Canadian battery materials maker Nano One (TSX: NANO) (OTC: NNOMF) (Frankfurt: LBMB) ended the last full financial year with a cash and cash equivalent position of CAD31.9 million and working capital of CAD30.1m. The clean tech company’s total assets at the end of December 2023 stood at CAD53m while liabilities were CAD5.5m, with no long-term debt.
It has been a busy year for the Toronto and Frankfurt-listed firm which operates its patented One Pot process to produce lithium iron phosphate (LFP) and lithium nickel manganese cobalt oxide (NMC), two key materials used in batteries for electric vehicle and energy storage.
A third-party lifecycle assessment of the company’s production showed that the processes developed and used by Nano One generated 50% less greenhouse gases and required 80% less water compared with conventional methods of producing LFP and NMC.
Nano One holds patents for various processes in the production of lithium-ion battery cathode active materials (CAM) and its One Pot process is driving down complexity, energy use and environmental impact.
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Growing interest in LFP output from Quebec plant
In December, the Canadian company confirmed orders for approximately 1.3 tonnes of LFP samples from key collaborators for commercial evaluation purposes and for future securing of offtake agreements. By the end of the year the company had already shipped 30% of those samples produced at the recently commissioned One-Pot LFP pilot facilities in Candiac, Québec. Interested buyers included not only EV manufacturers but also energy storage makers, defence companies and buyers from the industrial sector.
“2023 saw a global shift towards LFP batteries that could eventually mirror the 60-70% market share that LFP already has in China. This shift is driven by lower costs and safety, by battery pack energy densities and electric vehicle (“EV”) range now on par with NMC, and by the need to diversify supply chains away from foreign entities of concern,” the company said as it released its full year earnings results.
“Nano One’s One-Pot LFP addresses these needs by driving down cost, complexity and GHG emissions in the supply chain, by enabling refined critical mineral inputs that can be easily sourced in free-trade jurisdictions, and by eliminating waste streams that are difficult to permit in western countries,” the company said in a press release.
A significant milestone last year has been the CAD17m strategic investment by Sumitomo Metal Mining (SMM) and the resulting collaboration to accelerate the commercial adoption of the One-Pot process. SMM is a world-renowned miner, refiner and producer of cathode active materials dating back to applications in early portable electronics and the emergence of hybrid and fully electric vehicles.
Nano One’s plans for 2024
Although we are only three months into the new year, the company has already added four new patents in Asia, expanding its portfolio to 40 patents and another 55 patents pending. Nano One also started work on a feasibility study for a 25,000 tonnes per year LFP commercial plant to support customer offtake, feedstock supply, and future project funding efforts. The plant design will form the basis for Nano One’s turn-key design strategy to address the broader LFP market.
Nano One said the FEL3 study will provide an optimal production line layout and maximum utility of key equipment. It will also address the company’s mid-to-longer-term objective of deploying multi-line facilities under license or joint venture with partners in Asian, Indo-Pacific, North American and European jurisdictions.
