Nano One Materials Corp. (NNO.V) is in the business of optimizing raw materials via patented process technology for lithium ion battery cathodes for both conventional and solid state batteries. The company is focused on three main cathode types: Lithium Iron Phosphate Battery (LFP),
Lithium Nickel Manganese Cobalt Oxide (NMC), and Cobalt free High Voltage Spinel (HVS).
We initiated coverage in January 2018. Here's an update.
Jan. 21 - Signs a Joint Development Agreement with Chinese Cathode Producer Pulead Technology. To develop, evaluate and optimize scaled up production of Pulead’s lithium iron phosphate (LFP) cathode materials for use in lithium ion batteries.
Licensing and commercialization opportunities will also be explored as part of the collaboration. The technology improves operating and capital expenses by using lower cost raw material inputs with fewer process steps and by avoiding costly waste streams.
Jan. 25 - Presenting at Noblecon15, Cantech Investment Conference and World Outlook Financial Conference.
Feb. 13 - Granted Chinese Patent for Lithium Ion Battery Applications. Nano One now has eleven patents issued around the globe with Chinese patent ZL2014800279145 being directed to improved lithium ion batteries, using cathode materials made by Nano Ones’ patented process.
This complements a growing portfolio of patents in Taiwan, Japan, Korea, US and Canada that have been issued, covering process, materials and batteries with an additional 30+ patents pending in the same jurisdictions including Europe.
Feb. 20 - Presenting at BMO 28th Global Metals and Mining Conference.
Mar. 14 - Adds Another Patent in Canada for Lithium Ion Cathode Materials.
"It is related to the formation of lithium ion battery precursors by the novel process developed at Nano One. Precursors are intermediate mixtures of metals such as nickel, cobalt and manganese prepared in advance of high temperature processing in a furnace. Nano One’s approach differs, because its process adds lithium to the precursors in an intimate mixture with the other metals.” - NNO.V's CEO.
Apr. 2 - Provides Update on Joint Development Work with Pulead. The objective of this joint development effort is to identify a viable supply chain and design a low cost lithium iron phosphate (LFP) plant using Nano One's proprietary processes.
Performance targets and economic modeling remain on track. LFP Market demand for LFP is anticipated to double to over 200,000 tonnes/yr in 2025. Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said that 61% of passenger vehicles and 94% of buses will use LFP batteries.
While LFP clearly represents Nano One's near term market opportunity, Nano One continues to develop additives and coatings, in collaboration with various global automotive interests, to improve the longevity and stability of NMC (lithium, nickel, manganese and cobalt) and HVS (high voltage spinel) for solid state batteries and other advanced lithium ion batteries.
May 2 - Advances Materials for Solid State Lithium Ion Batteries. There are now twenty strategic relationships at various stages of development, which represents a ten-fold increase over the last year. Nano One has caught the attention of the industry, primarily from within the automotive sector. We have many third-party evaluations now underway with the goal of partnering to make solid state batteries a reality.”
May 7 - Granted its Sixth US Patent in Batteries. (Patent Number 10,283,763) This is the sixth patent in the US, bringing the total to thirteen patents issued around the globe. It focus on the unique process for making nanostructured precursors for lithium ion battery cathode materials.
May 31 - Approved for $5M Funding from Sustainable Development Technology Canada: to support Nano One’s “Scaling Advanced Battery Materials” project. Nano One’s project proposal to SDTC involves five multinational manufacturers and European automakers contributing at various stages of research, development, piloting and commercialization.
Nano One is engaged with Pulead Technology and Saint-Gobain and we are pleased to announce that Volkswagen Group Research will join our consortium as a project contributor. Details on the other two project contributors remain confidential.
Jun. 20 - Receive PO from Global Automobile Company. The amount of $0.55M from a Global OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) to jointly evaluate processes and innovative cathode materials for high energy density lithium ion batteries in automotive applications.
Jul. 31 - Announces Launch Of Early Warrant Exercise Incentive Program. A warrant exercise incentive program (the "Program") designed to encourage the early exercise of up to 1,65M of its outstanding unlisted warrants exercisable for common shares of the Company.
The Warrants are currently exercisable at a price of CAD $1.25 per Common Share until September 8, 2019 starting August 8th 2019. Each new warrant (the "Incentive Warrant") will entitle the holder to purchase one additional Common Share for a period of 14 months from the date of issuance of such Incentive Warrant, at a price of CAD $1.60. If all of the Warrants are exercised, a gross proceeds of CAD $2,06M is expected.
Aug. 8 - Granted Important Battery Material Patent in the US. This patent adds value to NNO.V's high energy cathode materials as it defines the unique physical form of the powdered materials and provides a proprietary means of improving durability, safety, handling and cost.
Aug. 13 - Pulead Joint Development Demonstrates Advantageous Economics. Licensing and commercialization opportunities are being explored as part of this collaboration. Thus far, the joint development results have exceeded targets in terms of both cost reduction and performance.
Dr. Yuan Gao, CEO of Pulead Technology said, “We are encouraged by the feasibility work as it has shown that Nano One’s LFP can be produced with commercially attractive cost savings while maintaining performance integrity. Our next step is to qualify the viability of the supply chain identified by Nano One and quantify the economics in greater detail. The production of LFP cathode materials is a major source of revenue for Pulead and we are excited by the commercial opportunity presented by Nano One’s ground breaking innovations.”
NNO.V has roughly been trading between $1.15 and $1.51. On January 21, NNO.V signed a Joint Development with Pulead - one of China's leading Li-ion battery cathode producers - and updated the market twice. On April 2nd (less than three months later) NNO.V reported that "Performance targets and economic modeling remain on track". On August 13th, the company stated that "results have exceeded targets".
Hence, within seven months NNO.V has delivered results with Pulead.
During that time. NNO.V received four more patents (i.e One Canadian, one Chinese, and two American). On May 31, NNO.V also reported a $5M fund from Sustainable Development Technology Canada (SDTC). On June 20, a purchase order of $0.5M from an unnamed automobile company. At the time of the SDTC release (May 31), NNO.V confirmed that it was working with Volkswagen Group Research in addition to Saint-Gobain and Pulead. This is significant because Volkswagen recently reported (Aug. 12) in the Wall Street Journal that its fully committed to electric vehicles.
"VW and GM are focused on all-electric cars largely because of China, where new regulations require car companies to sell a minimum number of zero-emissions vehicles to avoid financial penalties. VW plans to use its electric-car expansion in China to build scale and drive down prices faster in the U.S.
This really puts the last release with Pulead into perspective. Despite all this, NNO.V is trending down and broke S1 ($1.13) today. An opportunity?
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