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Hawkstone surges as investors lock in US battery metals exposure
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Special Report: A +60 per cent spike in the share price of US gold and lithium explorer Hawkstone Mining (ASX:HWK) can be attributed to strengthening battery metals sentiment.
Hawkstone’s Big Sandy sedimentary lithium project in the US hosts a big 320,800 tonne lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) resource.
That’s ~$2.5billion of in-ground value from just 4 per cent of a project area that contains ~271.1Mt to 483.15Mt at 1,000 to 2,000ppm lithium.
Huge.
It’s also located in Arizona along the so-called US ‘Battery Corridor’:
Work at Big Sandy in 2020 was focused on baseline engineering studies, establishing local contacts and obtaining the required permits for drilling and bulk sampling while waiting for the awakening of the lithium market.
That time has now arrived.
With prices poised for a rebound more generally, incoming President Biden indicated that he will support boosting domestic production of critical metals used to make electric vehicles, solar panels and other products crucial to his ‘zero emissions by 2050’ climate plan.
Like Europe, the US is very conscious of taking control of its own raw material supply chains.
At Tesla’s Battery Day last year Elon Musk specifically recognised the potential of sediment-hosted lithium deposits to provide a long-life and low-cost source of lithium to the US EV battery market.
“There is no production at the moment from the sedimentary space,” Hawkstone managing director Paul Lloyd told Stockhead.
“But at the Battery Day event, Elon Musk referred to sedimentary specifically as the future of lithium production in the US, which virtually has no production of its own.
“Tesla alone needs a lot of lithium, and when referred to sedimentary as being the future it really put the focus on projects like Big Sandy.”
Just last week Albemarle — one of the biggest producers in the world — announced that it was looking at sedimentary production around its Silver Peak mine in Nevada.
“Two years ago, sedimentary production was a bit ‘pie in the sky’ — now it is becoming real,” Lloyd says.
“Having JORC resources also means Hawkstone now has a head start on other stocks looking to take advantage of this surge in battery metals sentiment.”
This article was developed in collaboration with Hawkstone, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
