A Diversified Clean Energy Trailblazer

Graphite, Copper, and Lithium Prices Skyrocketing

President Biden signed the biggest infrastructure-spending bill of all time. A massive $226 billion is earmarked for projects requiring huge amounts of energy metals. 

Copper has skyrocketed 79% from February 2020 to February 2022., Some believe this is only the beginning of a massive bull run for copper, which is the foundation of the clean energy revolution.

Graphite demand is rising dramatically as well.

Graphite is one of the abundant materials needed to produce electric vehicle (EV) batteries, wind turbines and solar panels. 

Additionally, lithium is seeing an all-time high demand with a very limited supply. And lithium’s price action confirms it. 

Elon Musk replied to a World of Statistics tweet highlighting the massive increase in the price of lithium over the past decade. 

Lithium costs have increased by 1,654% in the past decade and 480% in just the past year.  

Mining companies could stand to benefit from the demand for these precious metals. One company that is aiming to mitigate the supply crisis of lithium, copper and graphite is Cullinan Metals Corp. CMTNF

Lithium, copper, and graphite are critical for the clean energy revolution and we have discovered a mining company involved in all three of these critical metals.

We have found the first diversified clean energy mining company that can possibly help solve the supply crisis and provide a partial solution to the deficit of the critical elements plaguing the world today. 

According to the Canadian Securities Stock Exchange, “Cullinan Metals Corp. CMTNF is a mining company focused on the development of energy metals. Cullinan is focused on key energy resources such as the development of copper, graphite and lithium assets around the world.”

A Diversified Clean Energy Company

Cullinan Metals is a mining company focused on addressing the urgent needs of the multi-trillion-dollar clean energy trend.

The company currently has a portfolio of graphite, lithium and copper projects around the world.

Cullinan Metals aims to reward its early shareholders by delivering value through advancing its projects with the eventual extraction of graphite, lithium and copper.

Cullinan currently has three main projects. 

Firstly, Borba 2 copper project in Portugal, on 328 sq. km.

Secondly, Lac Des Iles West 2,276-hectare graphite project in Quebec, Canada.

Thirdly, Smiley Lithium, 1902-hectare project located in Ontario, Canada. 

Lac Des Iles West Graphite Project

Cullinan’s graphite project is located adjacent to the active and producing LDI Mine. The LDI Mine is reportedly the only graphite producer in North America.

LDI has a production capacity of 25,000 tons of graphite annually. This mine was owned and operated by TIMCAL IMERYS. 

The map below clearly shows the blue area which is Cullinan Metals’ graphite project right next to the LDI mine in Quebec, Canada. 

The Québec government has revealed that it is in talks with Tesla about the automaker investments in Quebec, Canada.

Québec is rich in metals used to produce batteries. With the rise of electric vehicles, the province is trying to capitalize on that and is investing heavily in the extraction of key energy metals.

The local government recently announced plans to invest between $2 and $3 billion ($1.6 to $2.4 billion USD) in production, ranging from the extraction of those metals all the way to the production of battery cells.

It is looking for partners to develop the sector, and now Tesla is emerging as one of them.

Pierre Fitzgibbon, Québec’s economy minister, confirmed that the official met with Tesla executives in California.

Le Journal de Montreal, which previously reported talks between Tesla and Québec’s government, reports based on a “government source” that talks “have been moving forward over the last few months.”

Quebec is a promising mining region for battery metals. 

In 2020, the U.S. was 100%  net import reliant on graphite from countries like Canada, and India (U.S. Geological Survey, 2021). 

Graphite has not been produced in the U.S. since the 1950s. Canada is America’s closest and most stable partner to purchase graphite from. 

Elon Musk: “Lithium-ion batteries should be called nickel graphite”

The above video highlights the fact that there is a tremendous amount of graphite needed to produce an EV battery. 

In about six years, the world will need more than twice as much graphite as it uses today, according to Fortune Business Insights.

Graphite is on the list of 50 “critical minerals” published by the US government. 

One of the most significant graphite-producing mine is in North America, and Cullinan Metals Corp. CMTNF has mineral claims located right next to it.

These claims are part of the company’s Lac Des Iles West Project.

The company says that previous exploration work suggests significant potential for a graphite discovery there. A 706-line-kilometer survey indicated a major conductive horizon. This is an early indication of a potential graphite discovery.

Lac Des Iles West could become one of the most prized graphite assets able to produce graphite for Tesla, Ford, and other EV companies.

But electric vehicles are not the only source of this massive demand for graphite.

Graphite could be one of the most important commodities driving not only the electric-vehicle revolution but the global clean energy transformation. 

