If the world wants to reduce its carbon footprint in hopes of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, it’s going to take a lot.
Sure, that means renewables like solar panels, wind turbines and hydroelectric power…
The whole endeavor is a heck of a lot more involved than just slapping it all on the power grid as it exists and calling it a day.
To truly replace that infrastructure we’re going to have to replace base load power plants that have the ability to increase the amount of juice they pump out on demand.
So we’re going to need batteries — loads and loads of them.
Batteries in our homes, our cars and in the power grid, which will mean a lot of green for lithium mining stocks.
Lithium Mining Stocks: The Revolution Will Be Monetized
Unfortunately for the environmental crowd, batteries don’t grow on trees. No, they require several different heavy metals like cobalt, nickel, aluminum, manganese and lithium.
Of course, all of these metals need to be mined if we want to meet modern energy demand, and mining operations aren’t cheap.
But that’s at the grid scale, which isn’t ready for prime time just yet. So to get a better scope of what’s involved, let’s take a step back and figure out what it will take to solve a smaller problem — electrifying the driving fleet.
At the moment, it takes roughly a ton of lithium metal to build around 90 electric cars.
In the years leading up to the pandemic, global new car sales totalled around 97 million units. So to completely replace that figure, it will take about 1.07 million tons of lithium metal.
If we want to meet that mark, some napkin math suggests we would need to increase lithium production by about tenfold from where it sits.
Lithium is one of the cornerstones needed to solve this problem, and it’s going to take a lot of time and money to build out the infrastructure. As that happens, there are going to be loads of opportunities to capitalize on this trend.
One name that’s been seeing some longer-dated bullish call flow is Lithium Americas Corp. (NYSE: LAC). The firm has operations in Nevada and Argentina, and it’s worth a look — IF the market pulls back from its recent highs.
Check out the video below and let’s talk about lithium mining stocks. Don’t forget you can follow me @LanceIppolito on Twitter, Instagram and our YouTube channel for more trading insights and tips. And as always, you can find me right here talking stocks and options trading — and printing money — on WealthPress.com!
