Despite all the prophecies of doom and difficulties with the mass electrification of the vehicle fleet in Europe and North America, transportation by electric car, including the batteries required (batteries for short), will prevail. Almost all leading car manufacturers have now converted large parts of their model range to e-drives or hybrid drives.
The development of demand for the metals required for rechargeable batteries and connections is far faster than supply can be expanded through mining activities. The demand for nickel for battery production has increased elevenfold over the past seven years and now accounts for around 17.5% of total global nickel demand! Lithium demand has increased six-fold and cobalt demand has quadrupled, even though cobalt is increasingly being displaced in favor of nickel in rechargeable batteries. Leading industry experts - including those from Benchmark Minerals - expect demand from the battery sector to double again by 2030 and even quadruple in the case of nickel.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) even assumes that the industry will have to bring 50 more lithium mines, 60 more nickel mines and 17 more cobalt mines into operation by 2030 in order to achieve the global net carbon emission targets.
For almost all of these materials, supply has been unable to keep up with demand for several years now, and in the case of copper, a huge supply deficit will emerge in several years' time, which will be difficult to cover even with new mines.
Investors therefore have an excellent opportunity to enter the world of battery metals right now.
