Demand for High Grade Manganese Growing With EV Market - Seite 2

In answer to technology needs, battery and automotive manufacturing giants are developing their own NMC supplies and formulations.

Already 3M has patented its own NMC battery, which is used by LG Chem in the Chevy Volt and Nissan Leaf. BMW has also selected the NMC battery, while General Electric has selected a lithium-manganese battery.

GM has declared that its entire future in manufacturing is headed toward an all-electric vehicle fleet.

Tesla meanwhile has signed a five-year exclusive agreement with prominent NMC battery researcher, Dr. Jeff Dahn to help reduce the costs of its batteries.

All of this can really only mean that the supply for manganese, along with its star counterpart lithium, will continue to increase dramatically.

FERTILE MARKETS 

Manganese is also used in fertilizer and is a necessary nutrient. It cannot be substituted as it is needed chemically for photosynthesis to occur.

So, as an application for crop fertility, its importance can't be underestimated. The micro-nutrient market is poised to grow at 8% CAGR to $7.7bn by 2020.

With the world's growing population base and a decline of arable land, food scarcity is becoming an increasing reality.

Experiments conducted in Brazil show that the addition of a small amount of manganese can increase crop yield by around 30%, and because of this characteristic, high purity, high grade manganese could fetch as much as 25-30% premium pricing at market.

Maxtech is expected to focus its energies squarely on these two areas: the company aspires to build a vertical mining operation, selling its manganese into high growth markets focused on renewable energy and crop fertility.

MAXTECH THINKS LOCAL AND GLOBAL 

As a Canadian-based mining company Maxtech Ventures has a unique vantage point to act on the manganese market.

Maxtech has secured in excess of 540,000 hectares of potential high-grade manganese claims in Brazil and has an agreement to jointly explore manganese-specific projects with Brazil's Maringá Ferro-Liga S.A.

Brazil is expected to increase its demand for high purity manganese by 4.8% CAGR, translating to an additional demand of 227,000 tonnes for use in fertilizers.

Maxtech is in a prime geographical location to offer its manganese to the local producers in one of the world's leading soybean growing regions in Brazil.