White metals — particularly palladium — are holding their own relative to other metals. I’m keeping a close watch on one of the biggest stocks in this segment, Platinum Group Metals (PLG), explains Clif Droke, resource sector expert and editor of Cabot SX Gold & Metals Advisor.
The South African-based company is focused on platinum and palladium production and operates the Waterberg large-scale platinum group metal (PGM) resource, which has an attractive risk profile given its shallow nature. The project also has the potential to be one of the lowest-cost operations in the PGM sector.
An even bigger attraction for the company right now, however, is its partnership with Anglo American Platinum (ANGPY). The two companies have created Lion Battery Technologies to support the use of palladium and platinum in lithium battery applications.
Lion has entered into an agreement with Florida International University to further advance a research program that uses platinum and palladium to unlock the potential of Lithium Oxygen and Lithium Sulfur battery chemistry, which can perform better, by orders of magnitude, than the best-in-class Lithium-ion batteries currently on the market.
This new generation of lightweight, powerful batteries has the potential to grow to scale on the back of the attractiveness of electric vehicles (EVs) and the use of lithium batteries in other applications beyond mobility.
Given that alternative energy is one of the market’s strongest performing sectors right now, this could position PLG to significantly outperform in the coming quarters.