5 Canadian Mining Companies To Watch As US Looks North For EV Battery Minerals

The electric vehicle sector is set to explode over the next 10 years and the U.S. is looking to create a supply chain with Canada.

What Happened: Tesla Inc TSLA, Talon Metals Corp. TLOFF and Livent Corp LTHM were among 30 EV and battery manufacturers, in addition to mining companies, who met virtually with the U.S. Department of Commerce on Thursday, according to a report by Reuters. The group discussed how to boost the production of Canadian battery materials. Canada currently mines 13 of the 35 minerals needed to produce EV batteries.

Why It Matters: Acquisitions have already begun. On Nov. 5, 2020, Livent, a lithium hydroxide supplier to Tesla, announced it had acquired the business and certain assets of Nemaska Lithium Inc., located in Quebec.

There are a number of other Canadian companies mining scarce battery minerals that U.S. companies could be looking to buy.

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Gratomic Inc CBULF, a Toronto-based graphite mining company, mines rare lump graphite at its Aukam Graphite Project, located in Namibia. The company plans to become the largest vein graphite producer in the world and to enter the EV battery supply chain.

Gratomic has a market cap of $69.82 million and trades at $1.15 a share.

Canada Silver Cobalt Works Inc CCWOF, based in Quebec, mines cobalt, silver, nickel and copper. The company announced on Feb. 16 it acquired 39,200 hectares, approximately 151 square miles, of property with deposits of minerals for EVs.

Canada Silver Cobalt has a market cap of $42.32 million and trades at 35 cents per share.

Neo Lithium Corp NTTHF, based in Quebec, owns a 3Q project in Argentina, which is one of the five largest lithium brine deposits in the world. On Jan. 19, Neo Lithium announced it had increased its lithium carbonate to a purity of 99.797%.

Neo Lithium has a market cap of $304.5 million and trades at $2.37 a share.

MegaWatt Lithium and Battery Metals Corp WALRF, a British Columbia-based company mines a number of battery minerals including lithium and cobalt. Its largest lithium project, Route 381 Lithium, is located near the Nemaska Lithium Inc. mine and has produced promising lithium samples.

MegaWatt has a market cap of $3 million and trades at 35 cents a share.

Canadian Nickel Company Inc CNIKF, an Ontario mining company owns 100% of its Crawford mine. It is currently working to advance nickel-cobalt projects to the EV market.

Canadian Nickel has a market cap of $219.12 million and trades at $2.73 a share.

(Photo by Albert Hyseni on Unsplash)