This is Gerardo Del Real with Resource Stock Digest. Joining me today is the president and CEO of PMET Resources, Mr. Ken Brinsden. Ken, it's great to have you on. How are you today?
My pleasure again, Gerardo. Thanks for having me.
Listen, I joked off air that I'm trying to figure out why you have such a light market cap, right? The market cap is not where I think it should be. And look, let's get right to it. We have a bull market, a raging bull market in the precious metals. Copper is perking up. Palladium is perking up. I am of the belief that lithium is at an inflection point and that in the next six to 12 months, we're going to get a market that reminds everyone of the value that PMET holds and is going to unlock here over the next several quarters. And I think the lithium market is at an inflection point and I think PMET Resources is also at an inflection point. It's clear to me, and I would love more context on this, that the company, and excuse my language, is hell-bent on delivering multiple potential revenue streams, not just lithium, hence the name change, right? And so I'd love some color and context on the name change and the way that you're going about methodically unlocking the value that isn't being recognized, I don't think yet, by the market, but I'm pretty confident will be.
Good on you, Gerardo. Yeah, you've pretty much hit the nail on the head there. So, yeah, we've gone through the process of a rebrand and what it's seeking to recognize is really the incredible geology that Shaka Jawan represents, you know, to the future of the critical minerals world, not just to the lithium world. When you're looking for these hard rock lithium projects, you're looking for your classic LCT pegmatite — lithium, cesium, tantalum. And that's kind of the geo's dream. And the good news is that that's exactly what's on show at Shaka Jawan. So really significant scale and grade in each of those categories.
Now, it's really rare to have all three. Often you'll see lithium with a little bit of tantalum, you might be very lucky to see, you know, small amounts of cesium, but the scale in the geology at Shaka Jawan is just different and it has masses of scale in each of them — lithium, cesium and tantalum. So that's what's really motivated us to focus on a bigger picture that says we're a critical minerals powerhouse. That's really what we are. It's not just the lithium.
You've talked in the past and recently here in news releases about defining and outlining what the potential is in economic terms of each of those. How is that coming along? And you've also been really keen to talk about wanting to partner with groups and companies that can help you target the European market specifically. I have to believe with everything coming out of China — and we talked about this last time you and I chatted, wanting to weaponize and now very openly weaponizing its control on critical metals and the business model that comes along with that. Right? We're getting that. That's a new twist there. I got to believe that you have to be really, really confident in the approach that you're taking to be able to monetize these different revenue streams.
Oh yeah. Yeah, the geopolitical tension and how overt that now is, is getting so much more apparent. Yeah, China is an incredibly dominant player through the critical mineral sphere and none the least of which actually is in lithium as well and tantalum to a certain extent. So yeah, I think that's one picture to watch really carefully, Gerardo, that's going to get pretty sporting, would be my view, because of the dominance of China in global markets.
As to how we respond, well, I've spoken to how good the geology is, but ultimately you've got to turn that into a mine. So, our primary target is the focus on the lithium. So that becomes real with the presentation of our feasibility study, which is not too far away now, Ger. That's pretty close. But just to remind everyone, that's lithium only. That's the basis behind the premise for the first development for a mine. But we have these fantastic bolt-on opportunities once we've undertaken more test work, some of which have started, and of course we've started to publish that in the public domain, and the economic studies that facilitate the next steps in realizing, you know, a co-product opportunity in both cesium and tantalum. And because it's unusual to have the combination of scale and grade in each, our view would be they are going to be material to our project. But they fundamentally require more work to realize them, Gerard, but you'll start to see more and more of that in the coming months.
I don't know how much you'll want to opine on this or share, but I have to believe if I am a Volkswagen or if I am a Tesla, if I am one of those kind of companies, I have to be looking at the metals mix here, the jurisdiction, which coincides with China doing what it's doing. And I would want to have discussions, without asking you to name names. Are you having active discussions with potential offtake partners for not just the lithium? I know the feasibility study is coming. It's important. I'm excited for it. It'll provide a window, but there are other high-value metals obviously here that I have to believe companies are keen to target.
Yep, that's true. Yeah, that is true. So you've seen the deal with VW and PowerCo, and that was motivated by a pretty consistent view across industry downstream in the lithium world that says we need to diversify our supply base, but in particular, you know, it would make sense to access projects and product offtake that is readily accessible for North American and European markets. And that's what's really motivated the relationship between VW, PowerCo and ourselves. By the way, really happy with that relationship and we firmly believe they're going to be a great partner to our project. But it doesn't stop there.
There are other players in our industry who are focused on very similar issues. They all suffer from concentration risk through the Chinese supply chain. So let me give you an example. Well, actually the Koreans are a really good example because they're already very heavily invested in North America.
Several battery-making facilities, several cathode-making facilities, they've really dived in deep, but it's fair to say they are exposed to the Chinese market because the truth is for most cell makers a lot of their value-added raw materials are coming out of the China supply chain. So they think about diversification of that supply chain, a level of localization, and that's why Quebec and Canada, you know, more broadly are seen as a really logical jurisdiction to be looking out for key projects.
How do we feed that? Well, basically that comes through consistent and we would argue, you know, solid engagement with those players downstream about what the future of our project can look like. And it is absolutely our intention to continue with that engagement, that is, you know, a very logical path to pursue because of course we need more customers and ultimately we have to finance the mine development.
When you think about a big project like ours, the logical pools of capital that are fundamentally going to help and be constructive to our development are key players from within industry. But now also governments.
Governments are interested for all the reasons you alluded to earlier. There is sensitivity in Western economies about their exposure, ultimately, to the Chinese supply chain and it's in their interests to further diversify their economies as well. That's why you're starting to see some interesting moves in, you know, especially in the US, but it's also happening back in, you know, my own country back in Australia. I know it's happening here in Canada. Everybody's focused on trying to ensure that we get the right projects into production and governments, at least on the face of it, are prepared to lend weight to that.
There seems to be a newer sense of urgency than there was in the past by governments, right? How is PMET taking advantage of that as it relates to the permitting work, which I know doesn't headline that people like to see, but it's so critical, pun intended, right? How is PMET developing then, how is that coming along, Ken?
Yeah, we've been really happy actually with how that engagement has unfolded. So in our part of the world, Quebec, and in the James Bay region, you have that really important relationship with the Cree being the sole First Nations in the James Bay region. They have a very sophisticated system working alongside the province of Quebec for the purpose of the progress of your project and we've been really happy with how that engagement has unfolded. We enjoy the relationship with the Cree. They're actually a fantastic group to partner with. The other piece of really good news that's emerged is the federal interaction.
And here the feedback is actually really interesting. In essence, as per our public disclosure, the feds have said that they will happily align their approvals process to what's called COMX-COM, which is our part of the world for Quebec approval and the province of Quebec. That is really good news and actually I think a reflection of the rhetoric that Canada's been sharing about trying to ensure sensible approvals processes that of course are doing the right thing for sustainable development, but equally they're not double dipping, they're not creating circular loops for the purpose of approval. They've just outright said to us we will in effect match our federal approvals process to the COMX-COM process. So we see that as a really constructive step because ultimately it's just helpful to the timeline that we've already published for the development of the project.
