Hard-rock lithium exploration company Patriot Battery Metals is bolstering its leadership presence in Quebec with a decision to move highly experienced mining executive Ken Brinsden from Australia to Canada.
Brinsden will transition from nonexecutive chairperson to CEO, president and MD, residing in Montreal.
Current CEO and president Blair Way will move into the COO role, while Quebec resident Pierre Boivin will step into the role of nonexecutive chairperson.
“The time is right to build out capacity in Quebec in support of the Corvette project’s development,” said Way, who retains his executive board position.
“We are lucky to have someone of Ken’s calibre and experience in the lithium industry leading the charge, given that he has done the job before at Pilbara Minerals, taking the company from the development phase to one of the world’s biggest lithium producers,” he added.
Brinsden commented that, given the Corvette project’s location and scale, it had emerged as “one of, if not the best” lithium raw materials development projects globally.
“Since joining Patriot in August 2022, Corvette’s importance to the region has only grown and it now deserves more attention at the local level. Hence my commitment to move to Quebec, build out the leadership team and engage deeply with key stakeholders that will contribute to the project’s success,” he said.
The Corvette property hosts the CV5 spodumene pegmatite with a maiden mineral resource estimate of 109.2-million tonnes at 1.42% lithium oxide inferred and ranks as the largest lithium pegmatite resource in the Americas based on contained lithium carbonate equivalent, and one of the top ten largest lithium pegmatite resources in the world.