Last week, I was at the Vancouver Resource Investment Conference. It’s one of the largest natural resource conferences in the world.
It brings together marquee miners, geologists, asset managers, and precious metal and raw materials specialists. I spoke on several panels and met with lots of industry leaders.
The reason I was there was because Canada is set to play a leading role in the New Energy transition. That’s because it’s a key source of some of the metals needed for the rechargeable batteries that power electric vehicles (EVs).
And right now, it is seeing huge government and private investment in the battery metal mining and battery production supply chain.
So today, I’m sharing some of the key insights I picked up while at the conference in a short video I recorded for you.
Just click on the image below to watch it. It’s just over four minutes long.
And as always, I’ve also included a transcript underneath.
I hope you enjoy my video update from Vancouver. Let me know what you think at [email protected].
Happy investing, and I’ll be in touch again soon.
Regards,
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Nomi Prins
Editor, Inside Wall Street with Nomi Prins
TRANSCRIPT
Hi, everyone. Nomi here. I’m coming to you from Vancouver, British Columbia, Vancouver Harbor.
I was honored to have been invited to speak at the annual Vancouver Resource Investment Conference.
It’s one of the largest natural resource conferences in the world. It brings together marquee miners, geologists, asset managers, and precious metal and raw materials specialists.
A Distortion Opportunity
We have been talking a lot here in these pages about New Energy. And New Energy was definitely front and center at the Vancouver conference. I’ll get to more about that shortly.
But as I’ve been writing for the past six months, we are living in a Great Distortion between the financial markets and the real economy. And it has spawned five main sectors of opportunity for you.
One of them is New Energy. The other four are Infrastructure, Transformative Technology, Meta-Reality, and New Money.
My New Energy theme brings me to Canada and Vancouver, which is one of my favorite cities.
Canada’s Role in New Energy
Canada is one of the top global producers of gold, platinum, uranium, and aluminum. It’s also a global leader in the minerals required for the manufacturing of New Energy battery technologies, like graphite and nickel.
Canada is also a vital partner to the U.S. and its economy. In the space of New Energy and materials, that alliance is going to help the U.S. compete against China. And that’s important.
Vancouver is the epicenter of Canada’s rich natural resources businesses. Vancouver has long been considered one of the mining capitals of the world. In this city, well over 800 miners and juniors are headquartered. And I’ve met many of them this week.
They are thrilled that Canada’s federal budget now includes C$1.6 billion to accelerate the production of the minerals required for electric vehicle (EV) battery supply chains.
And also, that so much private sector funding is flowing into the extraction process for battery minerals.
Electric Vehicle Market About to Take Off
While in Vancouver, I addressed hundreds of people eager to invest in the New Energy arena. I had conversations with the most prominent voices in the natural resource space.
And one thing I heard over and over again is this:
The demand for electric vehicles (EVs) is about to lift up.
That means the batteries and technologies that fuel them are crucial to that trajectory. The Vancouver area saw EV ownership double between 2019 and 2020. This means there are nearly twice the number of EVs on the road in Canada as in the United States.
And in Canada, one of every 20 newly registered cars in 2021 was an EV. That’s 5%.
In the U.S., it’s 1%. But those figures will grow.
Car dealerships in Canada have seen an incredible spike just now for new EVs. More than half of Canadian dealerships had no EVs in inventory because they were such a hot commodity.
As the president of the Vancouver Electric Vehicle Association said, “Canada has a lot of natural resources and a lot of experience with natural resource extraction. We really can stand to be a leader in battery production.”
And that’s what I have been hearing repeatedly throughout my boots-on-the-ground research here.
How You Can Profit
Recent geopolitical events and record-breaking gas prices have underscored how the shift to EVs (and to more efficient energy sources, in general) is not just a trend; it’s the path to greater energy independence.
That’s why we are laser-focused on the mining, metals, and minerals powering this New Energy space. We’re following the public and private money pouring into this truly exciting sector.
In order for you to take advantage of the broad New Energy sector, we recommend the VanEck Rare Earth/Strategic Metals ETF (REMX).
REMX follows the global Rare Earth/Strategic Metals index, which we believe will power the New Energy sector for years to come.
Happy investing, and I’ll talk to you soon.