Is Novonix Ltd (ASX: NVX) considered an ASX lithium share?
ASX lithium stocks have been hogging the limelight in recent weeks. Thanks to massive (and mostly unexplained) jumps in valuation in recent weeks, ASX lithium stocks like Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO) and Liontown Resources Limited (ASX: LTR) are certainly in the spotlight this week. But can we count Novonix among them?
Novonix has been attracting plenty of attention of its own. The company has gained an eye-popping 54% over the past month alone, rising from $2.02 a share to the $3.11 it is commanding today.
Last month, we heard from Novonix when the company dropped its quarterly report for the three months ending 30 June 2022.
As my Fool colleague covered at the time, this saw the company report an operating cash flow loss of $7.9 million for those three months, and $9.2 million outflow from investing activities.
The company ended the quarter with $207 million in cash in the bank. However, receipts increased 25% over the quarter compared to the prior corresponding quarter.
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But can we call Novonix an ASX lithium share?
Well, to put things straight, unlike Core Lithium or Liontown, Novonix is not a lithium miner or producer. It does produce graphite. But not lithium. But the company does work extensively with the future-facing metal. So we can argue that Novonix is really a battery technology company.
Yes it does work with lithium. One of Novonix's operations involves using "an environmentally-friendly process to produce graphite anode material for lithium-ion batteries in the United States".
Novonix also works to develop methods of analysing lithium-ion batteries. The company offers ultra-high precision coulometry (UHPC) cycling and cycling tests. These help with "characterization, development, and demonstration of lithium-ion-battery components".
In this way, Novonix is arguably a lithium company. But it is perhaps more accurately described as a battery technology company. Unlike lithium stocks like Core Lithium or Liontown, Novonix, for example, wouldn't benefit from high lithium prices in the same way these producers would.
So Novonix is arguably caught in the grey zone of lithium stocks. It's certainly has involvement in lithium. But it is not a producer or a pure play lithium share like Core Lithium or Liontown.
At the current Novonix share price, this ASX battery tech company has a market capitalisation of $1.51 billion.
