thank yo u welcome to CEO insights I'm Marilyn De Guzman with investing News Network Our Guest this episode is Ryan Parkin managing director and CEO of infinity lithium based in Western Australia hi Ryan hi Marilyn thanks for having me yeah nice to meet you so let's start a conversation with just an introduction uh to Infinity lithium and the novel viewer project in Spain yeah sure Maryland well Infinity is an ISX listed company and we're focused on progressing the development with the San


Jose lithium project in the extra Maduro region of Spain so that's located about two and a half hours West of Madrid San Jose is a fully integrated lithium chemical conversion project using one of Europe's largest Hard Rock lithium resources and will be producing battery grade lithium chemicals on site from that on location feedstock as we move towards a net zero carbon 2050 Target within Europe and within Spain Infinity as a company has a very highly experienced border management team with


fast experience in developing underground mining projects and lithium chemical conversion facilities I'd like to highlight our technical advisory committee that is led by John starrink one of our executive directors he has Decades of experience in lithium chemical processing projects and he is accompanied by Dr David Marie who has previously held senior positions as a principal scientist at tellison lithium which is of course the world-class green bushes project in country through extra major and new


energies our wholly owned Spanish subsidiary we're led by CEO Ramon Jimenez who was previously the CEO of acciona industrial and management and so Infiniti is ideally placed through a strong board in management to bring this project to fruition on the project side Infinity holds 75 percent of the project and maintains a call option to move to 100 at any time prior to the final investment decision so San Jose's strategic significance is clear and we are progressing the backdrop of this project really is a


standalone project against the backdrop of the extra maduran lithium decree law and of course that critical raw materials Act let's talk about that critical raw materials Act how is your company taking advantage of these measures that the European Union has come out with yeah sure I mean the EU critical raw materials Act is accompanied by the NetZero industry act and this was tabled in q1 this year in response to the inflation reduction act or IRA in the US and obviously San Jose is well positioned to capitalize on this in the


global race to secure critical materials and of course down screen Downstream lifting chemical conversion through the critical role materials act then it's now a framework to establish targets for 2030 and Beyond and really I'd like to focus on a few key attributes which will make it clear why San Jose is well positioned to participate in the European market uh firstly there'll be a framework now to Define strategic projects and of course San Jose is ideally a place to capitalize on this


once defined as a strategic project there's now a framework to establish timelines for a full permitting process so that's 24 months for Greenfield projects and more relevant for San Jose 21 months for projects that have already commenced the permitting process so how's this relevant to us look we're going to move forward and Lodge our mining license later this year so we envisage actually moving forward this process uh uh further through this process and the permitting within Spain


in advance of this critical raw materials act but it does provide that level of endorsement at the local and Regional level to move forward the 2030 targets are very aggressive from Europe they require 10 of their raw material needs 40 of their processing needs and 15 of their recycling needs to be sourced from within the European Union so if you consider by 2030 alone we're looking at close to 1 million tons of battery-grade lithium chemicals they're very significant targets and that would equate to more than 400 000


tons of battery grade lithium hydroxide for that European market and there are currently no battery grade materials currently being produced in the European Union now recent developments have highlighted the US's aggressive move to secure critical raw materials we saw a pact between the Australian PM Albanese and President Biden just a couple of weeks ago and of course Australia speaks to an enormous proportion of lithium resources globally so look at this is going to further pressure Europe's response and


the ability to secure us to secure critical materials and of course battery-grade lithium processing facilities lithium that you're producing are you targeting us you know as your end Market just the European region or we're looking at buying um you know the North American Market well look I mean we have the ability under the IRA to participate in in the North American Market however I think it's a very logical progression for a very rare lithium resource in the European market and particularly against


the backdrop of what is required in Europe that this end product will end up being consumed in Europe so look you know China entirely dominates the lithium ion battery Valley chain where we sit at the moment and most particularly lithium chemical production so they have very different ESG requirements than that of North America and of course Europe in terms of critical raw materials you know we have Western jurisdictions such as Australia and Europe and then other opportunities further afield in Africa and of course


