TORONTO (miningweekly.com) – TSX- and OTC Markets Group-listed project developer Western Lithium USA has been named the number-one performer on the first ever ‘2015 OTCQX Best 50’, a ranking of 50 top performing companies, including companies such as Heineken and Zurich Insurance, that traded on the OTCQX Best Marketplace during last year.

The ranking was calculated based on an equal weighting of one-year share price performance and average daily dollar volume growth in the previous calendar year. All companies in the 2015 OTCQX Best 50 were traded on OTCQX on the last day of last year.

"As the world moves to electrification powered by lithium-ion batteries, our Nevada-based lithium molecule business is beginning to be recognised by the financial markets. My gardening equipment, mobile electronics, hybrid SUV, electric sedan are all powered by lithium-ion batteries. Consumers can now purchase a wall of lithium to power their homes. Industrial users are installing megalithium batteries for energy storage,” company president and CEO Jay Chmelauskas said.

Western Lithium early this year started operations at its Hectatone organoclay plant, in Fernley, Nevada, to supply products to the drilling industries and other markets, such as animal feedstock and industrial coatings and applications.

Western Lithium had completed a prefeasibility study (PFS) of its Kings Valley project, one of the world's largest lithium deposits, which was the source of the company’s lithium-bearing clays. The PFS examined lithium extraction from the deposit to produce lithium carbonate, mainly intended for the lithium battery sector.

The PFS had demonstrated low-cost production of lithium carbonate for lithium batteries and attracted an estimated net present value of $550-million.

Dovetailing into the company’s plans to become a major supplier of battery-grade lithium in Nevada was electric vehicle and stationary energy-storage system manufacturer Tesla Motors’ plan to build a $6-billion lithium-ion battery ‘gigafactory’ to satisfy its aggressive projections to produce about 500 000 electric vehicle batteries a year by 2020.

The clean energy leader also recently launched a new range of batteries that could power homes and commercial buildings at a fraction of current costs, highlighting the growing demand for the minerals, such as graphite, cobalt and lithium, required to make these batteries. The first batch of 38 000 home units were sold out in the first week, meaning they were sold out until mid-2016.

Western Lithium’s OTCQX-traded stock had nearly doubled in value during 2014 and had a 52-week high of $0.94 a share. Since the start of this year, the stock had gained another 48% to close at $0.72 apiece on Wednesday.

The stock performed even better on the TSX, gaining 130% in 2014 and was up 60% since the start of this year at C$0.85 on Wednesday.