The future new CEO will most likely come from whatever THIRD partner comes on board which integrates NAL carbonate southern HUB with Moblan Northern HUB ...., and perhaps even ending at NEW fully integrated facility at thE newly talked about Baie-Comeau .
And the thing about the Baie-Commeau location is that not only does it fit all the logistical criteria of a deep water port being located more at the mouth of the St Lawrence seaway and a decent 563.6 kilometers better off from an Import / Export point of view , it has already been long established in many ways as a future critical minerals HUB with the nearby location ( 150 kilometers northwest of Baie-Comeau.) of St-Georges Eco-mining's ' Julie Critical & Strategic Minerals Project.
And whilst they are relatively smallish at a market cap of only C$25.09 million ( A$28.2 million ) , they are still some 4 times larger at that value than the somewhat ' hopeful ' LU7.....
And what I like about Baie-Comeau location if you compare say to what Rock Tech Lithium has recently done with their partnership with the BMI Group which is the parent company to the Bioveld Group and whom secure the idled ' paper mill ' for Rock Tech's Thunder Bay Hydroxide aspirations ..., is that not only does Baie-Comeau also have another of those much desired LARGE former paper mill sites ...., complete with Rotary Kiln and other heat transfer , piping etc - It also has well established access to deep water port infrastructure as well as nearby Hydro facilities which were formerly owned by Resolute Forest ( now Jackson Wijaya's Paper Excellence's ) which was previously shuttered back in 2019 -2020 along with their other sister mill at AMOS....
And we all should know by now the obvious sought after synergies that these HUGE previous paper mill facilities offer up and have in common with chosen sites for Lithium Chemicals production which predominantly include Hydroxide production.
I mean you only have to reflect back on Nemaska's second chosen site in Shawinigan Quebec , to Rock Tech's Red Rock site .....to Sayona's FIRST vaunted and talked about site at Amos .....to now significant strategic minerals processing HUB talk surrounding Baie-Comeau and the just so it happens to include the ' idled ' and available former paper mill....
But what I also like about the Baie-Comeau location is that whilst it is some 11 - 12 hours away from La Corne and around 9 -10 hours from Moblan , there has been much interest in the studies and expectations of a long awaited SECOND trans Canada ( Servicing Inland North Quebec and the Dolbeau-Mistassini line which is designed to increase International Trade by extending this proposed line to the rail and marine terminal at Baie-Comeau. And this project goes beyond just Quebec and has been under the studies microscope of previous Ministers of Canada Federal Transport Ministry.
So then when you put together the very innovative and specialized ' NEW ' system for processing lithium which St-George Eco-Mining Corp has been working on through its metallurgical technologies subsidiary St-Georges Metallurgy , you can then see a further angle as to why Baie-Comeau could be the perfect site location from all aspects.
Especially when you consider that the 4 times larger than LU7 St.-Georges Eco-Mining Corp and their applied processes incorporates the much desired ' closed loop ' and circularly green approach of Battery Recycling into the equation. So effectively , it also is dealing with the processing of black mass at whatever future facility is ultimately envisaged by Quebec. And it does this end through another subsidiary EVSX . St-Georges Eco-Mining Copr also expanded into the complex ' Indigo ' Hydrogen with another one of its subsidiary's H2SX which also support its metallurgical process the allows battery recycling and lithium hydroxide production to ' concurrently ' co-exists or to work side by side if you like.
So I guess if one has to visualize a truly independent and strategic minerals supply chain , at least in a globalized sense of the definition , a location like Baie-Comeau would certainly tick all the boxes because not only is it equally advantageous to competing for and receiving as imports , the waste batteries requiring re-cycling , but also is logistically situated in a significantly better EXPORT location to those ports located more inland past Trois-Rivers , Quebec ....and even further along into the Welland canal and into the various great lakes lock systems to where Rock Tech's proposed site will be at Red Rock.
I mean horses for courses of course , and longer term it wo't matter if your Hydroxide Chemicals operation is in Thunder Bay , or Becancour because it will all find its way to the most economical distribution / production point. But at the end of the day , you don't really get much better a location if you can secure the Mill at Baie-Comeau than that deep water port at the moth of the St Lawrence with plenty of proposed NATIONAL rail and inter-model infrastructure which has been purposefully thought out and designed to service the Norther Regions of Quebec and a second options to the already existing trans Canada rail network located further south.
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