Article content

In 2015, Vancouver junior-mining financier Brian Paes-Braga bet that it would be good business to get into supplying materials for fossil-fuel-free transportation.

This week, the 29-year-old Paes-Braga and his partners in the venture they founded, Lithium X Energy Corp., cashed in on that bet with a $265-million deal to sell the company to Chinese firm NextView New Energy Lion Hong Kong Ltd.

We apologize, but this video has failed to load.

tap here to see other videos from our team. Try refreshing your browser, or Founder of Vancouver lithium venture cashes in on decarbonizing the economy Back to video

For shareholders, the sale is a good pay out for the $50 million they’ve raised to secure lithium-development projects, Paes-Braga said, with the cornerstone deposit being a proposal to extract lithium carbonate from salt water in Argentina.

“For me, the reason I did this company in the first place (is that) I’m a big believer weaning the world off fossil fuels,” Paes-Braga said. “That was the mission of the company.”

Now, provided the deal is completed, it will be NextView New Energy that will develop Lithium X’s assets, including the flagship Sal de los Angeles property in Argentina, to supply lithium batter manufacturers in China.