Building America’s Next Lithium Success Story in the Global EV Boom
Developing Lithium Value in the Epicenter of US Production
ACME Lithium Inc.
CSE: ACME | OTC: ACLHF
The global electric vehicle (EV) boom is driving demand for a key element in battery power generation — lithium.
Bloomberg New Energy Finance projects that by 2040 — 58% of all global vehicle sales will be electric.
That’s over 55 million EVs being sold annually — a nearly 20-fold increase from the 3 million being sold today.
Tesla founder, Elon Musk, goes a step further stating… all transportation on Earth will eventually go electric!
And all of that demand is going to require tons and tons of lithium… the so-called “white petroleum.”
Lithium is the lightest metal on Earth. And it’s not just EVs that are driving its demand.
Lithium-ion batteries power the lives of millions of people each day from the EVs and hybrids we drive to the laptops and cell phones we use to connect to an ever-shrinking world.
Lithium power has gained massive popularity in recent years due to its ultra-light weight, high energy density, and ability to recharge.
The vast majority of lithium around the globe is produced from brines. It’s a relatively straightforward process whereby lithium brines are pumped to the surface allowing the sun and wind to work their evaporative magic.
Demand for Lithium is Growing & Growing
Lithium — because of its high-energy-per-unit-mass relative to other electrical energy storage systems — is ideal for use in car batteries as well as laptops, cell phones, and a host of consumer electronic devices.
Lithium batteries have become the front-running rechargeable energy storage medium — particularly for the rapidly growing EV industry — creating a strong demand forecast for lithium.
The global EV trend is being fueled by $Billions in investment by the world’s largest automakers such as Volkswagen, BMW, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, GM, Ford, and Fiat-Chrysler — to name just a few!
Commitments to invest in lithium-ion batteries and EVs now totals an astounding US$90 billion globally with 39+ automakers moving into the electric/plug-in hybrid vehicle space.
And that growth in demand is resulting in a rise in the commodity pricing for the metal.
A surge in lithium prices got underway in November of 2020 and continues to accelerate. And when the lithium price moves — it tends to do so in a pretty dramatic fashion!
And that means that select lithium exploration companies with strategically located assets — such as ACME Lithium Inc. — have the potential to succeed over the coming years.
CSE: ACME | OTC: ACLHF
Led by president & CEO Stephen Hanson — whom you’re about to hear from directly — ACME Lithium Inc. trades on the Canadian Stock Exchange under the symbol ACME and on the US OTC exchange under the symbol ACLHF.
Right now, its shares can be purchased below C$1.00 per share.
A significant rerating to the upside may be just around the corner as the company continues to advance its two early-stage lithium brine projects strategically located in the epicenter of lithium exploration and development in the United States — Esmeralda County, Nevada.
The company owns and is under option to acquire a combined 100%-interest in 122 claims totaling 2,440 acres in Clayton Valley (“Clayton Valley Project”) and owns a 100%-interest in 81 lode mining claims totaling 1,620 acres in Fish Lake Valley (“Fish Lake Valley Claims”) — both in Esmeralda County.
The company’s flagships are in close proximity to the Silver Peak Lithium Mine in Clayton Valley — owned and operated by Albemarle Corp. (NYSE: ALB) — a continuous lithium producer since 1966.
Based on that proximity and the underlying geology, the ACME Lithium team believes its properties have the potential to host lithium brines similar to Silver Peak — and preparations are well underway at both properties to test that thesis.
Strong Out of the Gate
The US Geological Survey has identified Clayton Valley as one of only three lithium-enriched areas on the planet.
And ACME Lithium has wasted no time in delineating the potential of its core lithium assets with the initiation of a mapping and sampling program at both Clayton Valley and Fish Lake Valley.
That program will be followed up by geophysics with phase-one drilling slated to commence before year-end 2021 or in early-2022.
Clayton Valley Project
ACME’s Clayton Valley prospect is located west of the only lithium brine production operation in North America — Albemarle’s Silver Peak Lithium Mine which has been in production for over half a century.
To the east, the Clayton Valley project borders Pure Energy Minerals’ joint venture with Schlumberger Technology Corporation.
With mapping and sampling underway, there’s evidence that extensive faulting in the area provides for an adequate plumbing system to foster brine reservoir accumulation for moving fluids around.
That could prove highly advantageous during the drilling process which requires large amounts of water.
Once the mapping and sampling program is complete and data has been collected and analyzed, the ACME team will move forward with the development of drill targets to test indicated and prospective aquifers for lithium content.
FLV Claims
ACME’s Fish Lake Valley (“FLV”) claims are located only 25 miles from Clayton Valley — an area historically known to have evidence of lithium within Tertiary age sediments in the basin.
As noted, the neighboring Silver Peak mine has produced lithium minerals from brines continuously for decades upon decades… and that success shows great promise for ACME’s efforts in the region.
Initial mapping and sampling on the FLV claims has shown values up to 600 ppm lithium in claystone.