South America is a very major producer already in its own right so look I mean Europe has been progressing its own advancement of its lithium ion battery Valley Chain LED through the European battery Alliance and the vice president of the European commission and they've really focused Downstream today with more than 1.4 terawatt hours which is 1 400 gigawatt hours or lithium-ion battery capacity in in the pipeline by 2030 so it's an enormous number requiring very significant amounts of battery grade lithium chemicals so


obviously there's a huge automotive industry that's underpinning this in Europe and this move to electric vehicles and hybrid vehicle targets over the next decade and phasing out these internal combustion engines so we set our product ultimately ending up in that market I guess another thing you have to look at are geopolitical tensions and this has been highlighted through covert and of course in Europe through the through the tragedy that's unfolding in the Ukraine so really Supply chains are


looking now at instead of just in time a more globalized uh Supply chains to just in case Focus then security is Supply really being the dominant Factor so we couple that with CO2 footprint sustainability measures and the challenges continue to mount for the European market particularly against the backdrop of China which speaks for say 60 of Global Production or lithium chemicals and most importantly 80 of the cathode Market right and I understand you're developing your project as a vertically integrated


project so why is that important uh to develop that as well look I mean most importantly the Strategic importance in Europe is clear to source that K battery grade lifting chemical but San Jose will be exploiting a large hard rock lithium resource one of the largest in Europe which is about 111 million tons or 1.6 million tons lithium carbonate equivalent so we'll be using that as a feedstock for a large-scale long-life project some 26 years of production to produce approximately 19 500 tons per annum of


this battery grade product at steady state so look I mean San Jose is able to produce both battery grade carbonate and hydroxide we can respond to the market but we believe it's going to be aligned for high nickel content consumption which we use battery grade lithium hydroxide we've seen a pathway forward this year with key permits awarded and an eia stoking document that has provided the pathway to Lodge now mining license so ESG remains a major Focus for the company as we move forward as we adhere


to the highest environmental and social standards within Europe and within Spain I mean if you have a look at uh where we're headed we've moved underground for mineral extraction so the vast majority of our tailings can end up back underground through paste infill which minimizes our surface footprint and obviously large photovoltaic installations throughout the region of extra Majora can support electric fleets we are in close proximity to our end markets our resources in close proximity


to that lithium chemical conversion facility uh one and a half kilometers away so obviously this is well positioned to participate in that European market um the some of the ES G aspects or the environmental um all you know aspects of the project how are you ensuring that your operations are as low you know have having no carbon could take this bus yeah sure look I mean this project from the outset needed to adhere to the highest environmental standards so look there are a number of facets that we can


focus on firstly we'll talk about proximity so that that resource is very close to where it's going to be converted approximately one and a half K's you know it's on site so very different to traditional Hard Rock projects that produce a concentrate and then they are shipping vast amounts of essentially waste products halfway around the world for lithium chemical processing uh the end product is very close to those end markets themselves within Europe it's a very logical error


in terms of a transport footprint in terms of the project itself as I've touched on electrification will form a huge part of that electrifying our mining Fleet the ability to Source localized green energy through photovoltaic or solar energy it's a major facet of the extra-mature region and also our process flowshape is Advantage where we're going to recycle a key reagent so again moving towards minimizing that carbon footprint is is a major Focus for the company and also a major Focus for Europe


so what um what's in Surfer 2023 and what are you looking to do what Milestones are they expecting for the next few months we'll look on the back of some recent permitting uh grants and also advancements with local and Regional government we've actually just moved through local and Regional elections and moving into a federal election period in country we're continuing to grow our team and we're really now progressing our next stage as a technical work to move forward and Lodge at mining license


application later this year San Jose is a project that is critical for Europe it's critical for Spain but most importantly it's also critical for the local community of casarez where aligning training development programs which are very active in the second part of this year and our project's really acting as a flagship to attract other complementary Industries to the region and to the locality so this is a generational opportunity for the locality of casarez and and we're we're


really happy to be working alongside local and Regional stakeholders in the second part of this year right well looking forward to hearing more news from your company and thanks for coming here today to share some updates on the project yeah great thanks for having me and thank you for watching join us again next time for another engaging conversation on CEO NZ foreign