Sean Boss:
Alex Hanly, CEO of Lithium Universe is here today to provide an update on the company’s recent activities as it continues its journey towards closing the lithium conversion gap in North America. Alex, thanks for joining us today. What update do you have for investors?
Alex Hanly:
Good day, Sean. Thanks for having me. The update that we have today is really sort of an update on our definitive feasibility study that we’ve been progressing over the last six months. We’ve brought Hatch on board as our engineering consultant. This is the company that previously delivered the Jangsu lithium carbonate plant previously for Galaxy Resources and Iggy Tan, and now we’ve got them on board to deliver the DFS for us. What we’re doing is we’re recreating the very successful and proven Jiangsu design in Becancour, Quebec, Canada. Now we’re using proven technology, the same supplies, same equipment, same flow sheet. So we’re really reducing all of the technical risk and technical complexity with going with a very proven design. So the update today was really just to wrap up and inform a lot of our stakeholders and shareholders around how we’re progressing and our target for the end of the year.
Sean Boss:
And you recently visited Canada. How was the trip and what was its purpose?
Alex Hanly:
Many different purposes. Obviously. We had our chairman, Iggy Tan, we had Dr. Jingyuan Liu and Pat Scallan, the key directors and lithium expertise in our group over to Canada to really unpack a lot of the discussions that we’ve been having over the last nine months. So, we’ve been engaging with the provincial government in Quebec, also within Becancour itself through the mayors. That was sort of a lot of the provincial discussions around bringing this project in. Obviously, they’re very excited to have a project that’s coming in to fill a huge deficit and gap within their supply chain. Even on a federal level, when we went to Ottawa, we met with key federal departments that were very eager to see how we’re going to close the gap in North America.
Sean Boss:
So everything seems to be ticking along nicely, but what’s the strategy for the remainder of 2024?
Alex Hanly:
The strategy obviously is to keep on working with Hatch to complete the DFS. That is really the big milestone for us in the next six months. In parallel with that, it is going to be a lot of ongoing discussions, not only with the existing provincial and federal government, but also with the OEMs, battery technology companies and a lot of the battery and cell manufacturers across the world. So what we’re doing is, rather than waiting for the DFS to be complete and then going and doing this sequentially, what we’re doing is lining up all of these key potential partners so that we can tie that up once the DFS comes to hand. So there’s a lot of work at the moment to really line up that feedstock and offtake for the refinery and it should be a very exciting six months for the company.
Sean Boss:
Alex, do you have any final thoughts for investors?
Alex Hanly:
The company is well placed to fill a gap, right? A huge gap in the North American supply chain, a gap that is currently getting a lot of press in North America and what is seen as the biggest bottleneck in decoupling from China. So there’s a very strong push in North America, both across Canada and the US, to really onshore the supply chain. And obviously Lithium Universe is in a prime position to really extrapolate that huge opportunity.
Sean Boss:
Thanks for joining us, Alex. We look forward to chatting soon.
Alex Hanly:
Thanks, Sean.