Proactive - Interviews for investors

Firebird Metals on LMFP battery strategy

Firebird Metals Ltd (ASX:FRB, OTC:FRBMF) managing director Peter Allen talks with Proactive’s Tylah Tully about the company’s LMFP strategy and its achievements in 2024. Allen shared insights on the growing importance of lithium manganese iron phosphate (LMFP) batteries, explaining how this technology improves energy density and range while maintaining safety and cost benefits. He highlighted the company’s advancements, including establishing a subsidiary in China, completing feasibility studies and building a pilot plant for its innovative processing kiln. Firebird Metals also secured essential permits and collaborated with Central Southern University on developing cathode materials. Looking ahead, Allen discussed goals to commercialise the kiln for broader applications, finalise royalty agreements with traditional owners and enhance supply reliability through upcoming agreements. He emphasised the company’s focus on innovation and readiness to meet the rising demand for LMFP technology in the next 18–24 months. #ProactiveInvestors #FirebirdMetals #ASX #LMFPStrategy #BatteryTechnology #LithiumManganese #EnergyDensity #Innovation #ASXStocks #ChinaMarket #SustainableEnergy #2024Milestones

Duration:: 4m
Broadcast on:: 02 Dec 2024
Audio Format:: other

>> Hello and welcome back to the Proactive Studio. I'm Tyler Tally, and today I'm joined by Firebird Middle's Managing Director, Peter Allen, who's going to give us a company update, talk us through Firebird's 2024 achievements, Outlook and LMFP strategy next year. Peter, thanks for joining us today. >> Morning, Tyler. >> Sorry, I guess a good place to start is your LMFP strategy. Can you run us through the key points and rush an hour behind this? >> Yeah, great question. Look, the LMFP strategy was born out of wanting to value ad from a concentrate that we would look to produce from our resource up in the Pilbara region. LMFP is lithium manganese ion phosphate. Lithium ion phosphate has been a dominant cathode chemistry in China. We're now seeing a transition to LMFP by the addition of manganese, you get greater energy density, greater range, but you maintain the cost and safety benefits of LFP. So really, it's always been about extending value ad proposition and really going downstream as much as we possibly can and really complement our resource. >> So what is the future of LMFP? And I guess where do you see it growing or moving to? >> Well, I think LMFP is part of a greater overall movement in terms of increasing manganese in the battery cathodes. No matter what type of cathode there is being used, whether it's lithium ion, sodium, lithium solid state, manganese is becoming greater more important in that application and is increasing its content in that application. And so like I said, we see great increase in demand in China. People are forecasting that by the end of this decade, 50% of all LFP batteries will be converted to LMFP batteries and we see that's a really big significant demand driver. >> So obviously, there's not long left in the year now. Can you recap 2024 and talk us through some of the company's major milestones and achievements? >> Look, it's been a really good year, but a really busy year. Just over 12 months ago, we announced our LMFP strategy. We then said about establishing our subsidiary in China. From there, we completed scoping studies, feasibility studies. Those feasibility studies delivered really good economic outcomes. Capital intensity can't be matched in China. Capital costs is US$83.5 million. Operating costs in sub US$600. Can't be matched by any Western world manufacturing base. From that point, we then built a pilot plant for the process. We built a pilot plant for our kiln. We've been fully permitted now for operating in China. We've received our environmental energy and safety permits, which will all enable us to operate in China. Since then, we've announced the results of our trial camp. Great energy saving initiative, very simple design, but very efficient, 70% reduction in energy. Since then, we've also looked at further value add in terms of our collaboration with Central Southern University. What we're looking to do is to take our manganese sulfate in solution into LNP cathode, saving considerable energy, saving civil costs, but value adding in. Our key driver is really how we can save costs, save energy and value add for our stakeholders. So, what do you have planned for next year? Can you talk us through some of your goals for 2025? Yeah, look, so near term, what we've been working on with our traditional owners in terms of a native title heritage agreement. That's coming to fruition. We've been working on how we can commercialize our kiln. We believe our kiln has a wide ranging usability in other commodities, for example, lithium. So, we're working hard on how we can demonstrate that. We're working toward building a secondary pilot kiln to demonstrate its further uses. The other thing we're doing is we've got our Benscar lab test work going for LMFP, converting a manganese sulfate into LMFP. That will be happening earlier in the year. And beyond that, lots of more exciting stuff. So, we're really pushing this out as we can to develop our project. Well, it definitely sounds like you've had a very busy year and we can't wait to see what you've got in store for 2025. Next time, we look forward to telling you about it.