Iggy Tan has assembled a team consisting primarily of Galaxy Resources alumni to progress the Apollo lithium project. Pic: Luis Alvarez via Getty Images
Iggy Tan assembles Galaxy alumni into ‘Lithium Dream Team’ to progress the Apollo project
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Lithium Universe chairman Iggy Tan is progressing his return to lithium by gathering a team of professionals to drive exploration of the promising Apollo project in Quebec’s emerging James Bay region.
His “Lithium Dream Team” includes Patrick Scallan, an experienced lithium veteran who successfully managed the world-class Greenbushes Mine for over 25 years and former Galaxy Resources general manager of technology Dr Jingyuan Liu, who played a key role in developing the Jiangsu lithium carbonate project.
Liu is widely considered to be a leading international expert in lithium downstream processing, particularly in the areas of lithium carbonate and hydroxide plant with Tianqi Lithium having specifically enlisted his aid in resolving commissioning challenges at their Kwinana Lithium Hydroxide plant.
Tan, who himself spearheaded Galaxy some 20 years ago, also enlisted another alumnus of the company Terry Stark, who had served as the general manager of operations for Galaxy’s Mt Cattlin and James Bay operations, and established strong relationships with the Cree First Nation people who are also the First Nation group at Apollo.
Other members of the team are Roger Pover who also worked on Greenbushes and was the plant manager at Mt Cattling and Huy Nguyen is involved with Mintrex, the company responsible for constructing the Mt Cattlin project for Galaxy.
Tan – who is well-known as the managing director for Altech Batteries (ASX:ATC) – noted that the team possesses unparalleled knowledge and decades of experience in spodumene hard rock processing and lithium carbonate and hydroxide production.
He added that while the lithium industry faced the significant challenge of prolonged project development timelines – a process which could take up to eight years from initial discovery to product launch – the team he had assembled has a proven track record of accelerating lithium projects.
This includes progressing Mt Cattlin from a maiden resource to production in just three years and Scallan overseeing the expansion of Greenbushes from 200,000tpa to 1.4Mtpa.
Repeating the Mt Cattlin success
Tan and his team are now looking to translate their success at Mt Cattlin to the promising Apollo lithium project, which is located between Patriot Battery Metals’ Corvette project and Winsome Resources’ Adina project.
While it shares the same greenstone belt as its neighbours, the planned listing through gaming company shell Mogul Games Group (ASX:MGG) is likely to be more modestly capitalised compared to Patriot and Winsome.
This article was developed in collaboration with Altech Batteries, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.
