Nextsource Materials Inc (NSRCF)

[riverrock]

Something to keep an eye on...

The initial article is a bit dated (about seventeen months) and covers Swatch's intent to enter the battery market for electric cars.

https://cleantechnica.com/2015/12/04/swatch-announces-bold-move-ev-batteries/

Swatch Group has a market cap of about $20.4B.

An interesting excerpt from the above article concerned Swatch's initial interest in the Smart Car. Concerning the Smart Car.

Excerpt..
The timing back then just wasn’t quite right and really fell off the table when the whole deal took an awkward left turn after Swatch signed a contract with Daimler-Benz AG and created the smart car. Swatch was paired with Mercedes, which came out of the partnership with a 51 to 49 percent controlling interest in smart and took the brand in a different direction without much input from Swatch. Interesting fact of the day — “smart” is actually an amalgamation of the “s” from Swatch, “m” from Mercedes, and “art” representing the experimental, creative spirit of the new brand, which can still be seen in smart cars today even though the brand has since been fully integrated into Mercedes, which bought out Swatch’s remaining interest years ago.

Other excerpts....
Swatch has created a car before and pushed hard for cleaner versions of it.

Swatch has been building batteries for decades, so it’s not beyond plausible that it has developed a superior chemistry.

The CEO of Swatch, Nicolas G Hayek, is a serial entrepreneur and has started quite a few companies, with many that push the borders on what’s possible.

Belenos Clean Power (a fully owned subsidiary of Swatch), which developed the revolutionary battery in partnership with the prestigious Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (aka ETHZ), was actually created in 2008. note: I believe Swatch's interest in Belenos is presently 51%. Some market analysts seem to have negative opinions on Swatch, but everyone has an opinion.

One should keep an eye on Swatch as it's developing a vanadium based battery.

Some further news releases.

http://www.caradvice.com.au/510858/swiss-watchmaker-swatch-pioneers-new-electric-vehicle-battery-technology/

excerpt...
According to a report by TwentyTwoTen, Belenos Clean Power’s battery advantage comes from a patented compound used to develop its battery cells. The patented compound uses vanadium rather than rare raw materials, which makes the batteries cheaper to mass produce.

But, the biggest advantages are weight saving and reduced charging time. In comparison to the Panasonic supplied battery packs fitted to Tesla vehicles, the vanadium powered battery pack weighs a third less than the Panasonic equivalent and also charges twice as fast.

“The car industry needs electro-mobility more than ever.”

Swatch began production of the patented batteries at its Renata watch battery production facility in June 2016. While the company undertakes trials, production will be capped at 200 units per day for battery packs in various sizes.

Electric bikes, scooters and drones will be the first port of call before the battery technology is ready to be tested in cars later this year.

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The watchmaker Swatch Group has signed an agreement with the Chinese Geely Group for use of its innovative new battery.
note: it is presently an MOU.

http://www.swatchgroup.com/en/group_profile/innovation_powerhouse/industry_4_0_overview/a_revolutionary_battery_by_belenos

excerpt
Joint production of the revolutionary battery in China could also start as early as 2017, with the technology and powder for the cathode being provided by Belenos. The battery developed in Switzerland is already protected by 20 patents. The ultimate goal is now to obtain certification of the battery for use in electric vehicles on Chinese roads.

Since it uses a vanadium powder Energier Resource Investor's should keep an eye on the actual initiation of work by Geely Motors.