BC Business
Currently most of the world's lithium is coming from brine operations in South America and mines in Australia. Patriot Battery Metals is one of the juniors closest to developing a hard-rock mine right here in Canada.
Drilling at Patriot Battery Metals’ Corvette project has turned up lithium-rich spudumene crystals
The stock: They say good stocks climb a wall of worry. Shareholders of Patriot Battery Metals (TSXV:PMET; ASX:PMT) have had no shortage of things to worry about lately. The price of the Vancouver-based exploration company’s target mineral, lithium, has been cut in half since peaking last November. Last month, wildfires in northern Quebec shut down all its on-site activity. Yet somehow Patriot stock has nearly tripled in value year-to-date and risen six times over in the past 12 months, closing at $15.98 on the TSX Venture Exchange on July 4. That implies a market capitalization around $2 billion.
The drivers: Lithium was of negligible use to humanity up until the 1990s, when rechargeable lithium-ion batteries became the standard for mobile phones and other portable electronics. Now the projected demand for electric vehicles is threatening to require a five-fold increase in global lithium output by 2030. That’s leading some EV manufacturers to hoard their supply and has countries speeding up resource development through incentives and regulatory relief. Currently most of the powdery white metal is coming from brine operations in South America and mines in Australia. Patriot is one of the juniors closest to developing a hard-rock mine right here in Canada.
The company’s main asset is the Corvette property in Quebec’s James Bay region. It lies just 15 kilometres from a road and power line and the drilling results just keep getting more promising. A key resource estimate based on holes drilled to date is expected this month. As of year-end 2022, Patriot had no debt and nearly $20 million in cash on hand; in a corporate presentation last month it claimed to be fully funded through exploration and technical studies.
Word on the street: “We believe the stock does not fully price in the potential sector?leading scale and the exploration potential across the Corvette property,” said Desjardins Securities analyst Frederic Tremblay, who maintained his “buy” rating and $21 target on the stock in a report this week.
Coming and going: Bowing to activist investors who succeeded in voting down two company nominees to its board of directors at its annual meeting in May, Aurinia Pharmaceuticals (NASDAQ:AUPH) announced June 29 that it will explore “strategic alternatives” that could include a sale or merger of the company. Failing to obtain majority support from shareholders, chairman George Milne and compensation committee chair Joseph Hagan both resigned from the Victoria-based biotech’s board.