Watch Pure Energy Minerals as Lithium Demand Expands

James Stafford of Oilprice.com published an article that looks at the supply-demand situation for lithium, noting that as companies like Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) begin to bring gigafactories online, there will be “a phenomenal spike in demand that will be no less exciting than the shale boom.”
He states:

Battery manufacturers across the board are moving to lithium because it has the highest electric output per unit weight. And nowhere will this demand soar more than with the production of hybrid, plug-in hybrid and electric vehicles used by everyone from Toyota (NYSE:TM), Honda (NYSE:HMC), Nissan (NYSE:NSANY), Renault (EPA:RNO), and Mitsubishi (NYSE:MSBHY), to Ford (NYSE:F), Chevrolet and GM (NYSE:GM). And of course Tesla Motors. Without lithium, there will be no gigafactory. In fact, this factory alone will need 15,000 tons of lithium carbonate a year just to get started.
We are on the edge of a profound competition over batteries as Tesla drives down lithium-ion battery production costs, lowers the benchmark and increases cost competition. The response will be new entrants to this market, and competing battery gigafactories.

In particular, Stafford points to Pure Energy Minerals Ltd. (TSXV:PE) as a company to watch as lithium demand grows. As Dr. Andy Robinson, the company’s COO, told the news outlet:

[B]rine is the best way to produce lithium because it’s so cheap, as nature has done all the hard work in rendering the lithium into a form that is easy to extract from the ground. All you have to do is drill a few wells and pump the liquid brine.

That’s good news for Pure Energy, which has a potential future brine resource. Stafford concluded:

When Tesla’s gigafactory comes online, everyone will be looking for cost-effective lithium sources closer to home, which brings us full circle to the state of Nevada, where Pure Energy Minerals has the only potential future brine resource in North America. The only other brine resources are located in China, are much smaller and are controlled by Chinese companies.
Lithium is increasingly the tech of choice for battery banks across the board, and when Tesla’s gigafactory is producing batteries one year from now, the winners in this emerging battery boom will be those behind the lithium, and those following the brine.

Click here to read the full Oilprice.com article.
Click here to view the Pure Energy Minerals Ltd. (TSXV:PE) profile.