Mitchell Tinley:
With a flagship lithium project in the James Bay region of Quebec, Canada, Lithium Universe is now listed on the ASX. To discuss the Apollo project and the IPO, I’m joined in the studio by Lithium Universe’s, CEO, Alex Hanly. Welcome Alex.
Alex Hanly:
Thanks, Mitchell. Exciting times.
Mitchell Tinley:
What’s special about Lithium Universe and what’s its investor proposition?
Alex Hanly:
We’ve just completed the IPO raised four and a half million dollars. As part of the acquisition of these projects, the company Mogul Games Group has just gone through a re-compliance after acquiring a portfolio of lithium and rare earth projects in Canada and Australia, the company itself will come back onto the boards, an A$12 million market cap and a 2 cents per share valuation. We’ve raised about four and a half million dollars during the IPO, and we’ll be looking to put that into the ground as soon as we can.
Mitchell Tinley:
You have over a decade of experience in capital delivery and operational management. What made you decide to take up the position of CEO at LU7?
Alex Hanly:
I’ve worked for the majors Mitchell. I’ve worked with all the big companies. I understand the processes and what needs to be done. I’ve got a background in mechanical engineering and then obviously now an MBA and global project management degree.
So I’ve worked across Africa, and Australia, and I know how to manage projects both here at home and abroad. So this is a perfect fit for me and obviously working with the team led by Iggy puts us in good stead moving forward.
Mitchell Tinley:
And what do you like about the James Bay region and the Apollo Bay project?
Alex Hanly:
The James Bay region is, let’s say, one of the new frontiers of lithium globally. The James Bay region is home to Sayona, to Critical Elements, and now Patriot Battery Metals in the Greenstone belt that the Apollo project is currently within. We’re about 30 kilometres away from Patriot’s Corvette project and about 30 kilometres away from Edina run by Winsome Resources.
Now, these are both high-grade, broad-width resources and having great intercepts since they started drilling. So we’re in a great jurisdiction. We’ve got the same host geology and similar sort of geological hosts as both of those projects. We’re looking to explore them as quickly as we can and really accelerate our development.
Mitchell Tinley:
Can you tell me more about the team?
Alex Hanly:
The dream team, Mitchell, the dream team comprises and is led by Iggy Tan, former managing director of Galaxy Resources.
He built that company from about a $10 million market cap, and when he left and then when it was sold to Aura Cobra, it was about 2.5 billion of valuation at merger. So Iggy brings obviously a lot of production, project development experience to the group, but also Iggy is a visionary. He understands the foresight and what needs to happen, not only in the lithium industry but in the James Bay region particularly.
Also, the advisors of the company. Patrick Scallan ran Greenbushes for 25 years. Greenbushes, as you know, is the highest grade and biggest deposit in the world. He brings a vast skillset of project expansion, but also operational experience to the group.
Thirdly, Dr Jingyuan Liu, he’s currently the international lithium carbon expert and provides a very imperative process, technology skillset to the group. So these three main components of the dream team are sort of supported by process, engineering, design, and lithium carbon expertise. We’ve got a great group, a strong team, which can rival any within the junior space.