ABOUT iTECH MINERALS

Since listing on the ASX in late 2021, South Australian based exploration company, iTech Minerals (ASX: ITM), has been on a mission to discover and develop resources for the growing renewable energy and battery materials market.

iTech is currently focussed on developing the advanced Eyre Peninsula Graphite Project in South Australia, and exploring the early stage Reynolds Range Copper-Gold Project in the Northern Territory.

iTech has also forged robust collaborations with globally recognised industry leaders to develop cutting-edge processes and technologies that will help accelerate its projects.

THE MANAGEMENT TEAM

iTech Minerals has assembled a highly experienced board and technical team.

Michael Schwarz – Managing Director​

Mr Schwarz has over 25 years’ senior experience in mineral exploration spanning industry and government as a geologist and director of several exploration companies.

 

Mr Schwarz has extensive experience both at a senior corporate level and in the hands-on roles of a geologist. He has high level negotiation and communication skills, and has managed competing stakeholder interests successfully, specifically balancing the needs of shareholders, landowners, corporate financiers, joint venture partners and government to ensure a positive outcome for his organisations. Mr Schwarz has significant technical knowledge and experience in South Australian and Northern Territory geology and mineralisation styles and has led research projects with State Governments, Geoscience Australia and various universities. Mr Schwarz was the founding Managing Director of Northern Cobalt (ASX:N27) where he gained valuable experience in the battery materials markets.

 

As a founding Director and Executive Director Exploration for Core Exploration Limited (ASX:CXO), Mr Schwarz established exploration programs for iron-oxide copper-gold (IOCG) mineralisation in the Olympic Dam Copper-Gold Province in South Australia and in silver and base metal mineralisation in the Arunta Inlier in the Northern Territory.

 

As Managing Director of Monax Mining Ltd (ASX:MOX), Mr Schwarz was responsible for building a solid portfolio of highly prospective tenements with a focus on iron-oxide copper-gold and uranium. This strong foundation enabled the company to list on the ASX in 2005.

 

Mr Schwarz was also a founding Director of Marmota Energy Ltd (ASX:MEU), a role he performed concurrently while Managing Director of Monax Mining Ltd, where Mr Schwarz built a strong portfolio of prospective uranium tenements and successfully managed the company’s oversubscribed listing on the ASX.

Glenn Davis – Non-executive Chairman​

Mr Davis has practiced as a solicitor in corporate and risk throughout Australia for over 30 years initially in a national firm and then a firm he founded.

 

He has expertise and experience in the execution of large transactions, risk management and in corporate activity regulated by the Corporations Act and ASX. Mr Davis is currently the non-executive chairman of Beach Energy Ltd.

Gary Ferris – Non-executive Director​

Mr Ferris is a geologist with more than 30 years’ experience in exploration and management as a founding Managing Director of InterMet Resources Ltd (ASX: ITT) and Managing Director of Monax Mining (ASX: MOX).

 

Mr Ferris has a Master’s degree from the Centre for Ore Deposits and Exploration Studies, University of Tasmania. He is a member of the Australasian Institute of Mining and Metallurgy. Mr Ferris ran research projects on the halloysite-kaolinite deposits of the Eyre Peninsula, SA for the SA Mines Department prior to working in industry.

Jarek Kopias – Company Secretary​

Mr Kopias is a Certified Practising Accountant and Chartered Secretary. Mr Kopias has 25 years’ industry experience in a wide range of financial and secretarial roles within the resources industry.

 

As an accountant, Mr Kopias worked in numerous financial roles for companies, specialising in the resource sector – including 5 years at WMC Resources Limited’s Olympic Dam operations, 5 years at Newmont Mining Corporation – Australia’s corporate office and 5 years at oil and gas producer and explorer, Stuart Petroleum Limited (prior to its merger with Senex Energy Limited).

