Northern Iron Announces Extension of Agreement for Lithium Market in Asia

Northern Iron (TSXV:NFE) has announced the signing of a lithium marketing agreement with OMC Investments.
As quoted in the press release:

Under the agreement, OMC will actively market the Company’s lithium projects that are located in Nevada and Arizona to lithium ion battery makers across Asia, with a particular emphasis on China, where OMC already has strong contacts in the lithium market. OMC, on behalf of Northern Iron, will seek long term off-take agreements and strategic investments in the company from battery makers wishing to ensure security of supply.
Basil Botha, Executive Chairman of Northern Iron, said: “China is a critical but mostly underappreciated market for lithium with approximately 20 car manufacturers producing approximately 50 models of electric vehicles (“EV”). China Autoweb claims that there are approximately 200 additional companies actively developing approximately 5000 EV models in the Chinese market.  Each new EV would consume approximately 40 to 80 kilograms of lithium.  According to the China Association of Automobile Manufacturers,China had already sold 207,000 electric cars by July 2016, putting it on track to sell nearly 500,000 by the end of this year. This makes China already the world’s largest market for electric cars, dwarfing sales of electric vehicles in the USA.”
“China is targeting sales of 5,000,000 EVs by 2020. A 1% improvement in market penetration for EVs will consume an additional 70,000 tonnes of lithium. We believe China is the game changer in this market and we intend to leverage the relationships we already have in that market as a result of six years of active marketing in China.”

Click here to read the full press release.