Hey everyone, I'm Jeremy Saffron. Today on KCO Mining, one of the richest critical mineral discoveries ever confirmed in North America. Patriot Battery Metals just announced grades of up to 26% cesium oxide across zones stretching over 600 by 400 meters. A scaling concentration that dwarfs anything seen since Sinclair, Australia's former cesium mine that shut down back in 2019. But here's the twist. They weren't even really looking for it. This ultra rare, high-value metal used in everything from telecom to energy to aerospace just happens to sit right in the middle of Patriot's lithium mine development corridor where Volkswagen is already a strategic partner. As the US ramps up its trade war with China, tariffs rise and geopolitical focus shifts to resource security with allies like Japan and South Korea. Patriot may now control one of the most strategic sweet spots in the global energy transition. Joining us is Ken Brinsden. He's their CEO of Patriot Battery Metals to break down what this means not just for the company but for the future of the critical mineral supply chains. Hey Ken, great to see you.
A pleasure to be with you, Jeremy. Thanks very much for the invitation. And what you've just described is a lot about the complexity in the world that exists today. But in the end, we're pretty happy to be part of the critical minerals world and lithium. Now, you've mentioned cesium. It's all an important part of the premier geology at our James Bay project.
Yeah, of course, and we keep seeing the news headlines too. I mean, we see President Donald Trump talking about critical minerals. We're seeing what's happening in China as well. You know, this cesium discovery, this up to 26% over a footprint of 600 by 400 meters. How big of a deal is it in the global context? I mean, have we ever seen anything like it?
Well, we couldn't be any happier with the results, Jeremy. It's really amazing what the team has developed there, the results so far. So what's intriguing about what's happening with that cesium discovery is the combination of those things you've just mentioned: the scale of the concentration of the assays, and especially around our CV13 lithium deposit, but also the subset of it that is very, very high grade. So yeah, it's encouraging, and we will do a lot more work to demonstrate its potential.
Yeah, it's funny because I mean you weren't even really targeting cesium. I mean, we just talked about it. Patriot's obviously a lithium company. This discovery along with that corridor. Walk us through how this happened, but what it mostly means for the overall economics of the project here, Ken.
Well, Jeremy, when you're drilling for lithium, you're inside what's called an LCT pegmatite, a lithium cesium tantalum pegmatite. And clearly what we're starting to demonstrate at James Bay is amazing scale and grade in lithium. I don't think anyone's going to question that. It's one of the premier projects globally. But now we've got these really important byproduct credits. So hot off the press, a cesium discovery. There was always some potential in your LCT pegmatite that you're going to find cesium, but the fact that we found something that looks like it's got really serious scale and some high grade is a really big value add. And don't forget the tantalum or tantalite, that's another one of these critical minerals. And the average grade across our existing resource approximately 160 parts per million. That's also right up there with the better tantalite resources globally. So yeah, it's a premier piece of geology, Jeremy, and we suspect it's got more to offer.
Yeah, what a sweet byproduct to say the least. I mean, what does it do for the narrative? How does it change for Patriot? Because I mean, most investors think of you as a lithium play with Volkswagen as your strategic, but does this discovery change the scale or even the valuation lens here?
It's definitely one that people should be paying attention to as we further develop the cesium byproduct credit. I'd equally put the tantalite in there as well. They're both historically important products that are aligned with your lithium mining objective. And in my history at Pilbara Minerals, we had an important byproduct credit in tantalite, and it was not to be sneezed at. In fact, in the development of our definitive feasibility study way back in 2017, it represented about 10% of our revenue base. So it's not to be ignored as far as these byproduct credits are concerned. In reality, they're going to be mined at the same time as your lithium or spodumene ore comes out of the ground. So it's important that we continue to tackle the potential in processing these byproduct credits, and that's something that we'll continue to carry forward as we progress the engineering in the James Bay project.
Yeah, it's just fascinating to watch. I mean, you guys have been working very hard over there. And I mean, when we think about it, given the tight supply and the specialized use of cesium, I mean, I mentioned atomic clocks, energy, aerospace. How quickly can you even evaluate commercial pathways? I mean, is there an existing demand that's starting to knock on the door? This is quite a rare metal.
Definitely. In fact, there's only one primary operating mine in the Western world, being the Tanco mine here in Canada, but it's coming to the end of its life. So that means there are people paying attention to what's going on with respect to exploration and approaches in respect of the potential in the cesium at James Bay are now part of our story. So we won't be surprised if people are coming to knock on the door and want to talk about it. As we progress, the first thing that's required ultimately is a resource. Now the good news is because we've already been drilling for lithium, we already have a substantial database that we can draw on to help with respect to the development of a resource. I don't want to be definitive about dates, but certainly targeting a resource for cesium in parallel to the growth in a lithium resource is going to be an important next step because that'll help define the subsequent engineering and what you can extract in terms of value. It looks like a really important credit, so we're going to pursue it.