 

He is currently the CFO and Company Secretary of Resolution Minerals Ltd (ASX: RML) and Company Secretary of Core Lithium Ltd (ASX: CXO) and Iron Road Ltd (ASX: IRD). Mr Kopias has held similar roles with other ASX entities in the past and has other business interests with numerous unlisted entities.

SCIENTIFIC PARTNERSHIPS

iTech Minerals has assembled a highly skilled technical team through collaborations and partnerships with industry-leading experts in the analysis, benefaction and marketing of critical and industrial minerals.

Read more about our partnerships below:

ANZAPLAN
Since listing in 2021, iTech Minerals has cultivated a strong partnership with ANZAPLAN.

ANZAPLAN has a multidisciplinary team of processing engineers, chemists, geoscientists and business economists that cover process design, market consulting, and high-end analytical services along the complete chain of project valuation.

iTech Minerals is currently working with ANZAPLAN to test and improve a number of processes at the Eyre Peninsula Graphite Project. In particular producing run of mine and larger size samples for potential customers. These will be critical to establishing offtake agreements.

ANZAPLAN also offers a core competency in kaolin mining, processing and marketing. Its sister company, Dorfner is one of the largest kaolin producers in Germany.
Future Industries Institute (UniSA)

iTech is committed to high-quality scientific research and is collaborating with the Future Industries Institute at the University of South Australia (UniSA) to pioneer new processing techniques to liberate refined battery-grade material from the Sugarloaf Graphite Prospect. 

The project initially focuses on the production of a high-grade graphite concentrate and will progress to purification and spheroidization to produce uncoated purified spherical graphite.

Sugarloaf has a significant exploration target of 158 – 264 Mt at 7 – 12 % TGC and represents a substantial opportunity for iTech. But the simple flotation techniques we used successfully at our nearby Campoona Deposits have proven less effective at Sugarloaf, primarily due to the microcrystalline nature of the graphite flakes.

WATCH: In this iTech Explainer (4min), MD Mike Schwarz and Prof Bill Skinner (UniSA) cover:

• The challenges of processing fine graphite for the battery market
• The breakthrough technologies that have emerged since Archer Materials last conducted tests on the Sugarloaf Prospect
• The potential cost savings from developing a new processing flowsheet at Sugarloaf 

The Future Industries Institute is an internationally recognised research institute involved in several large research projects in collaboration with industry, government, not-for-profit organisations and partner research institutions.

This test work is being partially funded from the CRC-Projects grant iTech was awarded in 2023.

METS Engineering

iTech Minerals is collaborating with with METS Engineering to improve techniques for processing ore from its Eyre Peninsula Graphite and Rare Earth Projects.

Established in 1988 by Damian Connelly, METS Engineering Group specialises in mineral processing, hydrometallurgy, pyrometallurgy, and engineering design, and has a reputation for providing quality service to the global mining industry. 

The long term graphite test work has been partially funded from the CRC-Projects grant.

ANSTO

iTech Minerals has a strong working relationship with the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO). With $1.3 Billion worth of state-of-the-art science infrastructure, ANSTO is ideally suited for solving problems relating to the development and characterisation of advanced materials.



In 2021 the leachability of rare earths was assessed from historical samples from the Eyre Peninsula REE-Kaolin Project. This resulted in determining ideal sample size, location and leaching conditions to undertake a comprehensive program of metallurgical optimisation throughout 2022.

CSIRO

iTech has established a research partnerships with the CSIRO to develop a cost-effective method of quantitative halloysite analysis.

In high grade kaolin composed of a mixture of kaolinite and halloysite pseudomorphs, the halloysite component is often not detected by routine methods of halloysite identification using X-ray diffraction in conjunction with formamide intercalation, particularly when dehydrated. Resulting in the requirement for expensive and time-consuming scanning electron microscopy to determine the true halloysite component.

This project will investigate the use of alternative XRD and also FT-IR PLS (mid-infrared analysis with spectral processing) in determining a rapid and cost-effective method of quantitative halloysite analysis