Mission

To become a significant domestic producer of high purity manganese metal and chemical products for supply to U.S. energy and technology markets.

Manganese demand and US domestic supply advantage

• Manganese has gone from being perceived as a commonplace alloy metal primarily used in steel production to being a key metal in the EV / energy storage revolution due to its prominent role in lithium-ion battery formulations. But not all manganese is fit for processing downstream to a material suitable for battery applications.
• Almost half of today’s lithium-ion batteries contain manganese, a figure that is expected to grow to above 60% by 2030. Global demand forecasts indicate that more high-purity manganese mines and processing plants are required than for any other battery metal.¹
• There is currently no domestic supply and no active mines in North America, which is why manganese is listed as a critical mineral in the US and Canada (Canada-US Joint Action Plan on Critical Minerals Collaboration (2020).
• Major EV and cathode material producers are increasing manganese in lithium-ion battery chemistries. As a result, manganese cathode demand is expected to grow by over 600% by 2040.²

1. www.cpmgroup.com
2. www.benchmarkminerals.com

Mineral Resource

Emily has an Indicated Mineral Resource estimate of 5.69Mt of 19.2% Mn and 23.02% Fe together with an Inferred Mineral Resource Estimate of 777.8Kt of 22.48% Mn and 22.15% Fe

US legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) is a huge boost to stimulating downstream cell and battery demand, but… 
Approx. 50% of IRA compliant critical materials come from “Foreign Entities of Concern”, with China maintaining its dominance over chemical conversion (Benchmark Mineral Intelligence) 

• With a 70% deficit of domestic supply, the US will require almost three-quarters of Free Trade Agreement supply to meet demand, which is not possible given maturity of supply chain contracts. 
• High purity manganese demand will accelerate as the US battery market continues to grows 
• 1TWh of additional battery capacity to be built in North America by 2032, with nine Gigafactories (316GWh) in the last 12 months. 
• 242GWh of capacity was added to the US pipeline following the announcement of the IRA (e.g., LG Chem announced it will spend $3.2B to build cathode production). 
• The US is growing at double the pace of Europe, with the latter forecasting a battery supply shortage.