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”