramping up to 2,000 tpa. The Pilot Plant will produce product off-take samples to be qualified by cathode and battery manufacturers. Nano One then plans to expand this to a 10,000tpa Demo Plant.

Of particular interest was the part highlighted above, notably “hundreds of thousands of tonnes per year“. Given the massive demand wave ahead for LFP cathodes and a new North American supply chain, the potential growth ahead for Nano One is enormous. We wrote about this opportunity in late 2022 here.

CEO Dan Blondal commented:

“The cathode market opportunity is extraordinary, with production volumes projected to grow, in North America for instance, from thousands to over a million tonnes per year, within a decade. We are laying a solid foundation to address these opportunities and to bring increased value to our shareholders. It begins with a strategy that leverages our newly acquired facility in Candiac, Québec which is the only LFP production plant and most experienced operational team in North America.……”

Nano One says they will launch LFP in North America, followed by Europe and the Indo-Pacific region to power hundreds of gigawatt hours (“GWh”) of battery storage and millions of EVs.

Nano One state:

“This plan could enable hundreds of millions in revenue during Nano One’s initial years of commercial operations while also enabling demonstration of its technology to the market, potential licensors, joint ventures, and investors, at a scale relevant to automotive OEM and renewable energy storage interests.”

Nano One’s Candiac 2,400tpa LFP plant (Quebec, Canada) and expansion plans for a one-pot process Pilot and Demo Plant

Source: Nano One company presentation

Nano One also plans to make cathode materials for NMC and LNMO batteries

In addition, Nano One has commercialization plans for nickel manganese cobalt (“NMC”) and lithium nickel manganese oxide (“LNMO”) cathode active materials. Nano One also has engineering work underway for a separate 100 tpa NMC and LNMO pilot facility.

Closing remarks

For a long time, Nano One has been seen as a pioneering cathode materials research style company. However, this has changed significantly since their purchase of the Candiac facility in North America. Nano One is now starting a new journey as a commercial cathode materials ‘manufacturer’ with plans to scale to large volumes and supply the emerging North American battery supply chain with critically needed cathode materials LFP and NMC. The company is also implementing its licensing strategy to deploy its technology with partners throughout key markets in Europe, Asia and South America.

Nano One Materials trades on a market cap of C$278 million.

In this InvestorIntel interview, Tracy Weslosky talks with Power Nickel Inc.’s (TSXV: PNPN | OTCQB: PNPNF) CEO Terry Lynch about discovering a new high-grade copper and PGM (platinum group metals) mineralized zone on their Nisk Project in Quebec, Canada. The new target area, called the “Wildcat” by the company, is 5km northeast of the main Nisk deposit, Terry discusses the “bonanza style results” with ‘significant’ amounts of platinum, palladium, and gold.

Terry goes on to talk about the competitive advantages of the Nisk Project being located in Quebec, Canada, with both Quebec and Canadian governments providing substantial incentives to explore for critical minerals and build mines.

Terry also talks about the significant growth in the nickel market driven by urbanization and electrification, particularly electric vehicles (EVs). With urbanization currently accounting for 70% of the nickel market from uses such as stainless steel, Terry discusses how electrification is expected to reach 50% of the nickel market by 2030.

Power Nickel is focused on delivering more drilling results in the coming months and is fully funded for exploration activities. Advanced exploration technologies, such as the recently completed airborne EM survey and the upcoming Ambient Noise Tomography work, will be used to find the nickel mineralizations faster.

To access the full InvestorIntel interview, click here

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About Power Nickel Inc.

Power Nickel is a Canadian junior exploration company focusing on high-potential copper, gold, and battery metal prospects in Canada and Chile.

On February 1, 2021, Power Nickel (then called Chilean Metals) completed the acquisition of its option to acquire up to 80% of the Nisk project from Critical Elements Lithium Corp. (CRE: TSXV)

The NISK property comprises a large land position (20 kilometres of strike length) with numerous high-grade intercepts. Power Nickel is focused on expanding the historical high-grade nickel-copper PGE mineralization with a series of drill programs designed to test the initial Nisk discovery zone and to explore the land package for adjacent potential Nickel deposits.

