Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Thank you for inviting me to appear before the committee.
My name is Benoît La Salle, and I am the founder and owner of several mining sector businesses.
We operate internationally in the field of metals that are required to manufacture batteries: nickel, copper, cobalt and graphite. The only thing we're lacking is a lithium project. The race to acquire battery-related metals is the reality we face every day.
Prof. Dahn just outlined the technology and know-how necessary to manufacture batteries. Canada is a leader in this field, but, for reasons I don't understand, we haven't securely protected the inputs required in that process. That was recently brought home to us with respect to lithium, when Quebec sold its lithium projects to Australian interests, and also recently in Ontario with the Noront Resources project, which was to be acquired by BHP but is about to be sold to Australians. This is an everyday situation for us. We're mining one of the largest natural graphite deposits in the world, located in Guinea, and foreign businesses approach us every day.
Prof. Dahn said that processing companies should be supported, and he's absolutely right. The Netherlands, France, Belgium and Norway have asked us to build processing units for natural graphite, our raw material, in their countries.
The same is true of nickel. We're mining a nickel-rich massive sulfide deposit, which is very rare. We have sulfides here in Canada, including in the magnificent Voisey's Bay deposit, which was discovered in the 1990s. It was sold to Vale, a Brazilian company, several years ago.
What I'm seeing these days is demand for all the metals needed to electrify transportation. They're also in demand in many other fields, such as communications, 5G technology and information technology. All these metals are used in batteries and thus in the electrification of transportation, aeronautics, communications and defence. We're very much in demand.
As I mentioned, we have a massive sulfide deposit in Ivory Coast that's rich in nickel, copper and cobalt; it's a major find.
Do you know who's coming to visit us on site next week? A Chinese team. When their representatives saw our results, they immediately called us to express interest. They intend to come and see us and want to support and finance our operation.
Our group consists of a number of Canadian corporations based in Montreal. We mine our resources around the world, but the fact is that a real metals race is shaping up every day.
When we met eight months ago, I told you we were going to lose control of lithium. Do you know how high the price of lithium carbonate has gone up since we spoke? Did you know the price of lithium carbonate has risen 743% in the past 14 months? What Quebec sold to the Australians for $80 million is now worth $1.2 billion. The price of lithium hydroxide is up 504%, cobalt 100% and nickel sulphate 59%.
The next resource to explode will be graphite. We have graphite in Canada, in Ontario and Quebec. We also have an enormous deposit in Conakry, Guinea. People want to form partnerships with us because the reality is that it's all well and good to have the technology and to say we know how to manufacture batteries, but if the plant doesn't have inputs, we can't make anything with water, air and sand. We need nickel to produce cathodes and natural graphite to make anodes.
There's going to be a war for inputs. The Chinese, Australians and Europeans are positioning themselves, and we're helping them. We're selling them our natural resources; that's what we're doing. I have the resources so I'll work with people who want to work with us, but what's been done with lithium is unacceptable. I've said this openly, I've said it in the newspapers, but the deals have nevertheless been made and we've sold our projects.
Thank you.