Karl Kottmeier, CEO and Paul Schubach, COO of EMP Metals (OTCQB: EMPPF | CSE: EMPS) believe the recent uptrend in lithium prices is sending a strong signal that it may be entering another bull cycle. The duo break down the main trends they&#x27;re watching in the lithium market, as well as discussing how EMP Metals fits into the picture, with their plan to become a leading lithium producer in Saskatchewan. EMP Metals Website: https://empmetals.com Follow EMP Metals on X: https://x.com/EMP_MetalsCorp Disclaimer: Commodity Culture was compensated by EMP Metals for producing this interview. Jesse Day is not a shareholder of EMP Metals. Nothing contained in this video is to be construed as investment advice, do your own due diligence. Subscribe to the FREE Commodity Culture Newsletter: https://readplaza.com/commodityculture Follow Jesse Day on X: https://x.com/jessebday Commodity Culture on Youtube: https://youtube.com/c/CommodityCulture

Is Lithium the Next Major Bull Market? Supply 'Just Not There' as Prices Fly: Karl Kottmeier and Paul Schubach

Commodity Culture

# Full Transcript

**Podcast:** Commodity Culture

## Participants

- **Jesse Day** (Commodity Culture)
- **Paul Schubach** (EMP Metals)
- **Karl Kottmeier** (EMP Metals)

## Transcript

The following podcast is brought to you by EMP Metals. Enjoy! This is the Commodity Culture Podcast, where we interview prominent investors, fund managers, analysts, and company CEOs to give you an edge when it comes to investing in the commodity space.

Hello everybody and welcome into Commodity Culture, where our goal is to make you a better investor in the commodities sector. My name is Jesse Day. Today is June 9th, 2026. And before we dive into the standard disclaimer, nothing here is investment advice. Do your own due diligence. And my guests today are the COO and CEO of EMP Metals, a Canadian-based lithium exploration and development company focused on large-scale resources using direct lithium extraction.

It's Paul Schubach and Karl Kottmeier. Great to have you both on the program. Thanks, Jesse. Well, I want to start things off by discussing the lithium market and the main catalyst that you currently see driving it and what the supply-demand dynamics look like as we sit here today. Karl, I'll go to you for this one. Yeah, thanks, Jesse.

You've seen a very strong return in the price of lithium out of China in the past year or so, which is obviously a welcome from our perspective. And really what's driving that is global EV use and energy storage. So you've got tremendous demands now and people understand that the lithium supply is just not there. So prices have really taken a big swing to the upside, which we are certainly happy with.

Well, let's touch on that because, as you mentioned, the lithium carbonate price having quite a run over the past year up approximately 170% year over year. We are now still a far ways away from the highs in 2022, but it appears there could be plenty of upside ahead. Would you agree with that? What are your thoughts on the recent price action? Do you think there's a point where we ever make it back to those old highs?

I'm not sure that we'll make it back to the crazy heights, but I think you're definitely going to see plus 20,000 a ton here going forward for the long term. EV demand and energy storage are just enormous drivers of this. And you know, you're looking at 12% annual growth through 2035 is basically what most reasonable prognosticators are thinking. And, you know, it's difficult to bring big lithium projects online.

And so, you know, from our perspective, DLE is a tremendous new way to source lithium. So and it's in this new tech. So we think this is going to be a tremendous way to access the market. You mentioned both EV as well as grid storage. I want to read a quote from Oregon Group. It says grid storage, grid scale storage systems built with lithium iron phosphate batteries are now lithium's fastest growing demand sector.

Could you walk us through this new dominant source of lithium demand and how you ex...

Is Lithium the Next Major Bull Market? Supply 'Just Not There' as Prices Fly: Karl Kottmeier and Paul Schubach

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.

Is Lithium the Next Major Bull Market? Supply 'Just Not There' as Prices Fly: Karl Kottmeier and Paul Schubach

Transcript

Built for investment professionals

Every day you wait, your competitors are findingedge in conversations you're not hearing.

Every day you wait, your competitors are finding
edge in conversations you're not hearing.