Power Nickel announced on June 8^th, 2021, that an agreement had been made to complete the 100% acquisition of its Golden Ivan project in the heart of the Golden Triangle. The Golden Triangle has reported mineral resources (past production and current resources) in a total of 130 million ounces of gold, 800 million ounces of silver, and 40 billion pounds of copper (Resource World). This property hosts two known mineral showings (gold ore and Magee), and a portion of the past-producing Silverado mine, which was reportedly exploited between 1921 and 1939. These mineral showings are described to be Polymetallic veins that contain quantities of silver, lead, zinc, plus/minus gold and plus/minus copper.

Power Nickel is also 100-percent owner of five properties comprising over 50,000 acres strategically located in the prolific iron-oxide-copper-gold belt of northern Chile. It also owns a 3-per-cent NSR royalty interest on any future production from the Copaquire copper-molybdenum deposit that was sold to a subsidiary of Teck Resources Inc. Under the terms of the sale agreement, Teck has the right to acquire one-third of the 3-per-cent NSR for $3 million at any time. The Copaquire property borders Teck’s producing Quebrada Blanca copper mine in Chile’s first region.

To learn more about Power Nickel Inc., click here

Disclaimer: Power Nickel Inc. is an advertorial member of InvestorIntel Corp.

This interview, which was produced by InvestorIntel Corp., (IIC), does not contain, nor does it purport to contain, a summary of all the material information concerning the “Company” being interviewed. IIC offers no representations or warranties that any of the information contained in this interview is accurate or complete.

This presentation may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and assumptions of the management of the Company as of the date made. They are inherently susceptible to uncertainty and other factors that could cause actual events/results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Additional risks and uncertainties, including those that the Company does not know about now or that it currently deems immaterial, may also adversely affect the Company’s business or any investment therein.

Any projections given are principally intended for use as objectives and are not intended, and should not be taken, as assurances that the projected results will be obtained by the Company. The assumptions used may not prove to be accurate and a potential decline in the Company’s financial condition or results of operations may negatively impact the value of its securities. Prospective investors are urged to review the Company’s profile on Sedar.com and to carry out independent investigations in order to determine their interest in investing in the Company.

If you have any questions surrounding the content of this interview, please contact us at +1 416 792 8228 and/or email us direct at [email protected].

Ford Motor Company (NYSE: F) hosted its investor event on Monday and it would appear that in a single investor day presentation the Company has gone from worst to first when it comes to securing battery-grade lithium supplies to scale up its electric vehicle production. I’m pretty sure all these deals didn’t come to fruition over the weekend, but they sure made a splash when they were presented on Monday.

In total, Ford announced deals with five separate companies sourcing lithium from all over the world, including Quebec, Chile, Argentina, Australia, and a few U.S. locations sprinkled in for good measure. These latest supply deals announced by Ford complement the ioneer Ltd (ASX: INR | NASDAQ: IONR) contract signed in July 2002.

Ford Investor Day Lithium Announcements

According to the Ford Investor/Analyst Day presentation transcript (yes I scanned most of the 78 pages and know way more about Ford than I ever wanted to know), they’ve now sourced about 90% of the nickel and the lithium to meet their future capacity targets, including producing 2 million electric vehicles (EVs) by 2026. On Monday, the Company announced lithium agreements with 3 of the top producing major global suppliers – Albemarle Corporation (NYSE: ALB), Chile’s Sociedad Química y Minera de Chile S.A. (aka “SQM”)(NYSE: SQM), and Nemaska Lithium.

Nemaska is a joint venture backed by Livent Corporation (NYSE: LTHM) and the investment arm of the Province of Quebec. According to Ford, these are some of the largest lithium producers in the world with the best quality, existing capacity, and IRA compliance (although Albemarle does have plenty of Chinese processing capacity but we’ll assume Ford knows that).

US-Based Lithium Development Deals

Coupled with these deals with major players to provide stability to its plants, Ford is also investing in U.S.-based development projects through agreements with Compass Minerals International, Inc. (NYSE: CMP), EnergySource Minerals LLC (private), and the previously announced deal with ioneer.

The interesting thing about these investments is that Ford is basically pursuing promising technology that has yet to be proven at scale. Ford claims they are developing extraction technologies to further diversify the industry, but if they are betting on the right horse, it could certainly give them a leg up on the competition.

A Bet on Direct Lithium Extraction Technology

Specifically, we are talking about direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology. The Holy Grail for lithium extraction as it seeks to extract the white metal from brine using filters, membranes, ceramic beads, or other equipment that can typically be housed in a small warehouse. It would enable miners to boost global lithium production with a footprint far smaller than open-pit mines and/or evaporation ponds, which are often the size of multiple football fields. 

