Recharge Resources Ltd. announce that it has appointed Phillip Thomas as its Chief Operating Officer and a Director of the corporation responsible for the further development of the Company’s Pocitos One Lithium Brine Project (“Pocitos 1” or “the project”) in Salta, Argentina.
Phillip is the Company’s Qualified Person for the development of Pocitos 1, and has worked on the project since 2017. He was the author of the NI 43-101 maiden report on Pocitos 1. Phillip commenced working in Argentina in 2003 and has more than 20 years experience, including the exploration and development of the pilot plant at Rincon which was sold in 2008, and again recently to Rio Tinto for $825m USD.
Phillip’s initial experience post graduation in geology was in geophysics and mine planning. He then decided to follow a career in resources banking and finance in 1982. He worked for Macquarie Bank, ABN-Amro and actuaries Watson Wyatt. Phil was Exploration director and CEO of Admiralty Resources NL (ASX:ADY) for six years from 2003-2008 building the Rincon lithium carbonate project, exploring and operating the Vallenar iron ore project in Chile. Rincon’s mineral estimate was in excess of 1.1m tonnes of lithium carbonate. Phillip was the first geologist to build an operating plant producing lithium carbonate in 2005 after FMC built their plant at Hombre Muerto in 1995.
In 2011 he was part of the Lithea Inc exploration team (CEO) that produced an indicated and inferred resource estimate for the Pozuelos Salar in Argentina, and subsequently sold the project to LSC Lithium Inc. Ganfeng recently bought the project and Pastos Grandes for $925m. In 2016 he explored and drilled a number of salares for AIS Resources including Guayatayoc, Salinas Grandes, Pocitos and in 2022 Incahuasi salar.
Phil was also involved in funds management and capital raising from 1982-2002. He has gained wide experience in capital raising and valuation methodologies having worked with Macquarie Bank, McIntosh Securities and the then $8 billion VFMC fund (now $74.5 billion AUD).
During the last five years he has concentrated on developing the Ekosolve™ process, a Direct Lithium Extraction process with the University of Melbourne. Recharge Resources board has decided to use the Ekosolve™ process on its Pocitos brines as it has achieved 94.92% extraction of lithium and produced 99.89% purity lithium carbonate. This DLE process has become the leader in its field due to its ability to process high magnesium brines (which are present in Pocitos 1), oil contaminated brines from old oil wells and highly acidic geo brines.
Phillip is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy, Member of the Australian Institute of Geoscientists, a Director and member of the Australasian Institute of Mineral Valuers and Appraisers, and an accredited Certified Mineral Valuer. He has a four year Bachelor of Science degree in Geology from the Australian National University (1979), a Master’s Degree in Business with high distinction from Monash University (1991). Phil is an experienced ASX and TSX corporate director, being Chairman of two boards, strong in geological exploration for lithium brines and in lithium chemistry. He has completed many postgraduate courses in geophysics and geology. He is a Competent Person for ASX JORC in lithium brine style of mineralisation and Qualified Person for NI43-101 reporting.
Phillip’s full Report dated June 30, 2023, and entitled “Technical Report For The Pocitos Salar Lithium Concession, Salta Province, Argentina”, can be found on the Company’s website and on SEDAR+ under the Company’s issuer profile at www.sedarplus.ca.
David Greenway, President, and CEO commented, “I am delighted that Phillip is joining the team and we expect he will be able to make a significant contribution towards our goal of producing 20,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate per year. His indepth country knowledge of Argentina, and depth of experience is very rare to find. His appointment should make for an exciting next period for Recharge and its stakeholders at the Pocitos Project.”
Mr. Thomas replaces Mr. Larry Segerstrom on the board of directors. Mr. Segerstrom will remain a technical advisor to Recharge. The Company thanks Mr. Segerstrom for his role as a director and looks forward to a continued collaboration.
The Company has outlined a number of objectives along with equity-based bonuses for achieving the milestones for Mr. Thomas in his new role as Director and Chief Operating Officer, as follows:
| Milestone | Milestone target completion date | Shares to be issued to Thomas upon successfully achieving milestone |
| Successful Completion of Maiden Resource Estimate (Ind. Inf.) of + 500,000 Tonnes Li2C03 | 31 December 2023 | 400,000 |
| Successful Completion of Strategic Financing for Plant Construction | 28 February 2024 | 400,000 |
| Successful Completion of Proven and Probable Resource Estimate of + 1,000,000 Tonnes Li2C03 | 31 May 2024 | 400,000 |
| Successful Completion of Feasibility Study | July 31st, 2024 | 400,000 |
| Ekosolve Plant Construction Permit approval + 5,000 tpy | 30 June 2025 | 400,000 |
| Production of Commercial Quantities of lithium Carbonate + 5,000 tpy | 2 January 2026 | 800,000 |
About Pocitos Lithium Brine Project
The Pocitos 1 Project is located approximately 10km from the township of Pocitos where there is gas, electricity, and accommodation. Pocitos 1 is approximately 800 hectares and is accessible by road. Collective exploration totals over US$2.0 million developing the project, including surface sampling, trenching, TEM and MT geophysics and drilling three wells that had outstanding brine flow results. Locations for immediate follow up drilling have already been designed and identified for upcoming exploration.
Lithium values of 169 ppm from drill hole 3 packer test assayed from laboratory analysis conducted by Alex Stewart were recorded during the project’s December 2022 drill campaigns. A double packer sampling system in HQ Diamond drill holes were drilled to a depth of up to 409 metres. The flow of brine was observed to continue for more than five hours. All holes had exceptional brine flow rates. A NI 43-101 report has been released on the Pocitos 1 project.
Recharge is awaiting the completion of the process engineering work to be completed by Ekosolve Ltd to produce and assay the lithium carbonate being produced, where extraction was above 94% of the contained lithium in the brine i.e. 158.86ppm of lithium would have been recovered from 169ppm.
WSP Australia is waiting on the relogging of the cores to be completed before it delivers the Company’s maiden resource estimate at Pocitos 1 that will result in an update of the NI 43-101 report completed by QP Phillip Thomas in June 2023.
Qualified Person
Phillip Thomas, BSc Geol, MBusM, FAusIMM, MAIG, MAIMVA, (CMV), a Qualified Person as defined under NI 43-101 regulations, has reviewed the technical information that forms the basis for portions of this news release, and has approved the disclosure herein.
Mr. Thomas has joined the Company in the capacity of COO on 21 November 2023. He is a shareholder and Officer.
RSU Issuance
Recharge announces it has granted 800,000 restricted share units (“RSUs”) to officers and directors of the Company. The RSUs are valid for a term of one year and under the terms of the Company’s restricted share unit plan (the “RSU Plan”).
About Recharge Resources
Recharge Resources is a Canadian mineral exploration company focused on exploring and developing the production of high-value battery metals to create green, renewable energy to meet the demands of the advancing electric vehicle and fuel cell vehicle market.
On Behalf of the Board of Directors
“David Greenway”
David Greenway, CEO
