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Monsters of Rock: Gold and a couple of battery stocks ‘fast charge’ into 2022
Mining
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A good day for metals as gold, the base metals suite (nickel, copper, lead, tin, zinc) and iron ore all moved higher overnight.
The Materials Index was down on the last day of the year, but gold stocks outperformed across the board as the precious metal rallied to $US1,817/oz ($2,506/oz Aussie) – its highest point since mid-to-late November.
Leading the charge were large cap goldies Kirkland Lake Gold (ASX:KLA), Newcrest Mining (ASX:NCM), Northern Star (ASX:NST), and AngloGold Ashanti (ASX:AGG).
Larger Cap News:
The aspiring battery maker-graphite miner has been drip-feeding news over the past week.
On Wednesday, semi-automated production started at the New York-based iM3NY battery plant, of which MNS is a major shareholder.
Semi-automated production is an important pre-commercial phase where batches of cells are being produced for both marketing and due diligence purposes.
On Thursday it provided at update on development activities at the ‘Nachu’ graphite project in Tanzania, where the company is shifting 56 families impacted by the mine into a purpose built ‘Eco Village’.
Which should look like this when built:
Today, it topped it all off with “exciting” initial results in Extra Fast Charging (EFC) battery program using Charge CCCV’s patented BMLMP Technology.
MNS has a 9.65% stake in Charge CCCV.
Current results show no capacity loss after 250 cycles with 15 min charge and variable discharge rates, MNS says.
“Industries that require EFC or FC include the transportation industry as they are constantly on the road and the results announced today could be a game changer for them,” it says.
NMT’s battery recycling arm — called Primobius — has officially signed a deal to license its recycling tech into North America with leading Canadian steelmaker Stelco (TSX:STLC).
Stelco plans to secure large volumes of end-of-life EVs for scrap steel and recycled lithium-ion batteries in a proposed 50 tonnes per day integrated operation. Primobius will get a gross revenue royalty.
An impressive pipeline of development opportunities is reshaping NMT’s short-term strategy, managing director Chris Reed says.
The company is now prioritising market penetration via partnerships over ambitions to operate as ‘principal’.
“Neometals is understandably excited by the speed of commercial progress being made by Primobius,” he says.
“We recognise both the need to partner to secure access to large volumes of end-of-life LIBs to ensure future growth and the present need to recycle significantly growing volumes of production scrap from LIB cell production in the US.
“Stelco is a leading supplier of steel to the Automotive OEMs and consumes scrap as part of its steel manufacturing process and presents the perfect opportunity for Primobius to enter the North American market as partners.”
NMT has a sizeable war chest with $83.5 million in the bank as of September 30, leaving it well placed to make acquisitions and fund developments.
The $781m market cap stock is up 27% over the past month, and 391% year-to-date.
