Frank Basa on Coniagas Battery Metals’ ‘Feed First’ Strategy and Global Sourcing for EV Battery Materials

In a recent interview with Pat Bolland of InvestorNews, Frank Basa, President, CEO, and Director of Coniagas Battery Metals Inc. (TSXV: COS), discussed the company’s developments and strategic plans. Coniagas, a Canadian junior mining company, focuses on nickel, copper, cobalt, and platinum group metals, primarily in Quebec. Basa highlighted that the company’s flagship project, the Graal project, has demonstrated promising results with a confirmed 6 km strike length of high-grade mineralization, including nickel, copper, cobalt, and platinum group elements. “We have found some very significant results,” Basa stated, referring to the shallow drilling already conducted. Coniagas aims to further develop the Graal project with deeper drilling and potential production, targeting the rapidly growing electric vehicle (EV) industry. Basa also emphasized the company’s “Feed First” strategy, which focuses on securing feedstock for battery metals production before establishing full-scale mining operations. He noted that Coniagas has received significant interest from offshore sources, particularly from the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), offering high-grade copper and cobalt materials. “We were offered 29 million tons of very high-grade copper-cobalt material,” Basa explained, underscoring the potential to process these materials through Coniagas’ Re-2Ox process. This hydrometallurgical process, which has been developed over six years, offers an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional smelting, making it an attractive option for processing cobalt and nickel sulfates for EV batteries. In collaboration with Investissement Québec, the company is considering building a processing plant in Quebec to support the province’s growing battery industry, further positioning Coniagas as a potential key supplier in the global EV market.