Interview Series: Chapter 2 — Why Cobalt, Why Arizona?
EVelution Energy’s founders explain the strategic choice behind building America’s first cobalt processing facility in Yuma, Arizona.
In Chapter 2 of our exclusive interview series, Michael Gibson, Managing Director of USAdvisors.org, continues his conversation with Navaid Alam and Gil Michel-Garcia, the founders of EVelution Energy. This segment explores the global supply chain dynamics, geopolitical necessity, and strategic location of the project.
“We’re not doing anything different than China. We’re simply repatriating and reindustrializing cobalt production—right here in the United States.”
— Gil Michel-Garcia, EVelution Energy
The discussion highlights:
Why cobalt is critical to the U.S. economy, national defense, and EV manufacturing
How Arizona’s permitting-friendly environment and local relationships enabled rapid project progress
How EVelution Energy secured partnerships with Glencore, Trafigura, and ERG for raw materials sourcing
The importance of offering a non-Chinese supply chain alternative to major companies like Stellantis, GM, and the U.S. Department of Defense
With EB-5 financing provided by Intermestic Capital and EB5 Hortizon, this project offers foreign investors the opportunity to participate in a transformative American industrial initiative.
Watch Chapter 2 of the interview now: Click link below
Yuma, Arizona | Powered by EB5 Horizon + Intermestic Capital
Evelution Energy Interview Chapter 2
Michael Gibson, USAdvisors, interviews Gil Michele-Garcia, Executive Vice President, Evelution Energy
Transcript
Evelution Energy Interview Chapter 2
Michael Gibson, Managing Director of US Advisors (USAdvisors.org) an independent Registered Investment Advisory Firm. Michael also owns and runs EB-5 Investments (eb5projects.com) and is an EB5 industry expert.
Navaid Alam, President & Chief Executive Officer
Gil Michel-Garcia, Executive Vice President, General Counsel, Treasurer & Secretary
Michael Gibson, speaking
Now, now Gil, Navaid mentioned off-take. And there's a lot of things that I'm sure our, our listeners may not be familiar with commodity processing. You identified cobalt as one of those resources that in the United States is not being produced. Hence, the need for the factory. Tell us why was it your thought to come to Arizona? What is what is the cobalt going to be beneficial for in terms of, let's say, instead of purchasing it from China or from another place? Where is it where is it primarily produced in the world? And why should we be producing it in the United States?
Gil Michele-Garcia, speaking
Well, first of all, thanks, Mike. There is no, or no material, amount of cobalt in United States in terms of mines. So, cobalt is a mineral. It's a critical mineral that occurs in conjunction with either nickel or copper. So there are mines like the ones in Congo, which we’re sourcing, where cobalt occurs in conjunction with copper. And there are mines like the ones in Indonesia that have become famous because of the production of China and the growth that are nickel based. So cobalt is, is one of these materials that is needed not just for the for the EV market but also for aerospace and defense applications. And when we looked at, doing this, Arizona became key. One, because Navaid’s family and ourselves, we have experience operating in Arizona. I mean, I ran ADARCO (Grupo Mexico’s AZ mining subsidiary) all of our international financing operations for a while. So I'm very familiar with Arizona.
Michael Gibson, speaking
And that, and that was with when you were with the Grupo Mexico and now, now with your own company here.
Gil Michele-Garcia, speaking
And, and so we had the property, and most importantly, we had very good relationships with the local community. And that those strong relationships allowed us to be able to get the permitting quite quickly. As most of your…
Michael Gibson, speaking
And that's gonna be, for our listeners who don't understand in the United States, environmental issues are top and foremost typically when you apply to do any kind of metals processing or almost any kind of manufacturing.
Gil Michel-Garcia, speaking
Yeah, getting the permits is the most difficult thing. So our ability to have very good relationships with a community and long standing relationship with them allowed us to be able to get the permitting. So we have the land, we got the permitting. And then our experience, Navaid’s and ours trading initially copper and then subsequently cobalt as commodities, physical commodities traders. We have the experience to be able to reach out to both the clients that would supply us. And then we would have the credibility buy from them. We’re buying from the three largest non Chinese suppliers in the world. So Glencore, Trafigura, and ERG all based on the Congo. And the, the fact this would be the first and largest Cobalt processing facility in the United States, allowed us to do the outreach to large clients. Stellatis, GM, Umicore, LG Energy and also the Defense Department. To be able to offer them a unique off-take of US refined cobalt. That comes, in our particular case, from the Congo. And we're also looking at expanding sources as well as from Chile. Because there is none in the United States. So even China that controls 75% of the refined cobalt market in the world. Imports all of its cobalt to process in China. So we're not doing anything different. We're essentially repatriating and reindustrializing the United States and creating a production facility for this critical mineral. Necessary for our defense and for the growth of the energy sector in the United States controlled by American investors