Calgary, Alberta (FSCwire) - Bacanora Lithium plc, the London listed lithium exploration and development company, is pleased to announce that Chief Executive Officer Mr. Peter Secker has been appointed as a main board director of the Company with immediate effect. Mr. Secker has over 35 years’ experience in developing, constructing and operating mines, and most recently, has direct experience of developing lithium projects. He will continue to act as CEO of the Company, a post he has held since 19 May 2015.
Peter Anthony Secker (58) is a mining engineer who over the course of his career has built and operated a number of mines and metallurgical processing facilities in Africa, Australia, China and Canada. His operating and project experience spans a number of commodities, including titanium, copper, iron ore, gold and lithium. For the past ten years Mr Secker has been Chief Executive of a number of publicly listed companies. Prior to Bacanora, he was CEO of Canada Lithium Corp. whilst developing the Quebec lithium project. Mr. Secker holds a Bachelor of Science in Mining Engineering from Newcastle University and a First Class Mine Managers Certificate for Australia and South Africa.
Mark Hohnen, Chairman of Bacanora, commented, “I am delighted to welcome Peter to the Board. As CEO of Bacanora, Peter has been instrumental in advancing our flagship Sonora Lithium Project to the point where its credentials to become a world class, low cost producer of battery grade lithium carbonate were recently confirmed by a Feasibility Study. This demonstrated the project’s robust economics including an NPV of US$1.25billion; an IRR of 26.1%; and life of mine gross operating costs of US$3,910/t Li2CO3, which are comparable to those of the low cost brine producers of South America. Led by Peter, the Company remains focused on embarking on the construction phase at Sonora in H1 2018 with a view to being in a position to commence production of high value lithium products in Q1 2020. I look forward to providing further updates as we work towards establishing Sonora as a leading supplier to fast-growing industries, such as electric vehicles and energy storage.”
ABOUT BACANORA:
Bacanora Lithium is a London listed lithium exploration and development company (AIM: BCN). The Company is exploring for, and developing a pipeline of international lithium projects, with a primary focus on its Sonora Lithium Project. The Company's operations are based in Hermosillo in northern Mexico. The Company is led by a team with lithium expertise and proven mine development, construction and operations experience.
The Sonora Lithium Project1, which consists of ten mining concession areas covering approximately 100 thousand hectares in the northeast of Sonora State. The Company, through drilling and exploration work to date, has established a Measured plus Indicated Mineral Resource estimate of over 5 Mt (comprising 1.9Mt of Measured Resources and 3.1Mt of Indicated Resources) of LCE2 and an additional Inferred Mineral Resource of 3.7 Mt of LCE. The Company's Feasibility Study (which was announced 12 December 2017) has established Proven Mineral Reserves (in accordance with NI 43-101) of 1.67 MT and Probable Mineral Reserves of 2.85 Mt LCE and confirmed the economics associated with becoming a 35,000 tpa lithium carbonate and 30,000 tpa SOP producer in Mexico. In addition to the Sonora Lithium Project, the Company also has a 50% interest in the Zinnwald Lithium Project and the Falkenhain Licence in southern Saxony, Germany. Each of the Zinnwald Lithium Project and the Falkenhain Licence are located in a granite hosted Sn/W/Li belt that has been mined historically for tin, tungsten and lithium at different times over the past 300 years. The strategic location of the Zinnwald Lithium Project and the Falkenhain Licence provides close geographical proximity to the German automotive and downstream lithium chemical industries.
1 The Sonora Lithium Project is comprised of the following lithium properties: La Ventana lithium concession, which is 100 percent owned by Bacanora and El Sauz and Fleur concessions, which are held by Mexilit S.A. de C.V. ('Mexilit') which is owned 70 percent by Bacanora and 30 percent by Cadence Minerals Plc.
2 LCE = lithium carbonate (Li2CO3) equivalent; determined by multiplying Li value in percent by 5.324 to get an equivalent Li2CO3 value in per cent. Use of LCE is to provide data comparable with industry reports and assumes complete conversion of lithium in clays with no recovery or process losses.
