welcome to CEO insights I'm Marilyn Guzman with Inn following a well-performing IPO last year lithium Universe wasted no time to execute on it strategy establishing North America's Next lithium processing Hub and here to talk about the company's progress to date is lithium Universe CEO Alex Henley hi Alex good Marilyn uh thanks for having us yes great to have you just let's let's start our conversation with just sort of an overview of the company lithium universe and your R proposition


sure yeah the uh the company uh and it used to be called Mel games group Mel acquired a suite of lithium projects across Australia and Canada uh and reated the company to delium universe and uh we went through the rec compliance process and and came back onto the board in about August so uh since that time we we bolstered the team substantially uh We've you know we've uh we we bolster the team both at the board level and executive management team uh with what we're calling the lium Dream


Team uh which is composed of you know Iggy tan steering the chip steering the ship as uh chairman Iggy tan started his his time back in 1995 having commissioned oium carbonate plant for green bushes after that he moved on to to spearhead Galaxy resources uh and built the the SP in mine at Mount Catlin as well as the jangu lithium carbon plant in China so igy during his time at at Galaxy took that company from what was a $10 million market cap to about $2.5 billion that merging with orac Cobra uh so we've got you know a huge uh


skill set in Igan having you know done the vertical integration strategy before we've also got pat stellin on the board Pat ran greenbushes as general manager for 25 years uh so he's got a substantial amount of experience from from EXP operation mining processing and Market contacts throughout throughout the world uh also joining us on the board is is Dr jingl uh jingan is uh noted to be uh International lithium Downstream expert whether it be lithium carbonate or or lithium hydroxide he's a


go-to man to uh to fix a lot of the problems that we're seeing around the around the globe uh in in the major conglomerates so we've got your Star seted Team uh and we're focused in in in bringing Quebec into production wait so talk about that as you execute on your strategy to build this lithium Hub in in North America basically could you talk about some of the challenges that you see facing the lithium Market in North America today yeah definitely the U the three M three main challenges that that we see uh


boils down to uh experience uh lack of production uh and uh I suppose a downstream solution which currently is not there and so talking through you know that a little bit more uh there's in comparison to to Western Australia the the Canadian uh lithium mining experience is very immature in comparison so what we're actually finding is a lot of Australian expertise now making their way to to North America in particular Quebec and Ontario at the moment uh to First explore then develop uh this this new frontier now uh that


obviously presents a challenge but also an opport for for a company like us uh with substantial development and production experience uh the the second I suppose item is the lack of production uh there's been um you know only really sea who've produced any spoing uh or significant spine in in Canada uh with their their first shipment earlier this year offshore so uh yeah there's there's a few big companies now you all came obviously with the the the the James Bay deposit being upgraded to 109 million


tons in environmental approvals uh we see critical elements just the other day uh talking to esping production 2026 and and obviously NASA they're now building their lithium hydroxide plant to to support the the wuchi mine that they own in James Bay as well so we're seeing some some big uh production plays com in online uh but there there's there's uh I suppose not enough uh to come online and experience to bolster these companies uh in the future the the the third one Marilyn is is a lack of of I suppose uh


lithium refineries in North America generally uh you know the all all spam in globally or let's say 95% is currently processed in in China uh now uh we saw action from uh the the government of Canada now last year or 2022 I should say uh when when cinam line was a Chinese own company was ordered to divest from a Canadian company called power medal sport uh talking about you know National Security so what we're actually seeing is is a push away from exporting spaming and the Canadian government now pushing uh


junior explorers and and wouldbe producers uh to look at the refinery options and downstream Solutions in North America and and that's a skill set uh which is very hard to come by and a skill set that we have within lium universe so uh it's uh it's a you know there's there's many challenges but uh what we see Maryland is is huge opportunity right so I guess as the the market sort of watches to see you know with this lithium race and you know when companies start to come online with production


could you take us through your strategy in terms of achieving your goal of building that multi-purpose lithium processing Hub yeah sure similarly uh there's there's there's three different business units the company is currently progressing uh expiration uh and project generation was in Quebec and and and broader uh broader areas uh and and that's looking at obviously developing and and and getting access to a resource and the second item is is building out the the concentrator now we we see uh


