Alex Cheesemen (@ACheesey on Twitter) is an ex Australian military officer and a significant player in the Western Australia lithium industry. Alex had the unique “opportunity” to be one of the last people standing at Altura Mining. In this episode Alex will share what he learned in the process of helping bring a significant hard rock asset into production and then, due to the vagaries of lithium asset financing challenges and unfavorable market conditions, he was tasked with taking it through the receivership process. Alex has a great perspective on the WA lithium industry past, present, and future.
We discuss:
The timeframe for bringing projects into production
Pros and Cons of having a lean project team
DMS vs flotation
The financial struggles of junior mining companies
Learning how to connect Altura’s product with the conversion market in China
The receivership experience and how the WA mining community helped out
Thoughts on when currently shut in spodumene capacity will come back online
Mineral Resources and Albemarle aka “watching the elephants dance”
How much spodumene production can we expect from Australia in 2025 and 2030
How soon price will recover and to what level
China and Australia trade tensions
Why I may never be let back into WA
Plus “Rapid Fire”
view more