Graphite in Large-Scale Energy Storage

Image: energy storage installation

The EV revolution will require graphite production to soar, which will benefit graphite miners such as Cullinan Metals Corp. CMTNF.

But there is another potential catalyst: Large-scale energy storage.

In just one year — from 2020 to 2021 — utility-scale battery storage capacity in the United States tripled, jumping from 1.4 to 4.6 gigawatts (GW), according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

Having enough energy storage in the right places will support the massive amounts of renewable energy installations the world needs to add to the grid in the coming decades.

Green Hydrogen production will need large-scale batteries to store the power it generates.

Large-scale batteries (along with EV batteries) will require millions of tons of graphite to be able to keep up with soaring demand. Large-scale batteries and Tesla home storage batteries (like in the picture below) will require much more graphite than most people realize. 

The MiningMinistry.org believes when this trend is discovered, junior miners like Cullinan Metals Corp. CMTNF could stand to benefit. 

Tesla Home: energy storage battery 

Wind and solar energy solutions require large-scale energy storage as well. 

Wind doesn’t blow all the time, and at night solar installations don’t produce energy. 

So, to make sure that there is electricity on the grid available at all times the world needs large-scale energy storage solutions. They collect energy when the renewable power plants are working and then release it into the grid when they are not.

This market is booming right now. The International Energy Agency says that by 2030 energy storage capacity could increase by 34 times.

And it will require much more graphite than is being produced right now.

Graphite To Solve the Global Water Crisis

Image: water desalination plant. 

Graphene, in essence, is just one thin layer of graphite. And is currently being used in desalination plants to desalinate water. In other words, to turn saltwater into freshwater. 

Cullinan Metals CMTNF strives to provide graphite, the “miracle mineral” to assist with the world’s desalination needs. 

It is one of the most overlooked and promising global opportunities. 

The need for water is not just in faraway deserts. American cities such as Flint, Michigan, Jackson, Mississippi and many others regions have suffered a water supply crisis. 

Desalination will be a reality for most countries, and minerals like graphite will be a key solution to the world’s freshwater requirements. 

Germany has also been facing a water shortage crisis this summer. Water levels in the Rhine River have fallen to all-time lows. 

Graphite: Lighting The Way To A Solar Future

An already burgeoning solar power industry faces another significant boost thanks to one widely used and long-valued material-graphite.

With news earlier this year that solar and wind power could be used to generate as much as 80% of all the American and German energy needs, graphite is fast becoming one of the hottest commodities.

Solar photovoltaic energy is generated by turning sunlight into electricity. At the heart of this process is an extremely pure crystalline form of silicon. 

When refined to make cells for solar panels, the silicon converts the sun's rays into an electric current for powering household appliances.

Graphite is crucial to silicon production. Its resistance to extreme heat makes it ideal for manufacturing the crucibles and moulds used to make silicon, as well as heat shields, thermal insulation components and even gas ducts.

For the production of multicrystalline and monocrystalline silicon, graphite is the most important raw material in the production of solar cells in the photovoltaic industry.

Companies require essential components based on specialty graphite for the highly sensitive process of crystal growth.

Ultra-pure graphite equipment enables manufacturers of polysilicon, the principal component in photovoltaic solar panels, to increase their efficiency while cutting their costs.

And researchers at the world-renowned Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) are looking at developing solar cells which are 1,000 times more efficient than silicon panels using graphene.

Graphite in the Use of Wind Turbines

Graphite is critical in wind turbines.  In many wind turbines today, graphite-based composites are already making an important contribution. Thanks to its high stiffness and low density, graphite is used to produce slender rotor blade structures capable of withstanding extreme stress.

Graphite is lightweight. It is also stronger than steel or aluminium. Wind turbines also need power brushes to function properly. Power brushes made from graphite have JUST been developed and have been shown to outperform other materials in longevity, lifetime performance, and extreme climates.

Green Hydrogen Procurement

Earlier this year, German Chancellor Scholz met Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau to sign an agreement that will result in Canada shipping green hydrogen to Germany.

Image: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz meets the Prime Minister of Canada Justin Trudeau

This deal will allow Germany to move away from fossil fuels faster. The country is at the cutting edge of the clean energy revolution.

Green hydrogen is produced by splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen in an electrolyzer, using renewable-powered electricity which will dramatically expand the use of solar and wind power.

This will dramatically increase the need for copper and graphite. 

Most investors are unaware that scientists have devised a method of using copper as a catalyst in the reaction designed to split water and produce hydrogen in gaseous form.  

A new model explains interactions between small copper clusters used as low-cost catalysts in the production of hydrogen by breaking down water molecules.

