Steve Hanson, President and CEO, ACME Lithium Inc. (CSE: ACME, OTCQX: ACLHF) Discusses their Planning for a Domestic Supply of Lithium for Powering the Energy Revolution

By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, USA
on 11/26/2022
We spoke with Steve Hanson, President and CEO of ACME Lithium Inc. (CSE: ACME, OTCQX: ACLHF), a mineral exploration Company, with multiple North American projects, in areas known for lithium development and exploration. ACME has acquired, or is under option to acquire, a 100-per-cent interest in projects, located in Clayton Valley and Fish Lake Valley, Esmeralda County Nevada, and at Cat-Euclid and Shatford Lakes, in southeastern Manitoba. The claims translate to lithium mining and extraction, in a growing market that is set to dominate in the coming years. The summer drilling program, in Nevada, produced a significant discovery, with Lithium detected at concentrations ranging between 38 and 130 mg/L. These findings have initiated Phase 2 planning and procurement of an expanded drilling and pump test program, with a target to commence Q4 2022. In Manitoba, drilling is planned for Fall-Winter 2022-2023, based on findings from the summer exploration program.

Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-Chief of Metals News, talking with Steve Hanson, President and CEO of ACME Lithium, Inc. Steve, I wonder if you would take a few minutes and give our readers/investors an overview of the lithium market, what’s driving it and what the future looks like? Then, talk about your role in filling the needs of this exponentially growing lithium market.

Steve Hanson: Thank you for taking the time to talk to me about what is a very exciting sector. We are in a massive mega-trend for critical minerals, especially lithium, globally. It's really driven by the energy that powers our lives. Lithium is contained within cell phones, laptops, and now our hybrid and electric vehicles and in grid storage as well. We take it for granted that these core commodities are in abundance, and we are now facing a major crisis in the United States, in Canada and in Europe.

Where is all this lithium going to come from? Most of the lithium in the world comes from only a handful of countries, including Australia, China, Chile and Argentina. Here in North America, we need to ramp up exploration, development and ultimately production of these core minerals. There's a huge tailwind that now is coming from the federal government of the U.S. and from Canada and from industry, as well as the capital markets, to ensure that we have this critical supply to meet the ever-growing demand, in this incredible industry and technology change that's happening around the world.

Dr. Allen Alper: It sounds exciting and it sounds like it's a great time for lithium miners and explorers.

Steve Hanson: Absolutely. ACME Lithium has a portfolio of projects in North America. Our vision here is, ultimately, to be a domestic supplier of lithium to this growing market. We have two projects in Nevada and a series of projects in southeastern Manitoba that are regionally well-located, in the only places where lithium is currently being produced. In fact, there's only one place where lithium is produced in the U.S. and it's in Clayton Valley, Nevada.

We have a project to the northwest, contiguous to Albemarle Silver Peak project. And just over the foothills, we have a project in Fish Lake Valley, Nevada. Also, in southeastern Manitoba, there exists the Tanco Mine, which is a long producing mine, of lithium, cesium and tantalum. We call those LCTs.

It's the only place where lithium is produced in Canada and we have a number of projects, in that surrounding area. It is a very exciting time at Acme Lithium. We're in the exploration phase, after making our first discovery in Nevada. Now we're in development there and hoping to have some key catalysts coming up here, in the next quarter.

Dr. Allen Alper: Excellent. Could you tell us a little bit more about your Nevada projects and also your proprietary or low-cost way of extracting it?

Steve Hanson: Our project in Clayton Valley is contiguous to the northwest of Albemarle’s Silver Peak project. This is a lithium brine project, which we drilled this past June-July, where we made a discovery. We are currently in Phase 2 procurement, and planning and permitting. We now have approvals to proceed from the Bureau of Land Management and Department of Mines. Harris Exploration, our drilling contractor, is ready to go and we hope to be mobilizing to commence our drill program, an expanded Phase 2 program, here in the next 4 to 6 weeks.

We are planning to do a pump test of our discovery well, and then up to three additional exploration holes. An expanded Phase 2 program, we're hoping to have this commencing in the next 4 to 6 weeks, so a near-term catalyst. We're hoping to have success, with the drill bit.

