Ecco uno che pompa Northern Graphite
Because of China’s stranglehold, the same kind of gains could happen for North American graphite miners.
There’s one other big problem with graphite from China: Transporting it overseas can be extremely damaging to the environment.
Graphite is made mostly of carbon — and it leaves an unpreventable dust behind it. This carbon dust is bad for the water, animals, and plants...
That’s why Musk recently announced that Tesla would only source its graphite from North America.
According to
Bloomberg, Tesla says its local sourcing will be
"focused on minimizing environmental impact while significantly reducing battery cost."
See what the CEO of this North American graphite company had to say about it on a recent call I had with him:
What's more, no other company can generate the amount of large flake, high carbon graphite that would be necessary to supply this Gigafactory.
You see, graphite is worth more or less based on the size of the flake and the percentage of carbon in the graphite.
It’s not like gold or silver, where your ounce of gold in China is worth the same as mine in America.
The larger the flake and the higher the carbon content, the more valuable the graphite. Not only that, but the flakes have to be rounded into a ball, purified, and coated in order to be of high enough quality to be used in batteries — and that adds costs.
Lithium-ion batteries require an extremely high carbon content. To make the anodes, the graphite has to be filed into a sphere or ball that’s 99% carbon. And then it has to be coated.
Our North American company has a proprietary and economic process to do that, which no other graphite company has.
Large-flake graphite with 90% carbon concentrate fetches between $1,800 and $2,100 per tonne.
When you file it into a sphere, it sells for about $3,500 per tonne.
When you file it into a sphere, purify it to 99% carbon, and coat it... it can sell for up to $10,000 a tonne.
I asked the CEO about this...
The vast majority of American mines don’t have large-flake, high-carbon graphite. So their graphite isn’t feasible for Tesla’s batteries. They don't have all the necessary feasibility studies or permitting, either.
The rest are aging mines with decreasing production due to lack of investment after a drop in graphite prices 10 years ago — before the growth of lithium-ion batteries.
They would hardly be able to meet the Gigafactory’s demand now and definitely won't be able to three to five years from now. Most of their graphite was long ago spoken for...
So where is Tesla going to get its graphite in North America?
There’s really only one option...
A tiny Canadian company sitting on a mother lode.
They’ve got all the proper environmental permits, and their feasibility study was just edited up.
They now have a couple billion dollars of graphite under their feet — over 730,000 tonnes of it — which could be used to make 365,000 tonnes of spherical coated graphite due to losses in the process.
At a conservative $6,000 per tonne — though it could fetch upwards of $10,000 — this company is sitting on $2.19 billion worth of graphite.
I’m holding some of it in my hand in this picture:
They’re just waiting for an investor — and they could start pulling up graphite the next day.
I candidly asked the CEO about this. Pay special attention to his answer:
I’ve been following the graphite market for years, and this is the moment I’ve been waiting for.
This mine is essentially Tesla’s only option for the Gigafactory.
Tesla needs at least 93,000 tonnes of graphite. This mine is expected to produce that much or more.
And it’s all tailor-made for lithium-ion batteries thanks to the company's spherical graphite purification and coating process.
Yet the stock market seems to have no idea how valuable this company is. Your broker has probably never even heard of it.
That’s about to change very soon.
It’s currently valued at $38 million... but it’s sitting on a resource worth
$2.19 billion.
And that’s at a conservative estimate of $6,000 per tonne of rounded and coated graphite, which often sells for upwards of $10,000 per tonne.
That would double the graphite’s worth to $3.65 billion...
When a $0.67 company with a $37.8 million market cap is sitting on at least a $2 billion resource, I think the stock implications are clear.
Like I mentioned before, I visited the mine myself and held the graphite in my hands. I do this with every potential investment I recommend.
I walked the grounds, inspected the mine sites, and met with the CEO.
In my time as a resource analyst, I’ve never seen so much large-flake graphite in one place.
The deposit is in the perfect location — just 20 miles off the TransCanada Highway and only 45 minutes from Ottawa, Canada’s capital.
Transporting it by truck to the Gigafactory in America’s Southwest will be a breeze. Much better for the environment, and much cheaper than getting it from China.
In full disclosure, no one with the company has told me of any deal with Tesla on the horizon...
But it just makes too much sense.
If I realize this is the only company capable of meeting Tesla’s demand, I’m sure Elon Musk knows it, too.
And I’m sure he’ll want to have a contract signed
before he breaks ground on the Gigafactory this year.
A deal between these two could happen any day...
And when it does, you could make a fortune if you get in this stock ahead of time.
Right now, shares are bouncing around $0.67... but I think they could be worth more than $3 by year’s end.
And if the arrangement with Tesla is long term — the sky could be the limit.
Even typically conservative analysts are setting some high targets for this company.
Canada’s Mackie Research Capital sees the stock going to $2.10 — just on the move in graphite’s price alone.
That means even if they didn’t supply the Gigafactory, their shares could easily go up 213%.
Union Capital Markets says $2/share. Byron Capital Markets set a target of $1.90 and said this about graphite:
"We do believe that ongoing demand for consumer batteries, growing demand for high-power batteries for hybrid and electric automobiles, grid storage and continuing needs in refractories and even a few new applications can continue to drive demand higher."
Mackie Research says is calling for a 169% return, and says it will "beat almost every other junior graphite company to production":
And I think based just on current graphite demand right now, this stock could rise to $2.10 — a 300% gain.
But as long as Tesla builds the Gigafactory, you could make far more than that.
Why am I so sure Tesla will build the Gigafactory?
Because Elon Musk rarely does anything small... And he’s used to getting his way.
America’s Real-Life Bruce Wayne