Edison Lithium Corp. (TSXV: EDDY | OTCQB: EDDYF), a forward-looking player in the evolving battery metals market, is pivoting towards Sodium-Ion battery technology, as detailed in a comprehensive report by Hallgarten + Company. This strategic shift comes amidst a surge in demand for Electric Vehicles (EVs) and a heightened focus on sustainable and efficient energy storage solutions.

In 2021, Edison Lithium expanded into the Lithium salares in Argentina, a move aligning with the country’s emergence as a major lithium producer, often referred to as the “Saudi Arabia of Lithium.” This venture proved lucrative when Edison sold 80% of its Lithium package for triple the purchase price, while retaining key assets. The sale aligns with the company’s strategic pivot towards sodium-ion technology and the broader market trend of seeking alternatives to lithium-ion formulations, driven by concerns over the environmental impact and long-term viability of lithium-based batteries.

The report emphasizes the increasing interest in sodium-ion batteries, partly due to their potential for reducing the carbon footprint compared to lithium-ion batteries. Edison Lithium’s recent endeavors include acquiring concessions for sodium sulphate in Saskatchewan, Canada, through a deal with Globex Mining Enterprises Inc. This acquisition positions Edison at the forefront of the sodium-ion battery supply chain.

Sodium-ion batteries, while not new, have gained renewed interest due to the rising costs and environmental concerns associated with lithium-ion batteries. These batteries use sodium ions as charge carriers and offer advantages like lower production costs and abundance of sodium, especially from brines. However, challenges such as lower energy density and limited charge-discharge cycles hinder their mass adoption.

Major industry players like Northvolt AB, Tesla Inc. (NASDAQ: TSLA), China’s BYD Co. Ltd. (OTC: BYDDF), and startups like Peak Energy are exploring sodium-ion technologies, primarily for stationary applications. Northvolt, for instance, has developed a sodium-ion cell with energy density comparable to lithium iron phosphate cells, indicating potential for broader applications in the future.

The report highlights the geological and historical context of sodium sulphate mining in Saskatchewan, which dates back to 1918. The region’s unique geology, featuring shallow hypersaline lakes and extensive sedimentary rock formations, has facilitated the accumulation of sodium sulphate deposits. These natural resources could play a pivotal role in Edison Lithium’s pursuit of sodium-ion battery technology.

In summary, Edison Lithium’s strategic shift towards sodium-ion battery technology represents a significant move in the evolving landscape of battery metals. This pivot not only aligns with global trends towards more sustainable energy solutions but also positions the company to capitalize on the abundant resources and growing market interest in sodium-ion technologies. The Hallgarten + Company report underscores Edison Lithium’s proactive approach to adapting to changing market dynamics, ensuring its relevance and competitiveness in the burgeoning field of battery technology.

China’s Ministry of Commerce has announced that, effective December 1, export permits will be mandated for specific graphite products, citing national security reasons. Graphite, a pivotal component for electric vehicle (EV) batteries, finds China at its epicenter, producing 67% of the global supply of natural graphite. Additionally, China refines over 90% of the world’s graphite, which is integral to almost all EV battery anodes.

This decision unfolds in a backdrop of escalating tensions and increasing scrutiny from foreign nations. The European Union is considering tariffs on EVs originating from China, attributing unfair advantages due to state-backed subsidies. Concurrently, the U.S. has broadened its restrictions on Chinese firms accessing semiconductors and has prohibited the sale of advanced AI chips by Nvidia to Chinese companies.

The new regulatory framework targets two primary graphite types for export permits: high-purity synthetic graphite and natural flake graphite. This is reminiscent of earlier controls over “highly sensitive” graphite products, which are now integrated into the updated regulations. Analogous constraints were previously placed on semiconductor metals, gallium and germanium, which witnessed a marked reduction in exports from China.

Even though the U.S. and Europe are venturing into the graphite domain to counteract China’s monopoly, experts forecast a formidable path ahead. The central graphite importers from China currently include Japan, India, and South Korea.

These developments occur as the EV market is on an upward trajectory, with sales surging past 10 million units the previous year and predictions hovering around 14 million for the current year. This booming sector has amplified the demand for graphite, with the global market for battery use expanding by 250% since 2018. China’s contribution was a colossal 65% of the total production in the past year.

The growing EV market accentuates the criticality of raw materials like graphite. As China further consolidates its hold on the graphite industry, potential ramifications for the global EV landscape are imminent.

