C. Tucker Barrie, Ph.D., P. Geo. is the President and CEO of Noram Ventures Inc. (TSX-V:NRM), a Canadian based junior exploration company, with a goal of becoming a force in the Green Energy Revolution through the development of lithium deposit and becoming a low – cost supplier for the burgeoning lithium battery industry.

What’s your journey in becoming a CEO?
My background is as a research-oriented consulting geologist for the metallic minerals exploration and mining industry. Early in my career, I gained exposure to the industry through collaborative research projects on large copper-zinc deposits and districts around the world, with sponsorship from major mining companies and governments and universities. It was a successful endeavor, producing many articles on the genesis of mineral deposits, and providing a lot of interaction with senior mining executives and geologists that has served me well ever since.

More recently I have been an executive for companies in the junior mining sector, with projects in Madagascar, Haiti, Canada, Argentina and now in the USA.  The projects have been on the exploration and development of copper, zinc and gold deposits, and now on a large lithium claystone project in Nevada, one of the premier locations for developing a mine in the world.

Tell us a bit about your business and how you are commercializing?
Noram Ventures Inc. (www.noramventures.com) is developing a large lithium claystone deposit in Clayton Valley, Nevada, adjacent to North America’s only lithium producer, a brine operation at Silver Peak, owned and operated by Albermarle Corp.  At present we have a large lithium resource at 1100 ppm Li content, at surface with essentially no strip ratio, of ~1.2 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent.  The current price for lithium carbonate (99.5% purity) is $7000/tonne, so it is clear to see this is a very valuable resource.  We aim to increase the grade and tonnage with another drill program and commence testing extraction techniques for a Preliminary Economic Assessment report in the coming 18 months.

How are you managing with the current COVID-19 pandemic on both business and personal front?
Our company headquarters in Vancouver is on a skeleton staff in the downtown office, and we are mostly working from home offices as we move the project forward.   The situation hasn’t affected our day to day operations very much as a lot of the work is arranging contracts over the phone or by email for field operations and for chemical engineering studies.

What’s the most exciting thing about running your business?
The global lithium supply and demand is an unbalanced market at the moment, and it is exciting to work within such a dynamic environment.  On the demand side, it is clear there will be a tenfold increase for lithium ion batteries for the electric vehicle (EV) market in the next twenty years as every major auto producer, led by Tesla, is ramping up EV production.  A third of all new vehicle purchases in the UK, for example are EV.  And lithium ion battery mega- and Gigafactories are operating at capacity and expanding.    But there are supply chain issues, and at times there isn’t transparency in supply-demand as China dominates EV and battery production at the moment.

On the supply side, in part because of lower lithium prices at the moment but also because of other factors, most all major expansion projects for lithium brines and pegmatites (hard rock lithium resources) are delayed.  Much of the global supply comes from Argentina and Chile, and there are strong government and social issues surrounding the use of precious groundwater there.  The two largest lithium pegmatite mines are either not producing (e.g., Whabouchi mine, Quebec – Nemaska) or have curtailed expansion (Greenbushes mine, Australia – Tianqui financial troubles). 

So given these supply and demand issues, we expect to see a rise in price for lithium soon, and we expect this will last for a long time as EV production continues to expand exponentially.

How do you measure success?
We want to follow through with defining a larger, higher grade resource with further drilling, and we aim to improve on the processing options that are currently being tested by other lithium claystone deposit owners in Nevada.  By doing these, we will increase shareholder value for Noram Ventures (TSX-V: NRM).

What do you think is the most important quality of being a CEO of a listed company?
Perseverance.  You have to believe in what you are doing, and stick to it in good times and in difficult times.

What is your favourite book?
Right now, I have Sapiens by Hariri, Forty Stories by Chekov and Uncle Dynamite by Wodehouse on my bedstand.

What message do you want to send to our readership in Asia?
Noram Ventures Inc. has a large, expanding and potentially mineable lithium deposit in Nevada, only a 4 hour drive away from Tesla’s Gigafactory in Sparks Nevada to the north.  We are undervalued in comparison to our peers.  We have the knowledge and capacity to develop this deposit into a major source of lithium carbonate for the lithium ion battery industry in North America.  The American government has declared lithium a strategic metal that should be given preferred treatment to encourage developing a vertically-integrated industry in the USA.  Nevada is often ranked as the global #1 jurisdiction for mine development.

At Noram, we are proud to be part of the Green Energy Revolution to lower carbon emissions by advancing this lithium deposit toward production, to produce a product that supplies the growing North American and global electric vehicle market.

How can people connect with you?
Email:
Website: https://www.noramventures.com

Want to be on the list next time this company raises capital? Open an account with Fresh Equities and start exploring capital raises – freshequities.com