South African Licences, page-3

Perth-based businessman Jason Brewer arrived in Johannesburg October 2 with the view to round off weeks of talks for the purchase of South African vanadium permits.

The licences should eventually be purchased by Baraka Energy & Resources, the Australian junior of which Brewer became a board member in August. Along with corporate lawyer Chris Zielinski and financial advisor Patrick Glovac, Brewer managed to convince Baraka's shareholders to dismiss the senior management for the company to take a new direction and focus on vanadium, a metal used in the growing energy storage market. Baraka's initial core activity had been in hydrocarbons and helium. With Brewer's experience in Africa, especially Congo-K, his push for this switch to battery metals comes as little surprise. He is the head of cobalt explorer Winmar Resources and lithium surveyor Force Commodities (AMI 421).

As well as their new focus on South Africa's vanadium potential, Baraka's new directors also looked into Namibia's reserves. The firm also holds a stake in a vanadium deposit in the Philippines.