Today we’re happy to announce that we have recently had the opportunity to sit down with none other than their CEO, Zayn Kalyan. The following are a few excerpts from that interview where Zayn gives us a background about himself, his company, and the future of the battery metals space within Canada!

The interview commenced with Zayn telling us a little bit about himself and how he initially started as a software engineer in corporate finance “supporting entrepreneurs in the tech space for the past 5, 6 years, helping not only financial companies but also providing them strategic advisory” - early on in his career this resulted in the success of a plethora of the firms he worked with.

When asked about his initial interest in mining, Zayn said that he didn’t even think he would have been focused on the space, let alone have actually been overseeing a mining company, but his passion was kindled at the end of last year when he “came to the realization that with the compression in the tech industry and the spectre of the market turning over, the hyper-growth story is coming back to looking at actually making money” and that “some of the things that are going to be critical in a high rate environment are commodities, hard assets, real assets, and that the kind of things that are needed to foster economic growth and technological innovation are these natural resources”.

He went on to say that “while mining is kind of archaic - it's really core to technological innovation. With a changing macroeconomic climate, you see countries going back to building domestic supply chains, and North America is now coming to the realization that they need to reinvigorate their industrial sector”.

We then asked how Zayn landed on the extensive portfolio of metals the company is seeking to explore. With that, he answered that “what's going to be necessary beyond traditional energy like oil, are the other kinds of metals that are going to be needed to really foster the technological and green revolutions”. That said, he thought back to an interview he watched featuring Robert Freeland, where he explained that the amount of copper and other metals necessary to ensure everyone can be driving an electric car, or that renewable energy and solar can be widely adopted at a low cost lays well above current supply levels. Zayn mentioned that “for these things to happen, we're gonna have to mine a hell of a lot more resources, including lithium, which is going to be imperative for renewable energy to be practical” - thus, the idea and more importantly, the need for Infinity Stone was created. 

Going forward with the idea, Zayn’s vision was to “build a diversified and de-risked platform for early-stage battery metals projects that was attractive to a millennial audience. Obviously, the name and the branding that's gone behind the business really speaks to that. As for those who don't know the thesis or the premise of the infinity stones lies within the Marvel Universe and is that if you control all six infinity stones, you control the universe - and that kind of idea that several battery metals are going to be necessary to fuel the green revolution, and the future of technology, is where we came up with the vision and message we wanted to convey”.

Furthermore, Quebec and Ontario are well publicized as being some of the world’s friendliest jurisdictions for mining. Zayn explained how “The Fraser Institute rates Quebec number 6 in the world and Ontario number 11 in terms of the best mining jurisdictions to operate in. Obviously, there have been lots of government incentives to bring critical mineral production and critical mineral exploration to Canada, so the government's been very supportive, especially with that 30% tax credit which goes above and beyond the typical flow-through credit”. Furthermore, Zayn mentioned how $GEMS is “obviously operating in Canadian dollars, so it's much cheaper than in the rest of the world where you're typically spending USD to keep the lights on. We were getting quoted $110 per meter to drill in Quebec, which is probably some of the cheapest drilling in the world.”

Further to the pros of their Canadian base, “it's also close to home - investors understand it. We’re close to infrastructure, and very close for shipping as well. Quebec and Ontario both have ports and there’s great infrastructure in both provinces - it's just been one of the best places to operate within and we're very happy here.”

The interview with Zayn closed out with the Coachmen asking what else he may see on the horizon in terms of benefits for North American users, on top of whether or not this industry is heading in a direction favoured by inflation. Zayn explained that “one of the industry’s biggest drivers today is the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). I think you're seeing so many private companies invest, whether Panasonic or Tesla, trying to focus on building this supply chain in North America - and the government is right there behind them. I also think this is just the beginning. In the battery metal space, you are going to see active government investment in tax scripts, etc. You're seeing this resurgence of real stuff, manufacturing - and battery metals are at the forefront of this. With that I believe we’re going to be one of the performing sectors over the next 12 months, thus, $GEMS being a great value proposition for investors.”

That concludes our interview with Infinity Stone Ventures CEO, Zayn Kalyan - we thank him for his time and we hope you enjoyed it! Stay tuned for an even closer look at their operations, and once again, click here for our most recent article on investing in this exciting and innovative industry!