Compass and ESM are using ESM’s proprietary ILiAD™ adsorption technology, which is a DLE technology that competes with what ioneer and Lithium Americas Corp. (TSX: LAC | NYSE: LAC) are pursuing at their respective projects. The pursuit and potential success of DLE technology is easily an article in itself, and probably well above my pay grade to do it justice.

FIGURE 1: Giga Factory Locations

Ford to Build 5 New EV Battery Giga Factories

So we’ll circle back to the Ford story and talk about why they’ve locked in several large, multi-year lithium supply contracts. Ford is building 5 new giga factories to produce batteries, with the first two, located in Kentucky and Tennessee, on track to open in 2025. Another plant, in Marshall, Michigan, will be dedicated to producing battery cells using LFP (lithium iron phosphate) technology.

With respect to the LFP facility, it helps explain one of the lithium announcements noted above, the SQM deal which supplies lithium carbonate. Lithium carbonate is required for LFP batteries versus lithium hydroxide, which is the primary component for the current generation of lithium-ion batteries. Ford now feels it has control of its value chain. Instead of relying on a cell supplier, Ford can now move material around where they need it, so If they wanted to flex more into LFP and use more lithium carbonate, no problem. If the Company wants to swing more towards hydroxide, it can also do that.

Final Thoughts

Granted this isn’t original thinking as Elon Musk was the first one out of the gates lining up sources of lithium (and other critical materials) for Tesla, Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA), and in January, General Motors Company (NYSE: GM) signed a deal with the aforementioned Lithium Americas.

Nevertheless, it seems now that virtually all North American automakers are securing supplies of battery materials to boost EV output as demand for EVs continues to grow, and to take advantage of U.S. tax credits.

It would appear automakers are entering a ‘Brave New World’. Which, ironically is a dystopian novel written in 1931 by Aldous Huxley, where the citizens of the World State substitute the name of (Henry) Ford, founder of the Ford Motor Company, wherever people in our own world would say Lord. We shall see if the Ford Motor Company of 2023 will become the messiah of EV production.

In this InvestorIntel interview, Tracy Weslosky talks with NEO Battery Materials Ltd.’s (TSXV: NBM | OTCQB: NBMFF) Strategy and Operations Manager Danny Huh about achieving a significant technology milestone in the nanocoating manufacturing process of silicon anodes that can increase the driving range of electric vehicles and enable ultra-fast charging.

Speaking about the high performance and cost-reduction capabilities of their uniform nanocoating technology, Danny discusses how there is an increased interest from ten companies, including global battery and electronic manufacturers and EV automakers, to use NEO Battery Materials’ silicon anodes in their lithium-ion batteries.

Providing an update on its South Korean Commercial Plant construction that has completed the Request for Quote (“RFQ”) process, Danny also discusses filing NEO’s 6th patent to Korean Intellectual Property Office for one-step nanocoating technology for silicon anodes.

Danny also talks about the recent appointment of Dr. S. G. Kim, a silicon/polymer material and chemical technology development expert, as NEO’s Chief Technology Officer. Dr. Kim is the former Executive Vice President and Head of R&D of Hanwha Solutions Corporation (KSE: 009830), a multi-billion South Korean chemical manufacturing conglomerate.

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About NEO Battery Materials Ltd.

NEO Battery Materials Ltd. is a Vancouver-based company focused on electric vehicle lithium-ion battery materials. NEO has a focus on producing silicon anode materials through its proprietary single-step nanocoating process, which provides improvements in capacity and efficiency over lithium-ion batteries using graphite in their anode materials. The Company intends to become a silicon anode active materials supplier to the electric vehicle industry.

To learn more about NEO Battery Materials Ltd., click here

Disclaimer: NEO Battery Materials Ltd. is an advertorial member of InvestorIntel Corp.

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This presentation may contain “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of applicable Canadian securities legislation. Forward-looking statements are based on the opinions and assumptions of the management of the Company as of the date made. They are inherently susceptible to uncertainty and other factors that could cause actual events/results to differ materially from these forward-looking statements. Additional risks and uncertainties, including those that the Company does not know about now or that it currently deems immaterial, may also adversely affect the Company’s business or any investment therein.

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