Lithium Power International eyes listing on ASX

Interviews

by Carolyn Herbert

Transcription of Finance News Network Interview with Lithium Power International (ASX:LPI) CEO, Martin Holland
 
To download the prospectus Click Here
 
Carolyn Herbert: Hello I’m Carolyn Herbert from the Finance News Network and joining me from soon-to-be listed lithium explorer, Lithium Power International is CEO, Martin Holland. Martin welcome to FNN.
 
Martin Holland: Thank you for having me.
 
Carolyn Herbert: Martin can you start by giving us an introduction to the company?
 
Martin Holland: Lithium Power is a company focusing on the commodity lithium. We have chosen to give investors a diversified approach between hard rock spodumene in Western Australia, and also brine asset class in Argentina.
 
Carolyn Herbert: Can you tell us why you’re focusing on multiple geographic locations?
 
Martin Holland: We have chosen as a company to focus on multiple geographic locations, as I said before, to give investors a diversified approach between hard rock spodumene lithium in Western Australia, and also the brine operation over in South America.
 
Carolyn Herbert: I understand you’ve identified advanced mineral targets. Can you tell us a bit more about these?
 
Martin Holland: Our targets are identified in the Pilbara region of Western Australia. They’ve been located from the magnetic work that we’ve done across the tenement portfolio. We’ve also done some gravity feature anomaly work in the Greenbushes area of Western Australia. And there’ve been a number of diamond holes drilled to date, in our Argentinian salar that we’ve recently acquired.
 
Carolyn Herbert: Your tenement’s adjacent to Pilbara Minerals Limited (ASX:PLS) and Altura Mining Limited (ASX:AJM) lithium deposit. What’s the significance of this?
 
Martin Holland: The main significance is that the same greenstone that is in Pilbara’s area and also Altura Mining’s area, rolls on to our portfolio. This is actually a very exciting process for the company. This was worked out through magnetic detail that was done late in 2015, and we’re very excited to come in and explore this region.
 
Carolyn Herbert: Who’s been backing the company to this point, who’s on the Board and what’s the strategy?
 
Martin Holland:To date we’ve done a seed capital round of approximately $AUD1.2 million. We have approximately 30 shareholders. We’re now in the process of going to IPO to raise further capital to explore the assets that we’ve got. Moving forward in regards to Board we have a Board, which has approximately 160 yearscombined experience between it,from a commercial and a technical point of view.
 
Carolyn Herbert: Taking a look at the lithium market more generally. Where is demand coming from?
 
Martin Holland: Demand is coming from the battery sector. We have the likes of Tesla Motors Inc. (NASDAQ:TSLA) last week, come out with $10 million worth of sales of their new electric vehicle car, in the first day. There’s obviously huge demand coming from the electrical vehicle movement. There’s also demand coming out of China as well, which being located in Australia here especially in Western Australia with the commodity lithium, being that close to port and that close tothe access through to China, it obviously makes the commodity lithium very attractive in this country.
 
Carolyn Herbert: What’s the price of lithium done over the past 12 months?
 
Martin Holland: The price of lithium as I’ve talked about before, sort of like mid last year, the price has gone from approximately about $4,000 a tonne. It skyrocketed through asianmetals.com site through the Chinese spot market, to approximately about $26,000 a tonne this month. So we’ve seen approximately about 400/500 per cent increase over the last period.
 
Carolyn Herbert: What’s the supply dynamic looking like going forward?
 
Martin Holland: The supply dynamic is quite interesting. We have more and more companies, especially junior companies, transferring from being a gold or a copper explorer, to focusing on the commodity lithium. There’re more and more players coming into the market. So you’ll probably consider that there’s going to be more and more supply coming on, though it is very difficult to actually get to the final product. And we believe we are positioned as a pure lithium explorer, which will focus on this commodity and we’ll be one of those companies that come to production.
 
Carolyn Herbert: Turning to your IPO. Can you tell us about the size of the IPO, your expected listing date and the market cap of the company upon listing?
 
Martin Holland: From a size perspective, we have a large tenement portfolio across Western Australia and Argentina. In regards to market cap, we’ll be circa $AUD21 million undiluted. We’ll be raising approximately about $7 million in the IPO, which we use for exploration and we’re expecting to list at the end of May 2016.
 
Carolyn Herbert: When will the offer open to potential investors and where can they find theProspectus?
 
Martin Holland: The offer will open in a couple of week’s time. You can look at the Prospectus on lithiumpowerinternational.com website, or through our lead manager Sequoia Corporate Finance Pty Limited.(www.sequoiaam.com.au/lithium-power-international)
 
Carolyn Herbert: Where will the funds be going?
 
Martin Holland: The funds will be used mainly for exploration on the targets that we’ve identified, and also for working capital from a corporate and technical perspective.
 
Carolyn Herbert: Finally Martin. What are the key milestones for Lithium Power International over the next 12 months?
 
Martin Holland: The key milestones are to get the company listed on the ASX; to have the funds required to explore all our projects. And really get to a point of understanding what’s underneath this tenement portfolio that we own.
 
Carolyn Herbert: Martin Holland, thank you for the introduction to Lithium Power International.
 
Martin Holland: Thank you for your time.
 
 
Ends

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