lithium investing

Benchmark Minerals Week: Cathodes Notes from the Floor

Battery Metals
Lithium Investing

If you missed Benchmark Minerals Week’s Cathodes conference, don’t worry — we’ve put together a pictorial overview of what happened at the event.

This year’s Cathodes event, held as part of Benchmark Minerals Week, just wrapped up, and it was a busy event for the Investing News Network. 

There was no shortage of industry experts and company CEOs to talk to, and of course there were presentations and panels to take in as well.

If you weren’t able to make it to the event, which run from October 24 to 25, don’t worry — here’s a quick look at the main highlights of the show. Scroll on to read more about what happened on the floor, and stay tuned for our upcoming written and audio coverage.

Cathodes 2018: Day 1

The conference started early on October 24, with Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Managing Director Simon Moores giving a keynote presentation on the state of the industry.

Another morning highlight was the welcome address given by the guest of honor Michael Austin of BYD North America.

The next keynote presentation was given by Rob Privette of Umicore (EPA:UMI), who shared his insight on developing cathode capacity outside of Asia.

The last presentation of the first session was from Sam Jaffe of Cairn ERA, who shared his forecast for cathode demand, prices and costs.

After a short networking break, the second session, focused on raw material supply, kicked off with Albermarle’s (NYSE:ALB) Eric Norris.

Looking over to cobalt supply, Michael Insulan, senior market analyst at Eurasian Resources Group, talked about sustainable battery-grade cobalt production.

To wrap up the session, Anton Berlin of Norilsk Nickel (MCX:GMKN) shared his outlook for the nickel market.

During lunch, attendees had the chance to choose between two workshops. The lithium-focused workshop was chaired by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Senior Analyst Andrew Miller and featured lithium expert Joe Lowry of Global Lithium, Mike Tamlin of Neometals (ASX:NMT) and Jerko Zuvela of Argosy Minerals (ASX:AGY).

Meanwhile, the cobalt- and nickel-focused workshop was chaired by Benchmark Mineral Intelligence Analyst Caspar Rawles and featured Dr. Ian Pringle of Battery Metals (ASX:BTM), Dan Carroll of Freeport Cobalt, Todd Coy of Kinsbursky Brothers and nickel expert Jim Lennon of Red Door Research.

In the afternoon, many companies had the opportunity to share about their projects, including: Pilbara Minerals (ASX:PLS), eCobalt Solutions (TSX:ECS), Core Exploration (ASX:CXO), Anson Resources (ASX:ASN), Lake Resources (ASX:LKE) and First Cobalt (TSXV:FCC).

To wrap up day one, Lennon of Red Door Research gave a presentation on the nickel market outlook.

Cathodes 2018: Day 2

The second day of the event started with a presentation from BYD’s Yi Pan, which shared his thoughts on the progress and prospects for electric vehicle batteries.

Another morning highlight was a presentation from Julia Attwood of Bloomberg New Energy Finance, who talked about the outlook for stationary storage.

Session five, which was focused on demand, continued with a presentation from Nano One Materials’ (TSXV:NNO) Dan Blondal on the development of cathode requirements.

Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) was also present at Cathodes this year, with Director of Battery Technologies Jeff Bruce speaking on consumer electronics.

Another much-awaited presentation was by Henrik Fisker of Fisker, who talked about developments in electric cars and energy storage.

After a networking break, other companies had the chance to share about their projects and developments, including: Galaxy Resources (ASX:GXY), Standard Lithium (TSXV:SLL), Neo Lithium (TSXV:NLC), Celsius Resources (ASX:CLA), Sigma Lithium (TSXV:SGMA) and Piedmont Lithium (ASX:PLL).

To wrap up the session, Benchmark’s Rawles gave a keynote presentation on the state of lithium-ion battery megafactories.

After lunch, and to close the event, attendees had the chance to participate in two roundtables, where discussions focused on responsible raw materials and future technologies.

The Investing News Network was busy during the two-day event, conducting interviews with companies and experts including: Lowry of Global Lithium, Chris Berry of House Mountain Partners, Lennon of Red Door Research, Pilbara Minerals, Galaxy Resources, First Cobalt, Howard Klein of RK Equity and Jaffe of Cairn ERA, among many others. Interviews will be posted over the next week or so, so stay tuned!

You can also click here to read our overview of the Graphite+Anodes component of Benchmark Minerals Week.

Don’t forget to follow us @INN_Resource for real-time updates!

Securities Disclosure: I, Priscila Barrera, hold no direct investment interest in any company mentioned in this article.

Editorial Disclosure:, eCobalt Solutions, First Cobalt and Neo Lithium are clients of the Investing News Network. This article is not paid-for content.

lithium investingenergy storagepilbara minerals
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