Right after writing this summary, I was able to reach Jack Lifton, Co-Chairman of the Critical Minerals Institute, to delve deeper into the repercussions and intricacies of these developments.

Lifton’s perspective on China’s recent announcements was direct: “This isn’t fundamentally about national security. It’s a manifestation of China’s discontent with the West’s ongoing rhetoric of reducing dependence and risks associated with their supply chain.” Lifton highlighted China’s pivotal role in graphite anode processing, suggesting that the dream of a rapid shift to EVs in the West could remain elusive without China’s involvement.

Addressing the challenges to China’s manufacturing supremacy, Lifton commented, “For years, the West prioritized cost-cutting, and China emerged as the answer. Today, the tables have turned, and the West is waking up to the consequences of its over-reliance on Chinese supply chains.”

On the topic of recent restrictions, Lifton opined, “China is fortifying its position in the critical minerals sector. The reality is that with China’s stronghold, the anticipated rapid transition of the West to EVs is looking increasingly optimistic.”

When quizzed about what minerals might be next in line, Lifton’s prediction was clear: “Post rare earths and graphite, my money would be on lithium or cobalt. The West’s ambitions for the EV transition are simply too vast for its current resources without China’s involvement.”

Every once in a while, something that you have been working on, seemingly forever, starts to come together and that momentum starts to snowball. Today we are going to discuss a company that recently announced Q2 results with several exciting highlights that are the result of many years of hard work and determination. And although this article isn’t part of the critical minerals series, this company is inextricably linked to EV batteries, the processing of critical minerals and has already received funding from the Canadian Federal Government as well as the National Research Council of Canada Industrial Research Assistance Program and is engaged in the Mines-to-Mobility initiative. And if that isn’t enough of a teaser for you, their stock price has rallied over 140% since hitting its 52-week low in mid-May. It has been a solid couple of months, to say the least.

The company that has been on a pretty good roll of late is Nano One Materials Corp. (TSX: NANO), a clean technology company with a patented, scalable and low carbon intensity industrial process for the low-cost production of high-performance lithium-ion battery cathode materials. The technology is applicable to electric vehicle, energy storage, consumer electronic and next generation batteries in the global push for a zero-emission future. Nano One’s One-Pot process, its coated nanocrystal materials and its Metal to Cathode Active Material (M2CAM) technologies addresses fundamental performance needs and supply chain constraints while reducing costs and carbon footprint.

The second quarter news flow began in late May with the acquisition of 100% of the shares of Johnson Matthey Battery Materials Ltd. located in Candiac, Québec. The acquisition included the team, facilities, equipment, land and other assets, with highlights of the deal being:

• A team with more than 360 years of scale-up and commercial production know-how
• Team and facilities proven in supplying tier 1 cell manufacturers for automotive
• LFP facility and land strategically located near Montréal and operational since 2012
• Facility and equipment that can serve Nano One’s process needs with room to expand
• Expedites Nano One business strategy for LFP and other battery materials

The fully funded C$10.25 million deal is strategically located and has the benefit of access to a North American ecosystem that will serve the broader global community with cost-effective, resilient, and environmentally sustainable cathode materials. If you’ve been following my critical minerals series you’ll recognize that this is an opportunistic deal that is the right asset in the right location at the right time.

Nano One quickly followed up with another, even more important (in my opinion), corporate announcement less than a week later by signing a joint development agreement (JDA) for lithium-ion battery materials with industry giant BASF. The JDA will see the companies co-develop a process with reduced by-products for commercial production of next-generation cathode active materials (CAM), based on BASF’s HED^TM-family of advanced CAM and using Nano One’s patented One-Pot process and metal direct to CAM (M2CAM^®) technologies. The multi-phase agreement includes a detailed commercialization study for pre-pilot, pilot and scaled up production. BASF, a global leader in chemistry and high-performance lithium-ion battery cathode materials, has recognized Nano One’s advanced technology that has the potential to improve the product performance of BASF’s high-performance CAM and further simplify the synthesis of battery materials.

And if all the above wasn’t validation enough that Nano One has finally made it to the big leagues, less than 2 weeks after the BASF news the company announced a US$10 million equity investment by one of the world’s largest mining companies, Rio Tinto. In addition to the investment, Rio Tinto has agreed to enter into a strategic partnership to provide iron and lithium products, all of which will accelerate Nano One’s multi-cathode (multi-CAM) commercialization strategy and support cathode active materials (CAM) manufacturing in Canada for a cleaner and more efficient battery supply chain for North American and overseas markets. The collaboration agreement includes a study of Rio Tinto’s battery metal products, including iron powders from the Rio Tinto Fer et Titane facility in Sorel-Tracy, Québec, as feedstock for the production of Nano One’s cathode materials, which dovetails nicely with the first deal noted above.

