Looking for a Lithium and Coltan play? Think Firering Strategic Minerals
“…One project. Two critical elements. Firering is well established with the coltan project progressing towards production…”
Products of the future rely on materials available now and those yet undiscovered. Take lithium for example, the staple of electric vehicle batteries and devices of the new age we’re living in. Demand outstrips supply and the price of raw materials rises.
Benchmark prices of lithium carbonate ended 2021 at records just as Firering Strategic Minerals listed on AIM.
The junior markets were being thrashed at the time, but the board at the ‘non conflict’ critical metals and minerals exploration company was confident that what they have at the Cote d’Ivoire is valuable for supply chains, the local economy and investor returns.
Firering has one of the first lithium projects to be developed in the Ivory Coast, in addition to its coltan project which is rapidly being progressed towards production.
The location is close to politically frowned upon Mali, but the Atex project is located in a stable jurisdiction. So stable that chief executive Yuval Cohen has relocated his young family there and oversees his business from site. There are plenty of videos on the company website showing the hands-on boss who prefers manual labour to verbosity. He’s a man of few words and expresses the project dynamics succinctly saying the project is “running as fast as possible.”
Since the IPO in November, the board has achieved much. A €7.3 million debt facility is in place in readiness for a production decision in 12-18 months where the coltan project is concerned. Cohen says there’s “big interest for supply and we can achieve that quite quickly.” While coltan will deliver the cash first, Cohen says the lithium project is “even more interesting.”
Senior independent non-executive director Neil Herbert is involved for many intelligent reasons. He’s also a NED of Atlantic Lithium which is in the same mineralised zone as Firering. Atlantic already has a resource and is a couple of years ahead of Firering. Herbert is confident the market will soon be comparing like with like particularly as it’s unusual to have both coltan and lithium in the same area and that’s what Firering has. With a 24-month advantage Atlantic has a market cap of £180 million and this peer is “where we’d like to go in terms of progressing the project to resource so people can see the value of the project.”
Both Herbert and Cohen are in alignment with investors, and Herbert says with the twin projects, one near term cash flowing, there will be both lots of news flow generation and he’s hopeful, “I will see the value as an investor rising quite quickly.”
Listen to Yuval and Neil talk to Sarah Lowther about the timelines for the projects, the impact on the local economy, the types of drilling underway and what ‘non conflict’ critical metals are.
Watch Yuval and Neil also present on Five Minute Pitch TV.
Read the company’s corporate presentation here
Access Firering’s Admission Prospectus
Follow the company on Twitter – @FireRing_SM
The author was remunerated but does not hold shares in the company
