Good morning, everyone.
My name is Dan Blondal. I speak French fairly well, but I'm going to address you in English, because it's much easier for me.
I left Montreal a long time ago,
so English comes easier.
I am the CEO and founder of Nano One Materials. I'm based here in Burnaby, British Columbia.
Nano One is a clean technology company. We're changing how the world makes battery materials. We have developed a battery agnostic platform for the industrial production of cathode materials used inside lithium-ion batteries.
We have 35 employees. We have 100% Canadian-grown expertise in engineering, materials science, business and financing. We have 16 patents now issued and at least another 30 pending in jurisdictions around the world, which include Canada, the U.S., China, Japan, Korea and Taiwan. We are publicly listed on the TSX Venture Exchange. We are well financed, and we are also honoured and privileged to have the ongoing financial support of SDTC and B.C.'s ICE fund.
Our processing technology uses critical mineral inputs such as lithium, nickel, manganese and cobalt to make high-performance cathode materials used in lithium-ion batteries. We differ from other chemical producers because our technology eliminates the need for intermediate products, energy and the associated costs and environmental footprint. It uses one-twentieth of the water and eliminates a significant waste stream.
As I said, this reduces cost, energy, logistics, waste, water and carbon footprint, while enhancing battery durability. Just for reference, it could save up to $1 billion for every one and half to two million electric vehicles that are made.
It all starts with mining, of course, but where does all this go? Who turns those metals into battery materials? Who puts them into cells? Who builds the battery packs that go into cars?
Unless we start making battery materials and battery cells here in North America, we will continue to ship our raw materials to Asia, only to bring them back to Canada for production. Europe is busy playing catch-up, and North America is really still at ground zero in these terms. I believe this presents a tremendous opportunity in North America.
China and the rest of Asia are well established and they did so very early, but this has left them with a fragmented and entrenched domestic supply chain that we believe is vulnerable to disruption. Necessity is also driving Europe, of course, and to a domestic, low-carbon, integrated supply chain, yet all this legacy cathode production and chemical production and supply chains persist with lots of water, waste and carbon footprint issues.
Canada is not beholden to these incumbent ways, because those systems are not yet in place. Herein lies the opportunity to be a better technology and value chain leader.
A process such as Nano One's can help integrate the supply chain in Canada and lead the world away from entrenched and wasteful methods. It can help Canadian miners gain an ESG and premium advantage over foreign producers of sulfate, hydroxide and other intermediary products. It can help car companies with ESG, cost and performance imperatives, but it will require government stimulus, private sector collaboration, implementation and supply chain integration.
We are innovators, but we are also collaborators and we are looking to move mountains. Nano One's relationships span the global battery supply chain, from responsible miners to cathode producers and OEMs. If we can leverage Canada's rich experience in responsible mining, clean energy generation, environmental stewardship, technology leadership and battery innovation, we can establish Canada as the greenest, most technologically advanced and highly integrated battery materials production ecosystem in the world.
Before it's too late and before we are forced to be reactive with me-too solutions, it is a Canada-wide strategic imperative to support the build-out of this very ecosystem.
Clearly, it's a global effort and there are opportunities all around the world, so how can we make Canada the centre of gravity for these efforts?
Thank you very much for the opportunity to speak here today.