Global Energy Metals Corporation (CVE:GEMC) (OTCMKTS:GBLEF) CEO Mitchell Smith told investors on Thursday that the company is well-placed to take advantage of the coming lithium battery boom.
Smith’s statement comes after a busy six months for the Vancouver-based company, forming partnerships and increasing its land position to advance its portfolio of cobalt projects, the flagship of which is the 100%-owned Millennium property in Queensland, Australia.
Lithium-ion batteries are at the heart of the current and future energy transition, according to GEMC’s Smith.
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The CEO encouraged shareholders looking for exposure to the expected battery boom to find companies that are securing the metals critical to power the industry.
In a statement, Smith called the battery and energy storage sector “maybe the biggest investment growth opportunity there is at the moment.”
GEMC is exploring for cobalt, an essential component of lithium-ion batteries.
Demand for the critical mineral has and is predicted to increase substantially, the company told shareholders recently, but supply is not projected to meet the demand.
Asian demand driving growth
The market for lithium-ion batteries is expected to grow by an annual rate of 22% between 2019 and 2024, according to new data from Research and Markets.
A significant portion of that growth is expected to come from the Asia Pacific region, where high demand for electronics and increasing purchase power from consumers are expected to propel the uptake of lithium-ion batteries.
To that end, GEMC recently participated in a bilateral Canadian government-sponsored trade and investment mission in Seoul, South Korea and attended a major mining summit in Tianjin, China.
READ: Global Energy Metals poised for trade mission next month to South Korea to showcase Canada and its mining firms
In an update to investors, CEO Smith said that the cobalt company is focused on becoming a supply chain solution to “safe and reliable” cobalt for downstream partners.
The company has an option on two battery metal projects, the Lovelock cobalt mine and Treasure Box projects, which are located in Churchill County, around 150 km east of the Tesla Gigafactory in Sparks, Nevada.
In addition to the two Nevada projects, in which the firm has an option to acquire an 85% interest in, Global Energy Metals also owns 70% of the Werner Lake Cobalt Mine in Ontario, and has acquired 100% of the Millennium Cobalt Project and two neighbouring discovery stage exploration-stage cobalt assets in Mt. Isa, Australia.
Contact Angela at angela@proactiveinvestors.com
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