Nano One finished Q2 with cash and cash equivalents of C$48 million, which represents roughly 14% of their C$343 million market cap. With abundant capital to deploy, plenty of tailwinds for the industry as a whole, and a team with ample experience in financing, capital growth, technology management, chemistry, engineering, materials science, batteries, and intellectual property, it seems the company is really hitting its stride. I dare say, based on the recent news flow, there could be a lot more to come from Nano One.

I’m going to make a bold prediction. The electric vehicles we see on the road today will be virtually obsolete in 5 years. The amount of capital and brain power being applied to battery technology coupled with the desire/need for fewer and lower carbon footprint resources that go into those batteries is going to result in material step changes in vehicle range, speed of charging and hopefully the corresponding cost. Whether the electrical grid can keep up with this rapid transition to EVs remains to be seen but we can save that discussion for another day.

Imagine you want to go on a road trip in your EV, but every 300-400 miles you have to spend a few hours charging. What if the next generation of EVs could add 50+% to that range and fully re-charge in 15-30 minutes. How much would you be willing to pay for the old generation of EV versus the convenience of a new one? For sure there will still be a market for used EVs as some people only need it for their daily commute or trips to the grocery store and otherwise the vehicle sits idle for hours, at which point in time there is little to no inconvenience to charge it. But for me, as someone who likes to fish and hike in the great outdoors of the Rocky Mountains, I can assure you there is no chance I’m buying a current generation EV with its theoretical range that potentially leaves me stranded in the middle of nowhere when the actual range ends up being 25% lower than optimal operating conditions.

One company leading the charge into the next generation of batteries is NEO Battery Materials Ltd. (TSXV: NBM | OTCQB: NBMFF), a Vancouver-based company focused on lithium-ion battery materials for electric vehicle and energy storage applications. 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 with their all-star management and technical advisory team cherry picked from LG Chem, Samsung and various renowned universities.

The numbers are impressive both from a capacity/capability perspective and relative cost to their competition. In mid-2021 the Company announced that in a half-cell coin test that its nanocoated silicon anode allowed for a safe full charge within 5 minutes, which demonstrates the potential for scaling and implementation in larger cells such as those used in high power EV batteries. Through a mix of treatments and nanocoating materials, NEO utilizes pure metallurgical-grade silicon (Si) particles, which provide a 40-70% higher initial capacity compared to current competitors that employ SiOx, SiC, or other composite silicon materials. Due to NEO’s advantage of retaining a higher initial capacity, on average, a 5% silicon weight loading of NBMSiDE™ can have the equivalent impact of a 10% loading of a competitor’s materials. Initial coulombic efficiencies (ICE) – the ratio of the discharge capacity after the full charge and the charging capacity of the same cycle and is usually a fraction of less than 1 – for NEO’s 100% micron-size level Si anode have exceeded the 86% level, and cycling performance presents excellent capacity retention after 300 charging/discharging cycles.

And all this technology is advancing beyond research lab theoretical work. The latest press release from the Company confirms an MOU with the Province of Gyeonggi (basically Seoul, South Korea, and the surrounding area) to establish grounds for investments and cooperation between NEO and the Province to advance the mass production of silicon anode materials for EV batteries. NEO Battery Materials will initially invest, over the next 5 years, 24 billion KRW or approximately C$25 million to support the construction and expansion of the silicon anode commercial plant located on a 107,000 sq. ft. site in Oseong Foreign Investment Complex, Pyeongtaek City, Gyeonggi-do. The Company aims to transform the Province into an essential manufacturing and R&D hub of silicon anode materials. The first phase of the commercial plant will possess an initial annual production capacity of 240 tons of NBMSiDE, and the facility will be built as a 4-story office building with additional space that can accommodate production expansion to 1,800 tons annually of the Company’s anode material.

I have no idea if NEO Battery Materials will be one of the success stories to advance the next generation of battery technology for EVs and energy storage. I do know that they have generated some interesting results and have NDAs signed with over 20 globally established industry players in the battery cell manufacturing, materials manufacturing, and automotive industries. With a market cap of roughly C$30 million, you can decide if this is one of the companies you’d like to hold if you are investing in the future of EVs.