Business
Piedmont Lithium currently has multiple shares and deals in the mining industry. This includes a mining partnership with Sayona Mining with a mine in Quebec. Overall, “Piedmont owns one-quarter of the Canadian mine”.[3] In summer of 2023 the mine in Quebec brought in a total of $47 million in sales and provided Piedmont with a “$22.9 million dollar profit, the first in the company’s history”.[3] Piedmont Lithium's current CEO, Keith Phillips, called the quarter of sales “transformational” for the company as stock prices rose.[3]
In September 2020, Piedmont signed a sales agreement with Tesla to supply high-purity lithium ore for up to ten years,[12] specifically to supply "spodumene concentrate ('SC6') from Piedmont's North Carolina deposit to Tesla."[13]
As of early 2021, Piedmont was exploring by drilling many sample cores across 2300 acre of land it owns or has mineral rights to in Gaston County that surface prospecting had previously shown to contain substantial hard rock mineral deposits in the surface rock.[6]
With substantial demand growth for lithium occurring in the 2020s,[14] lithium mining and production companies are growing and some are experiencing marked increases in market valuation.[6] The stock prices of Piedmont Lithium, as well as Lithium Americas and MP Materials, increased substantially in early 2021 as a result of the increased importance of lithium to the global economy.[14]
In March 2021, Piedmont Lithium Ltd proposed a "re-domiciliation from Australia to the United States" under which a newly formed US corporation, Piedmont Lithium Inc, would acquire the Australian Company, if approved by the shareholders of Piedmont Lithium Ltd.[15] Shareholders approved the proposal on April 29, 2021.[16] and the company became redomiciled as a US corporation on May 17, 2021.[2]
The North Carolina state mining permit for the $1 billion Gaston County project and its 500-foot deep mine was issued on 15 April 2024.[1] A US$1 million reclamation bond will need to be posted before site work can begin, and a local zoning variance will need to be issued.[1]
Legal Proceedings
The money garnered from the Quebec mine will be going towards Piedmont's projects in Gaston County, North Carolina and Tennessee. These projects will cost the company $1.8 billion and $800 million respectively. In the Fall of 2023, Phillips said that “[Piedmont Lithium] decided not to accept a $141.7 million federal Department of Energy (DOE) grant to help pay for the Tennessee plant”.[3] The company declined the loan because they say they need more money for the Tennessee plant. Instead, Piedmont is trying to obtain a DOE Advanced Technology Vehicle Manufacturing Loan which will give the company more money.[3]
This mine would significantly increase Piedmont Lithium's stock which will “keep investors happy”.[3] Piedmont's strategy is to meet the lithium mining demands of the US market and provide lithium to “automobile and battery makers”[3] such as Tesla. The market for electric vehicles and batteries has been expanding and Piedmont plans to “ramp up production to fill that demand”.[3]