Common geochemical values in these types of geologic formations range from 5 ppm to 40 ppm, which suggests the same process envisioned for Clayton Valley may have applications at Fish Lake Valley.
As with any early-stage exploration project — the drills will ultimately tell the story!
That’s the true essence of junior resource speculation: a single “drill hit” can have a dramatic impact on share value.
It’s all about finding the right companies with the right personnel, the right projects, and a sound share structure. ACME Lithium checks all of those boxes.
The Right People at the Controls
In the junior space, you’re only as good as the people running the show, and ACME Lithium has been set up from the start for one thing — success!
You’re about to be introduced to the company’s leadership team via our exclusive interview with ACME president & CEO, Stephen Hanson.
Our own Gerardo Del Real of Resource Stock Digest sat down with the executive to go over all-things ACME Lithium — from the team and corporate structure to the current and future development plans for the company’s two core lithium assets in Nevada. Enjoy!
ACME Lithium Inc. (CSE: ACME)(OTC: ACLHF)
CEO Steve Hanson on Building Shareholder Value through Multiple Lithium Brine Development Projects in Nevada, USA
Gerardo Del Real: This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the president & CEO of ACME Lithium — Mr. Steven Hanson. Steve, how are you this morning?
Steve Hanson: Great, Gerardo, a pleasure to be here with you today.
Gerardo Del Real: It's great to have you on. This is a new story to our audience… one that I am excited to help tell. You and I spoke a bit off air last week, and I joked with you that the best stories typically tend to be the simplest ones sometimes, right?
It's talented, experienced, successful management teams, excellent share structures. In a perfect world, you're in a space where there's a megatrend that has supply-demand fundamentals that are extremely compelling. And in an even better world, you're in a jurisdiction that is top-notch.
ACME Lithium checks all of those boxes, and I want to get into all of it. But before we do that, I would love for you to just give us a bit of background to your experience because it's pretty extensive.
Steve Hanson: Great. Well, thanks again, Gerardo. As you mentioned, there is an energy revolution going on here. And ACME Lithium was founded by the right people; a group of people that have a successful track record on global resource projects. And we are in the right market.
Lithium demand is expected to double by 2024. And, as you mentioned, we have the right address. We're in a regionally strong area for growth and exploration in the epicenter of lithium development in the US in the Clayton Valley region of Nevada.
Again, we've got the right market, the right address, and the right people to turn this into a great success story and deliver to our shareholders.
So we absolutely have the building blocks for the future… and that's our focus today. The company has two projects, again, located in the highly-prospective region for lithium production in Esmeralda County, Nevada, USA.
In particular, our core project is in Clayton Valley. And again, those claims that we have acquired translate, hopefully in the future, to lithium mining and extraction in what is a growing market that is set to dominate in the coming years.
Gerardo Del Real: And just to be clear, Steve, the claims, they total, what, approximately 2,440 acres in Clayton Valley… is that accurate?
Steve Hanson: That is accurate; that's correct.
Gerardo Del Real: And then, another 1,620 acres in Fish Lake Valley, right?
Steve Hanson: That's correct. That's the valley next door to the west. So as you may be aware, the lithium market has dramatically been growing over the last few years. We're expecting that the global lithium-ion battery market, in this year alone, to be over US$32 billion and expecting that to grow to over US$87 billion by 2027.
Lithium is a very important metal domestically in the US and globally as well. It powers rechargeable batteries that are used in electronics, cell phones, laptops, cameras, and tools, etc. And most notably, what everybody seems to be talking about today is electric vehicles (EVs).
Lithium is found in minerals and in particular where most of it is being extracted today is in brine. These are underground pools and extracted by removing the water.
So Clayton Valley has been the only place [in Nevada] where lithium has been produced since 1966. We neighbor the only existing production in North America. Our project is contiguous to that project and, again, we were able to acquire this project this past early-spring and it's our core project for growth in the US.
Gerardo Del Real: I’ve got to believe the infrastructure is excellent. You're in Nevada. I know that Tesla's Gigafactory is less than 200 miles northwest. And you're in a region, as you mentioned, that is home to several majors and up-and-coming hopeful producers, right?
Steve Hanson: Well, Nevada is the best mining jurisdiction in America. There's a history of mining, obviously, for precious metals in that state. We have access to technical expertise regionally; infrastructure, rail and roads, power and water, with excellent weather and logistics. We can access our project year-round unlike other regions of the world.
And you're right; Tesla's Gigafactory is less than 200 miles northwest of us, and Las Vegas is less than 200 miles to our southeast.
Gerardo Del Real: Walk me through the team a bit. And I know you're modest, Steve, but walk me through some of your prior success. You've had several successful M&A transactions. And I bring that up and I want to highlight that because I know one of the corporate goals is to use that network that you and the team have to acquire additional projects, right?
Steve Hanson: I have almost 30 years of finance and corporate development experience across four continents. I've held executive positions — CEO and president positions as well as board and advisor positions — for numerous private and public company projects in mining and alternative energy and also in the oil and gas sector.
Again, my background is mainly in finance but also in business development. And as a result of that, the key here for early-stage companies is to develop strategic relationships and exit strategies for shareholders… ultimately with major corporations.