Canada will have to develop mass wind and solar farms to power green hydrogen plants and then will ship the hydrogen via boat to Germany or to America via pipeline and over the road in cryogenic liquid tanker trucks or gaseous tube trailers. 

These solar and wind farms will require large amount of graphite to produce the wind turbines and solar panels.

We believe that a similar deal related to raw or refined energy metal exports might be struck in the future between Canada and Germany and the United States. 

Cullinan’s Lac Des Iles West project is located in the eastern part of Canada. The location of the graphite property is very strategically convenient for shipping graphite to Europe from Canada’s East Coast or alternatively transporting graphite to the USA by rail.

Cullinan Metals aims to be instrumental In The Development And Adoption Of A Green Hydrogen Future.

Additionally, Cullinan’s Smiley lithium asset located in Ontario, Canada can also play an instrumental part in assisting Germany and America with its lithium needs.  

Germany and Canada are actively discussing building a port to begin shipments of green hydrogen from the East Coast of Canada to Germany. 

In addition to green hydrogen, Cullinan can potentially ship its Canadian-mined lithium and graphite to Germany from this port to meet the needs of our European allies or down south to the United States. 

Copper the “Green Energy” Leader

Image: copper is widely used in the clean energy technology

Copper could be the “new gold,” at least as far as the clean energy revolution is concerned. 

It is used everywhere, from batteries and wind turbines to solar panels. And there isn’t enough of it being produced. S&P Global, a data provider, says that by 2035 the world could face a deficit of about 10 million tonnes of copper.

To make sure that we have enough of it, new exploration and development need to start right now.

This is what Cullinan Metals Corp. CMTNF is doing.

Cullinan’s copper project in Portugal is one of the best mining jurisdictions in the European Union. And, as a reminder, the EU is hungry for energy metals.

Borba 2 Copper Mining Concession

Cullinan’s Borba 2 concession permit includes 4 projects. It is located just 160 kilometers east of Lisbon, Portugal’s capital.

This is a massive permit covering an area of about 328 square kilometers.

Portuguese territory covers half of the Iberian Pyrite Belt (IPB) which is considered the main metallogenic province of the European Union, where occurrences of polymetallic massive sulphide occur.

But there’s another critical catalyst. One of the projects in the Borba 2 portfolio is a past-producing copper mine -Miguel Vacas.

It has good access and infrastructure in place. It has been extensively explored in the past, so the project is well-understood from a technical perspective. It is open both along strike and down dip. 

With skyrocketing copper prices, which could continue soaring for years if not decades, projects that were considered unfeasible have now become profitable. 

Marc Enright-Morin, the CEO of Cullinan, says: “We're focusing on past producers where we generate some income and take advantage of these high copper prices. This is why we've gone to Portugal. It is a stable mining jurisdiction where the government is eager to develop resources for the EU.”

The goal at Miguel Vacas is to get the property through permitting as soon as possible and restart operations. While copper prices remain at all-time highs, the company could capitalize on the current market conditions and finance the exploration of its other projects.

The goal is to get this project to produce copper again and begin exporting the vital metal to countries in the EU such as Germany which is in dire need of this metal. 

The MiningMinistry.org believes that the company will be able to achieve its ambitious goals. Its management and board have extensive experience in both capital markets and geology.

A complex and diversified geology endows Portugal with considerable mineral potential. Mineral exploitation from world-class deposits include Neves-Corvo (Cu, tin) operated by Lundin Mining and Panasqueira (W) tin operation by Almonty, Portugal is presently one of the main EU producers of copper, tin, and tungsten concentrates. 

Cullinan’s other 3 projects within the Borba 2 Portugal portfolio are: 

MOSTARDEIRA COPPER MINE

Mostardeira Copper mine is located approximately 2 km south of the town of Estremoz and 4km north of the NW limit of the tenement. The mine operation was focused on a wide (up to 10 m thick) anastomosing WSW-ESE trending vein system that is developed on at least 700 m along strike and is open to both directions. The vein system is hosted by Silurian and Devonian metasediments.

Almagreira Copper Project

Epithermal mineralization occurs in altered volcanics and carbonates and is mainly controlled by an E-W structure, that extends at least 400 metres along strike and is open at depth. The mineralized zone occupies the core of a second order anticline with acid volcanics flanked by Silurian shales, phyllites, and graphitic phyllites.

BUGALHO Copper Project

The geology consists of Silurian dark-grey shales with intercalations of black cherts, quartzites, and graphitic phyllites (Charneca Fm), adjacent to a major NE-SW deep-seated fault zone (Messejana fault).

To read more details about the above copper projects we urge readers to visit the website www.cullinanmetals.com. 

