Happy Thanksgiving to All NIA Members!
China's leading EV battery producer CATL is about to finish November with its largest monthly gain in history! CATL closed last month on the Shenzhen Exchange (symbol 300750) at only $68.71 per share. On November 5th it was announced that Tesla has reached a preliminary agreement to start using CATL as a battery supplier for cars made in China from as early as next year. Today, CATL hit a high of $89.60 per share for a gain of 30.4% in only four weeks and now trades with a market cap in USD of $28.12 billion!
Despite CATL being a $28.12 billion company, it is only considered by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence to be a Tier 2 EV battery producer. To be Tier 1, a company must be qualified to supply multi-national EV producers outside of China. Currently, Benchmark Mineral Intelligence only ranks four EV battery producers as Tier 1: Tesla, Panasonic, Samsung SDI, and LG Chem.
During the month of November, American Manganese (TSXV: AMY) achieved the successful recovery of high purity nickel-cobalt hydroxide from the NCA cathode scrap material received from two separate Tier 1 lithium-ion battery companies with near identical purity test results of 99.977% and 99.98% respectively. AMY indicated that it would now be shipping the high purity recycled material back to the Tier 1 companies for analysis and confidential technical discussion regarding the recycling process. AMY’s objective is to collaborate efforts with the Tier 1 companies to seamlessly integrate recycled material into the re-manufacturing of battery cathodes.
AMY has been a pioneer in EV battery recycling and positioned itself as an industry leader three years ago when it filed its U.S. provisional patent application in November 2016 for its innovative process for recovering cathode materials (lithium, cobalt, nickel, aluminum and manganese) from spent lithium ion EV batteries. AMY filed its non-provisional patent application with the USPTO on November 7, 2017 and only 13 months later in December 2018, AMY received its “Notice of Allowance” before being issued the patent in April 2019. On June 5 2019, AMY was issued its second U.S. patent for the recycling of cathode materials into precursor cathode materials for new lithium-ion batteries (within only 12 weeks from the date of filing on March 14, 2019).
AMY's energy efficient, environmentally friendly hydrometallurgical process produces high purity metal products that have been demonstrated to be suitable for direct recycling back into new lithium ion batteries. This is exactly what Tesla says it is currently developing at its Gigafactory 1. Tesla wrote in its recent Impact Report, "At Gigafactory 1, Tesla is developing a unique battery recycling system that will process both battery manufacturing scrap and end-of-life batteries. Through this system, the recovery of critical minerals such as lithium and cobalt will be maximized along with the recovery of all metals used in the battery cell, such as copper, aluminum and steel. All of these materials will be recovered in forms optimized for new battery material production."
You can read Tesla's Impact Report for yourself by clicking here. Tesla discusses its battery recycling strategy on page 26 of the report.
Past performance is not an indicator of future returns. NIA is not an investment advisor and does not provide investment advice. Always do your own research and make your own investment decisions. NIA has received compensation from AMY of USD$30,000 cash for a six-month marketing contract. This message is not a solicitation or recommendation to buy, sell, or hold securities. Never make investment decisions based on anything NIA says. This message is meant for informational and educational purposes only and does not provide investment advice.
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