In Manitoba, we're going through permitting as well. In that process, we're just waiting on approval from the Manitoba government. We have our drill sites and locations planned and ready to go, and we're hoping to be drilling in Manitoba before the end of the year. Some exciting times here at ACME Lithium, two potential drilling programs, happening before the end of the year. I'm waiting on geophysics to come back from our Fish Lake Project in Nevada.

That data has been collected. It's being processed right now, and we hope to continue to advance that project, over the first few months of 2023 and into the latter part of the year. I'll make a drilling decision there, sometime later this year, or early 2023. We're well financed, we have just under $10 million in the bank. We have enough capital to meet our drilling program requirements upcoming, and we're in a really good position, as a young lithium explorer and developer.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent. Could you tell our readers/investors a little bit about your background, your Management Team, Board and advisors?

Steve Hanson: Sure. I've spent almost 30 years in the resource sector, on all four continents around the world. My experience is in mining and in alternative energy and in oil and gas. I've been involved, as a CEO, on Boards and as an Advisor to Boards. I've been involved in startups in the capital markets, for close to three decades, de-risking projects and advancing them, on behalf of shareholders. My goal here is to continue to de-risk these projects, create value for shareholders, and ultimately bring in strategic investors, large mining companies, off-takers and users, and continue to look for opportunistic projects that bring value to lithium for our shareholders.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent! Could you tell us a little bit about some of the other Members of your Team?

Steve Hanson: Yannis Tsitos is on our Board. He was with BHP for 19 years and involved in over 300 transactions. My Head Geologist in the US, Will Feyerabend, has been involved in lithium projects for over a decade. He's based in the southwestern United States and helps oversee our projects down there. Paul McGuigan is one of my technical advisers. He's had a long career in history, he's a sampling expert and his consulting firm has worked on all four continents, advancing projects and de-risking them as well. I have a varied Board, a group of consultants and technical advisors that are very smart and very savvy. I've surrounded myself with some of the best people in the industry and we hope that this will certainly help our chance for success in the future.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent. Sounds like you have a very strong, diversified, experienced, background, Board and Team. Steve, could you tell our readers/investors a little bit that your share and capital structure.

Steve Hanson: We trade on the Canadian Securities Exchange, the CSE under the symbol ACME and we trade on the highest level of the OTC markets, the OTCQX in the US, under the symbol ACLHF. We currently have 57 million shares out and have about a $30 million market cap.

We have some key strategic investors that are invested along with us. Waratah Capital's Electrification and Decarbonization Fund is our largest shareholder, with about 9%. Lithium Royalty Corporation and Institution is a large shareholder of ours, as well as several mining funds from Canada. Then a number of high-net-worth offices and family offices from Canada and the US and overseas. We have a great shareholder base that believes in our Team, believes in our projects and we're hoping to create great success for our shareholders, over the coming few quarters.

Dr. Allen Alper: That sounds excellent! Steve, could you tell our readers/investors the primary reasons they should consider investing in Acme Lithium?

Steve Hanson: At ACME, we have one of the best lithium portfolios in North America. We're very excited about not just one of our projects, but the multiple opportunities that our shareholders have. I think this helps to de-risk the Company, having more than one opportunity to develop a resource.

We have near-term catalysts, coming up here in the fourth quarter and into the first quarter of 2023. We're not just going to be drilling at one project. We're going to be drilling at multiple projects. Drilling is when investors can have great success, if the Company is successful, and this is where you can see some key catalysts happening here. We're going to be drilling here potentially in the next 4 to 6 weeks in Nevada and in Canada and very excited to hopefully deliver some key milestones here, on behalf of our shareholders in the near term.

Dr. Allen Alper: Well, those sound like very compelling reasons for readers/investors to consider investing in ACME Lithium. You have great projects in the US and Canada. There’s a great need for lithium and it's growing rapidly. You have a very experienced Team on hand, and you have the finances of your projects forward. I would say those are all great reasons for our readers/investors to consider investing in ACME Lithium. Steve, is there anything else you'd like to add?

Steve Hanson: No. I appreciate your time today. Thank you for the interview and I look forward to updating you on new news here over the next few months.

Dr. Allen Alper: It sounds great! We’ll publish your press releases as they come out so our readers/investors can follow your progress.

https://acmelithium.com/

Stephen Hanson
Chief Executive Officer, President and Director
Telephone: (604) 564-9045
info@acmelithium.com