The need for copper is surging

Copper is used in almost all aspects of our lives. The MiningMinistry.org believes that copper is the future key element to drive the clean energy revolution. 

To build just ONE EV, a whopping 183 pounds of copper is needed for the actual body, and the EV battery is 10% copper.

President Biden’s infrastructure bill will require way more copper than is available now. 

American bridges, planes, subways, dilapidating airports, roads, etc. all require copper to revitalize the country and breathe new life into its economy. 

Copper is needed in virtually all stages of electric infrastructure. From electric generation, transportation, distribution, and eventually to consumption. 

Nothing is more essential to American life than the electricity delivered through its nationwide electric grid. Electric power is distributed from power plants through a complicated network of more than 600,000 circuit miles of transmission lines right into your home via copper wires. 

Solar and Wind

Solar and wind systems are becoming an increasingly popular source of energy delivered to universities, hospitals, and the military… just to name a few. These are known as “microgrids” and they can disconnect from the national grid and operate independently. 

All solar and wind installations require copper to carry their electrical charge.

Today, 114,000 MW is generated by solar power in the U.S. It takes 5.5 tons of copper to generate one MW. That’s 627,000 tons of copper.

And a single wind turbine contains up to 4.7 tons of copper. In the US today, about 67,000 wind turbines are operating. That represents 315,000 tons of copper.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) reports that the world added 290 gigawatts of renewable electricity in 2021. That’s about 1.5 million tons of copper used to increase solar and wind electrical output last year alone.

And according to the IEA’s 2021 Renewable Energy Report, global renewable electricity is expected to increase 60% from current levels by 2026.

Billionaire mining magnate Robert Friedland raved,
“if the world is to successfully transition to clean energy and transport, then it’s all copper, copper, copper, copper, copper, copper!”

Smiley Lithium Project

Lithium seems to be on the minds of every investor. It is the critical element needed for batteries to function.

It may encompass less content than graphite and copper in a battery, but nonetheless, critical to allow batteries to work. 

It is getting more and more difficult to find companies to invest in that are in the business of lithium exploration as properties located in friendly jurisdictions are becoming rarer and rarer. 

Elon Musk made a public appeal for more investment in lithium mining to close what he sees as a yawning gap between supply and demand that’s being fueled by the adoption of electric vehicles.

Battery production, and more specifically lithium, is the “fundamental limiting factor” for electric-vehicle adoption worldwide, Musk said on an earnings call with investors. 

“We think we’re going to need to help the industry on this front,” Musk said. “I’d certainly encourage entrepreneurs out there who are looking for opportunities to get into the lithium business. Lithium margins right now are practically software margins.

Cullinan’s Smiley Lithium project located in Canada and is an exciting lithium project in a jurisdiction that is friendly with its western allies.

The Smiley Lithium project consists of 5 mining claims comprising 1,902 hectares. The Property is located 55 km north of Thunder Bay, Ontario. Highway 527 transects the middle of the Property providing good access. 

Smiley Lake Lithium property is located in north western Ontario where numerous lithium deposits have been delineated to host significant reserves of Li2O.  

Of significance is that the Li-deposits/projects of northwestern Ontario are located within 20km of a terrane boundary. These terrane boundaries are deep seated sutures that divide accreted Archean terranes and act as conduits for fertile peraluminous granites. The Property straddles the Marmion-East Wabigoon Terrane boundary.

Significant lithium deposits of northwestern Ontario include: 

1. The Seymour Lake Lithium Project hosts 4.8Mt grading 1.24% Li2O and 186ppm Ta2O5.
2. The Georgia Lake pegmatite field with resources of 16+Mt grading 1.15% Li2O.
3. Separation Rapids Lithium deposit with resources of 9.4Mt grading 1.35% Li2O.

The Mining Ministry looks forward to seeing the results from the company’s planned drill and exploration program. 

Takeaway

Cullinan Metals Corp. CMTNF seemingly has many of the pieces to take advantage of and grow with the global demand for the key energy materials: graphite, copper, and lithium.  

Cullinan owns mining projects in three most sought-after minerals for the clean energy revolution – copper, lithium and graphite.  

Cullinan’s team has decades of experience in mining and is well-financed to take their current projects to the next level. 

We are living in a unique time. The world is changing. Clean energy is replacing the energy we generated from fossil fuels.  At the same time, as this change progresses, government leaders are now recognizing the dire need for raw materials to effect this change and reach their ambitious climate goals.  

With our world in turmoil, governments in North America and Europe are actively looking for reliable and friendly places to source their energy metals. 

Cullinan has the potential to be a strategic partner to help the world win the clean energy race.

Carefully Researched by The Mining Ministry (www.miningministry.org)

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