Join our daily newsletter At The Bell to receive exclusive market insights
Keely Lynch:
Lithium Universe is here today to provide an update on its most recent visit to the Becancour Project in North America. I’m joined by the company’s CEO, Alex Hanly.
Welcome Alex, tell us what was the purpose of this most recent visit?
Alex Hanly:
The purpose of this visit was really to get the board of directors, being the key directors, Iggy Tan, Pat Scallan, and Dr. Jing Liu, over to Quebec to really engage with both the local community, the first nation, the provincial government in Quebec, as well as the federal government in Ottawa.
We went to Becancour where we met with the SPIPB or the Société du parc industriel et portuaire de Bécancour, where we have a lot 22 option for our proposed lithium refinery. We talked about numerous different things that with SPIPB about potential expansions of the plant and the infrastructure upgrades, and obviously provided a very detailed progress update of where we are within our engineering cycle.
We met with, obviously, our engineering consultants in Hatch in Montreal, and also potential partners throughout Quebec City as well as within Montreal.
Keely Lynch:
And Alex. What was the reception in Quebec like?
Alex Hanly:
The reception was quite positive for obvious reasons. We are assisting Quebec be a big player or a dominant player within the trans-Atlantic region, not only for obviously the spodumene resources, which are up in James Bay, but more importantly for the conversion side of things, which we see as the biggest gap within the North American landscape.
What we are doing is we’re providing a solution, a downstream solution within Quebec, which can service all of North America. So we met with Minister Fitzgibbon in Quebec City who was very supportive of the company. This is the second time we’ve met with Minister of Economics and Finance.
Now, Fitzgibbon was very supportive of what we’re doing and obviously the grander vision of becoming, I suppose, the centre of conversion within North America. The only real reason why Quebec can really commit or really have these great visions is because of the very cost-effective hydraulic electricity at two and a half cents a kilowatt, which really provides a competitive edge that can potentially balance out operational expenses seen in China.
Overall, whether it was local Becancour or within the provincial or federal government or stakeholders, they were very well impressed, obviously, with the team we have and the progress we’ve made to date, but also with the grander vision for the province in general. So all in all, a very good visit.
Keely Lynch:
Well, there’s definitely a lot of exciting progress happening from the company. Thank you so much for your time today, Alex Hanley from Lithium Universe. We look forward to the next update.
Alex Hanly:
Thank you.
