[Music] thank you welcome to CEO insights I'm Marilyn De Guzman with investing News Network I'm speaking with Mark Ireton president and CEO of Victory battery Metals about his company's battery metal strategy and its highly prospective lithium project in Nevada hello Mark how are you Merlin I'm good thanks and good to have you here thank you for inviting me yeah so let's start off our conversation with just a brief introduction of Victory battery metals very good so we're a junior mining


exploration company we trade on the CSE we have some portfolio properties five of them in all three of them are lithium properties and we have a copper play in BC and a nickel play in Quebec as well our three lithium properties are Front Runners for us right so I understand you've recently undergone a restructuring of the company can you talk a little bit more about that and what was the driver for that we have we have restructured and rebranded uh we hold five properties that minerals are focused on the electric vehicle


copper nickel and lithium so with these Holdings um we actually change the name of the company from Victory resources to Victory battery Metals I'm focused on this target specifically after that we went to the market with a raise a private placement of two million dollars and we were very successful in completing that so now between the five properties we hold and the funds in treasury were ready to go with all of these projects that we have which all have significant work programs uh either


underway currently or to be commenced in late spring early summer um we have strategic locations of these properties in prolific areas James Bay Quebec with our lithium property beside pmat Georgia Bay excuse me Georgia Lake lithium in Thunder Bay drink beside Rock Tech another very prolific area and our low-hanging fruit is uh Smokey lithium just in outside of Clayton Valley Nevada 20 miles from Albemarle and we have a work program a drill program underway currently which is growing exceedingly


well at this time right so um let's talk about your current Flagship Smokey lithium project what's the significance of this project as you increase your focus on battery metals yeah so it's in a Smoky Valley Nevada uh 20 miles from Albemarle Silver Peak mines the longest running in the world I believe since 1967 and the only lithium producing mine in North America there have been some world-class lithium fines they're in Creighton Valley and I believe Smokey Valley as well we're just


20 miles from American lithium's Flagship property as well and within those valleys there is so much near surface lithium-rich claystone deposit that we feel were in a strategic area where 350 cranes 17 000 Acres we are just into we had completed a drill program last year 2022 and from those findings we reset our targets if you will we actually acquired some additional property to the southwest of where our earlier Holdings were um and after that drill program we had done a number of land surveys and whatnot just to


strategically uh aim at the next Target so we had done that and in this current program drill program we were planning on three holds of 600 feet deep Beach well it's gone very well everything is to expectation we're in clay in all of those holes and uh from the folks on the ground there um the looks of the clay the texture it's makeup its color it's all pointing to uh the potential of clay that could hold lithium as a result of this we've expanded and taken on a force hole and


we went a kilometer further away uh just to rotten uh what we uh hope to see is a trend well so it's gone very well and we're really looking forward to completing this program getting those um uh samples to the left for assay results and uh hopefully some successful lithium content so from here when do you expect to be starting your next yearly program well so we've just at the tail end of this current drill program um once this is complete it'll take about 30 days to send these uh


once we send the results to the lab for the results of those um and with benefit of favorable results of course we will undertake phase three of a drill program which will entail possibly this similar uh number of holes for holes or so at 600 feet deep again um just to continue to prove out what we have uh uh currently found we finished uh the last hole last year uh was the one that really uh assisted us in re-jigging our Focus to this current program and uh were very optimistic that based on the look of the core uh


we may obtain some favorable lab results right and then you also have other projects um uh in other jurisdictions could you talk about some of those and their potential we do we have uh quickly a nickel plate insignate Quebec we're seeing Lawrence Market um it's a smaller property but back in 1959 uh there was some uh exploration done on that property and it proved to hold some uh respectable uh nickel content um nothing has really been done on the property since that time and we are currently


um engaging work programs to prove this out and see what next steps might be there um lake tallo is a recent acquisition of ours yeah towards the Smithers area of BC um that's a new acquisition it's uh copper uh play there um and it's close to American Eagles Knack uh property it's uh in a copper Rich Zone and we'll look for work programs there we've actually completed a aerial mag survey on that property currently uh it's under review to each other next steps um so now coming to the other two


lithium properties we hold one is at Georgia lay Georgia lake property is north of Thunder Bay it's about two miles from Rock Tech to kilometers from ruptex property and Rob Tech has had some uh very generous lithium content determined on their property so much so they're looking to put some form a plant on site to further develop this on Route certainly a more significant player than uh um Victory uh battery Metals is um so I work programs going to be underway there again we've done an


aerial survey there uh roots on the ground will commence in early June uh they'll determine the how many pigment types if there are pigments on the property this sort of thing um and uh that program will be underway for about two weeks then we have another property in James Bay Quebec uh this is reap East Side Patriot battery metals and that they have certainly found some uh lithium Rich fines on their property um most recently um some suggest that area there is the next world-class lithium deposit


um who knows but because of the encouragement between Patriot battery metals and uh talk of the area we have a significant hold there of about 347 planes almost 18 000 hectares there um so that's a major hold we are only about um five kilometers from hemet's cv5 hole which uh had some significant lithium content to it um so again after the uh aerial mag survey there we'll again develop another work program and all of these programs on these properties will be done either are underway currently or


are scheduled for late or uh spring and early summer and so the company is positioned now with this slow these portfolio assets we have uh completed the raise um treasury is sufficient that it'll see us through the next 12 month program year with all work programs being able to be completed on all these properties so we're looking forward to the next 12 months right so that's that's quite an extensive portfolio of properties um I wonder are you done scoping out some potential other Acquisitions or are


you still potentially looking for um you know properties so choir and are you and if so are you deliberately just you know looking for battery metals well you know we're always looking for property the antennas are uh and uh battery metals are certainly our primary focus you know our locations as well being here in North America um certainly it's mining friendly jurisdiction uh Nevada um in the states is the absolutely that um the government is very mining friendly and even at the federal level


um there is a mandate you uh focus on lithium if you will um China holds about 70 percent of the world Supply um the United States would like to improve their position in a big way and we feel this mandate coming down from that Federal level through to the bll people are restructive there is grant money being put in play for these kinds of developments so our our Holdings currently are we're in the right place at the right time uh uh currently um with the future of being um demand is going to far outweigh


Supply and this will really become far more noticeable in the mid 2020s from 2025 say onward into 230 uh uh 2030 and 2040. um there's a gap in supplying demand and so there's a big long runway for lithium for electric vehicle minerals and so because of this um this will be our primary focus all the environment of political in both the political and economic environment is certainly I guess ripe for these types of exploration it's being mandated um you know by governments around the world


um to um encourage uh development Supply the electric vehicle itself um even in Canada while significant VW plant to be located in Ontario uh Quebec has a program underway with uh battery plant to come on stream I believe maybe in 2025 um and uh so yeah the governments around the world are very keen are to see growth continue in this area if well all the best here um you know future work in her projects thank you and appreciate your taking the time to speak with me today thank you Maryland it was very good


speaking with you right and thank you everyone for watching join us again next time for another engaging conversation on CEO insights foreign thank you