Speaking at the NWR Near Term Producers Conference today, Piedmont CEO Keith Phillips noted peers Core, AVZ and Liontown having market capitalisations well beyond that currently enjoyed by the US developer.
Core is headline valued by the market at about A$2.2 billion, AVZ more than $4.1 billion and Liontown in excess of $4.2 billion.
Piedmont's capitalisation is $1.5 billion.
Piedmont's primary listing is in the US, with only Canaccord Genuity in Sydney fully covering the stock in Australia, according to Phillips.
The market capitalisation disparity looks rather stark given Piedmont's favourable operational location and advanced, staged plans to be a 60,000t per annum lithium hydroxide producer including first spodumene production in around 12 months' time.
Still, Phillips believes "dramatic upside" to Piedmont's market value could result if the company meets its milestones over the next year.
He claimed meetings with strategic investors and potential partners were highlighting the attractiveness of Piedmont's scale.
In terms of the commodity market, Phillips believes prices will "remain strong indefinitely".
He also believes annual contract pricing will not be used in offtake deals in the evolving lithium sector but will instead likely reference quarterly or monthly spot prices.
That is the "way the industry is going" Phillips suggested.
