Lithium and sulphur battery tech developer Li-S Energy [ASX:LIS] released its preliminary final report for FY22 earlier today.
The lithium mining company has not performed spectacularly this year, with a decrease in share value of more than 54% and a drop of more than 10% in the last week alone.
Today shares have risen slightly (almost 5%), however, this is not enough to lift the stock from its longer-term red-line metrics.
Explorative minerals miner Core Lithium [ASX:CXO], on the other hand, may be flat today but has risen by more than 48% in the month and 139% in the year so far.
While fellow miners Arizona Lithium [ASX:AZL] and Lake Resources [ASX:LKE] have both inched up marginally today — AZL up 11% in the month and LKE rising a whopping 94% for August.
Source: tradingview.com
Li-S Energy presents 2022 highlights
Friday morning saw the lithium developer release a preliminary report for its full-year results in FY2s2, and an annual report to its investors for the year’s closure.
Li-S Energy’s highlights for the year were as follows:
- No change in revenue from ordinary activities
- Loss from ordinary activities after tax was up 272% (a total of $6,271,817)
- Net loss for the period was also up 272% (a total of $6,271,817)
- Completion of capital raise totalling $34 million
- $43.8 million reported in cash, up from 2021’s 18.6 million
- Down 99 cents per basic share earnings, with no dividends declared
The battery developer attributed its heavy losses in the year to IPO-related costs, legal fees for patents and trademarks, and consulting and administrative costs.
Li-S reported that it has now finished successful testing of its four-layer cells, which was completed earlier in the year.
Further testing can now go ahead on 10-layer and 20-layer cells in FY23, in which the company now believes its performance technology, in larger format cells with lower electrolyte loading, should maximise commercial cell density.
Once these cells are tested — and found to be of satisfactory quality — Li-S expects production of test cells for OEM partners to begin.
Outlook for Li-S Energy shares
The company stated that it believes energy storage ‘in all its forms’ is set to rapidly increase due to the growing demand for electric vehicles, drones, grid storage, and related portable devices. Li-S sees itself as at the forefront of this demand.
Li-S expressed its confidence in becoming a leading player in the market going forward. It stated:
‘Our core goal is to develop an affordable, lithium-sulphur battery with a significantly higher gravimetric energy density and comparable cycle life to existing batteries. Currently, we anticipate that these batteries can have the greatest near term impact in the drone and heavy vehicle markets and our strategic collaboration with Boeing InSitu and Janus Electric reflect that.’
The race for battery tech continues
The electric vehicle (EV) market is rapidly expanding, boosted by government initiatives and funding programs supporting production the world over.
In the US, President Joe Biden is looking to boost the local EV industry.
The EU is set on scrapping higher-emission vehicle sales entirely by 2035.
And the European Commission is looking to boost raw material output with green energy ambitions, lowering regulations around lithium, cobalt, and graphite mining and production.
The lithium-ion battery market is fast ramping up, but our energy expert, Selva Freigedo, thinks the rush means the industry will hit a supply crunch.
This could send prices for battery materials soaring even higher in 2022 and beyond.
If you’d like to know more, check out Selva’s battery tech metals report: ‘Three Ways to Play the Great EV Battery Race’ here.
Regards,
Kiryll Prakapenka,
For Money Morning
