Canada's Gratomic Enters EV Battery Supply Chain With Forge Nano

Gratomic Inc. (OTC: CBULF) has inked a deal with Forge Nano, Inc., a leader in surface engineering and precision nano-coating technology used for lithium-ion batteries.

What Happened: A Toronto-based graphite mining company, Gratomic announced Wednesday it had engaged in a partnership with Forge Nano. Forge Nano will then prepare Gratomic’s graphitic material for electric vehicle battery anode material using an Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) coating process.

“Forge Nano's ALD coating technology for use in lithium-ion battery anode applications could result in significant gains in performance to Gratomic's SG16 battery graphite compounds,” Gratomic said in the press release.

Forge Nano’s investment partners include Volkswagen AG (OTC: VWAGY) and LG Technology Ventures, the venture capital investment arm of LG Group. Another division of LG Group, LG Energy Solution, is one of Tesla Inc’s (NASDAQ: TSLA) battery suppliers.

See also: This Canadian Graphite Miner Could Be Gearing Up For A Huge Year

Why It Matters: With the EV market charging up, battery minerals are becoming highly sought after and scarce. On March 18, U.S. government officials met with a number of EV manufacturers including Tesla, and mining companies such as Talon Metals Corp. (OTC: TLOFF) and Livent Corp (NYSE: LTHM) to discuss ways to boost production of Canada’s battery metals.

Canada currently mines 13 of the 35 metals needed for EV batteries and U.S. companies are having difficulty meeting EV production goals amid the battery metal shortage.

“Demand is no problem, but near-term cell supply makes it hard to scale Semi. This limitation will be less onerous next year,” wrote Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla on Twitter March 30. His tweet was in response to a report that Tesla had received an order for 10 semi-trucks from MHX Leasing.

Price Action: Shares of Gratomic are up 5.99% at $1.77 Wednesday morning.

Related article: 5 Canadian Mining Companies To Watch As US Looks North For EV Battery Minerals

(Photo: Albert Hyseni via Unsplash)