something similar to to how the the the Western Australian lithian Market first got off the ground and and what is fairly common within the gold industry globally is is essentially a h spoke strategy where you have a centralized concentrator and then multiple different uh you know suppose run of or or mines within a a radius feeding that that centralized and and you know high high variability concentrator so we've currently uh engaged a company called premero uh Premo don't need any introduction in the concentrating space


uh they're the best uh and they come on board to essentially uh provide us with the the same design that Iggy built at M Catlin uh it's a 1 million ton prom mining operation uh which then leads onto a four-stage crushing circuit then onto a dense media separation producing about just just over 140 or just under 140,000 ton perom so uh we we're already getting started with that uh We've we've uh we appointed Premier back in I think it was about October uh so they're two months in and have done sub substantial


work obviously been supported by the lithium Dream Team now the third step is is the refinery we have uh you know a substantial again skill set on the board uh and we've engaged a company uh We've engaged hatch engineering who've come on to partner with us to essentially similar grab the jangu diet design that that Iggy built uh in in jangu in China and replicating in that and that and making it suitable for the Quebec environment uh so again we're we're we're quite sort of far along that


Journey at the moment obviously uh you we've got the experience to support hatch and and provide you know the needed uh modifications uh to construction that we required so uh that's that's the strategy and that's the solution that we have uh and uh we uh we're currently you know open to I suppose commencing um all these at the same time so rather than a SE a sequential nature of you know first developing a resource then going through the concentrator and Refinery uh what we


see such a dire need for uh all three elements uh that we're progressing them simultaneously that's an interesting start and and I think speaking of refer you you uh just announced a new Option agreement uh to secure an industrial land for your for that plan Refinery could you talk a bit uh more about the highlights of this option agreement and why it's an important milestone for your company sure yeah the um obviously uh having the the engineering uh and and the business Concepts one thing uh and


the next thing is obviously having somewhere to put it so uh we did hatch uh we had hatch uh look at looking for the most optimal ground to put a refinery in Quebec we looked at four main areas uh up near the trans tiger which is in the north of Quebec close to a lot of the the resources that have you know been discovered in the last probably 12 to 18 months we also looked at uh abitab or The Valor region which has a prolific gold region uh and then also sag on on the east on the east side of Quebec which has a developed


industrial Hub as well uh the fourth option was the Montreal metropolitan area and this uh this clearly became evident as our Focus area uh we've got you know access to to resources uh we've got access to you know human human resources uh we've got um uh obviously proximity to both Quebec and and and Montreal down down the bottom there so the very fast we we uh focus on Beck and core Industrial Park it's it's host to NASA lithium uh they're they're building their lithium hydroxide plant there uh


We've also got posco with their cathode facility just across the road and and even just right right next to them is also Ford Echo Pro so uh there's cathode facilities and and this is what they're sort of coining now as as battery value so uh the it's it's a great great area we've got Port facilities we've got Highway access we've got rail access uh and uh we've got you know we've got all the I suppose required utilities as well from natural gas to to to the very you


know very cheap hydroelectricity uh which Quebec is known for so uh the option agreement uh is uh yeah we've secured that uh we've been talking with beckon core as supported by investment kbe over the last couple of months and and yeah we're happy to release uh that that announcement to the market right so yeah following up on that so we know obviously we're at the beginning of the year could you talk about some of the next steps and what can the investor Community expect from the company in


20124 yeah sure so uh from I suppose the three business units uh they're going to progress and we're going to have both a an engineering study for the concentrator uh in in 2024 uh we we've given the mandate to PR Euro to have a DFS level uh engineering study by the end of 2024 uh so then we'll we'll need to obviously in parallel with that line up some uh some partners that we can talk to uh to get access to resources uh the the third obviously the refinery we've now got the ground uh we we'll do


some preliminary geotechnical and civil uh engineering and uh we'll be releasing again a DFS uh for that Refinery uh in 2024 so uh it's going to be uh pretty sort of jam-pack you could say in terms of getting DFS engineering studies so both these yeah key pieces of of of business units for us so um that obviously we've you know we're always on the hunt uh for you know business opportunities project generation opportunities uh not only in North America but but globally so uh you know


there's uh this is a company that has the experts and and the experience to to make anything happen uh and that's what's really exciting right exciting than ahead and thank you uh Alex for sharing uh some updates on your company today thank you Marilyn and thanks everyone for watching join us again next time for another engaging conversation on CEO insights if you like this video make sure you subscribe to our Channel and turn on notifications so you don't miss future updates and interviews see


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