Latin levels up its board with addition of former Greenbushes Lithium boss

Latin Resources appointment of former Talison Lithium managing director Peter Oliver as a non-executive director is a strong endorsement of the quality of its Salinas lithium project.

Peter is a top-shelf executive with nearly 20 years’ experience in lithium leadership roles covering global merger and acquisition activity, financing as well as managing mining operations.

Mr Oliver was Chief Executive Officer / Managing Director of Talison Lithium for over 10 years which owned and operated the world’s largest lithium mine – Greenbushes in Western Australia before being acquired by Tianqi Lithium.

Peter then served as an advisor to Tianqi from 2013 to March 2022, where he advised on the acquisition of a 24% stake in SQM for more than US$4bn, significant expansions of its Greenbushes lithium concentrate production capacity and the building of the Kwinana lithium hydroxide plant.

This is significant as Greenbushes is one of the world’s largest lithium mines while the Kwinana plant is one of the few located outside of China.

His extensive lithium sector skill set, experience in leading strong corporate teams, managing a public company, and acting in an advisory capacity in corporate structures is exactly the right combination which will help drive Latin Resources’ (ASX:LRS) next phase of growth with its Salinas project in Brazil.

“We are delighted to welcome Peter to the Latin Resources board during this critical and exciting time for the company as we enter our next phase of growth,” managing director Chris Gale said.

“We will soon be confirming our maiden JORC Resource then our PEA, followed by our DFS in 2023 at the company’s Salinas Lithium Projects, 100% owned high-grade Colina Lithium Prospect.

“The addition of Peter’s corporate skillset and extensive lithium experience to the board gives us great confidence to take Latin to the next level of development once our DFS is produced.”

Oliver added that after being approached by the company, it was obvious to him that the Salinas project in Brazil has great potential to become a world class producer of lithium to support North America and Europe in their push towards a decarbonised future.

Lithium assets

The company has been focused on defining a mineral resource at the Colina prospect within its Salinas project.

Early in September, it reported assay results such as 26.88m at 1.40% Li2O from 94m and 28.80m at 1.16% Li2O from 307m which demonstrate the strong own dip continuity of both grade and thickness of the logged pegmatites.

Metallurgical test work has also returned high recovery of 78.72% of the Li2O into a concentrate grading a very high 6.57% Li2O from initial first pass sighter test work.

This article was developed in collaboration with Latin Resources, 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.