So our goal here is to take out some of the risks of this project through key developments and milestones being met over the next couple of years and ultimately bring in a strategic partner that can develop our projects for greater amounts of money over time.
I've worked on projects in Asia, in Latin America, in Africa, and, obviously, in North America. And again, many of those projects have resulted in transactions where billion-dollar companies have invested in the projects or, ultimately, those projects have been bought out by larger entities.
So again, our goal here as a young company is to develop the project over the next couple of years and hopefully bring in a strategic partner that can take it to a position of production.
Gerardo Del Real: You're very well-capitalized. You just closed a C$3.6 million private placement. You mentioned the multi-billion dollar opportunity. What's the share structure look like, Steve?
Steve Hanson: So we had actually went out to raise up to C$3.2 million in this last 30 days. We had excessive demand and ended up closing over C$3.6 million. We're well-financed and in a great position to develop the company over this next year using those proceeds efficiently and effectively.
We currently have approximately 34 million shares out and have a current market cap of just over US$25 million.
Gerardo Del Real: A lot of runway between US$25 million and a couple of billion, right?
Steve Hanson: Well, I think a couple of billion are lofty goals. But certainly we're seeing, in this sector, companies that have similar prospects and projects that are trading at a much higher multiple than where we are today. Again, if we can meet the milestones and perform as a management team, we believe in our projects and, hopefully, we can deliver shareholder value for our investors.
Gerardo Del Real: Let's talk about the second half of this year which we're in of course. What does that look like catalyst-wise? You're cashed-up. I mentioned the excellent share structure, the management team. Walk me through the second half of this year… what can shareholders expect?
Steve Hanson: Well, we have been working on our exploration plan over the last few months in preparation of what's going to be a busy summer. We actually have geological targets that are ready to drill-test.
But in the meantime, what we're going to do is we're going to do some additional mapping and sampling of both the Fish Lake Valley project as well as our project in Clayton Valley. We're going to do some geophysics this summer, which, actually, I'm setting up right now as we speak. We expect to begin that here in late-summer.
Then, ultimately, we hope to drill before year-end on both of those projects assuming we get the results that we desire from the preliminary work we're going to do. So there's going to be multiple projects in-play, lots of business development going on as well and, hopefully, some positive news for shareholders.
We also continue to look at accretive projects around the globe. We're not going to rest with just two projects here in Nevada. For the right situations in the lithium sector and the growing EV space, if there's new technology or partnerships that we can form, we're going to continue to grow this business — obviously with like-minded people — and we'll hopefully grow accretively acquiring very interesting projects as time goes on.
Gerardo Del Real: Well, I'm looking forward to it. I was mentioning you're in the right place in Nevada; you have a megatrend that doesn't seem to be slowing down anytime soon. I think your timing is absolutely excellent. Anything else to add to that, Steve?
ACME Lithium, Director
Steve Hanson: I'd like to add that one of our directors, Yannis Tsitos, spent over 20 years with BHP Billiton — one of the biggest mining companies in the world. And he has been involved in many transactions in bringing projects to production decisions to forming joint ventures and partnerships.
And he's a very valuable resource for us, obviously, with his background in developing junior companies as well. So we've got a great technical team; we've got a great board, and, obviously, our goal here is to create shareholder value over time for our investors.
Gerardo Del Real: Fantastic! Steve, thank you for your time today. I'm looking forward to having you back on and checking off some of those milestones.
Steve Hanson: Great, Gerardo, I appreciate it and we'll talk soon. Take care.
The Opportunity
Lithium — known as the white petroleum — is one of the key “clean-energy” power sources that will, hopefully and eventually, lead to a carbon-neutral future for our planet.
Demand is already soaring as the global EV boom goes into full swing.
And remember, it’s not just EVs. Lithium powers your laptop, your smartphone, and a whole host of other consumer electronics… not to mention its wide array of industrial applications (see below).
You just heard from ACME CEO, Stephen Hanson. He notes that lithium demand is expected to double by 2024.
He says, “We're expecting that the global lithium-ion battery market, in this year alone, to be over US$32 billion and expecting that to grow to over US$87 billion by 2027.”
And with all things going “electric” and “clean” — demand for the lightest metal on Earth should continue to rise for many years, if not decades, to come.
And that means select lithium exploration and production companies are poised to deliver some truly remarkable gains over the near and long term.
ACME Lithium’s strategic position in the epicenter of lithium exploration and development in the United States — Esmeralda County, Nevada — could soon prove advantageous as America seeks to stockpile the metal to satisfy growing demand.
With a current market cap well below C$30 million and a share-price under C$1 — now is the time to conduct your own due diligence on ACME Lithium to determine if adding a small share position to your current investment portfolio makes sense for you and your family.
ACME Lithium Inc. trades on the Canadian Stock Exchange under the symbol ACME and on the US OTC exchange under the symbol ACLHF.
You can also learn more about ACME Lithium at their corporate website.
— Resource Stock Digest Research