Lithium Consolidated (ASX:LI3) portfolio update and drill program

Lithium Consolidated Limited (ASX:LI3) Managing Director Andrew Haythorpe provides an update on the company's new WA projects prospective for gold, nickel and base metals, board changes and plans to improve the company’s prospects.

Rachael Jones: Hello, I'm Rachael Jones for the Finance News Network. Joining me today from Lithium Consolidated (ASX:LI3) is Managing Director Andrew Haythorpe. Andrew, welcome to FNN.

Andrew Haythorpe: Thanks, Rachael. It's a real pleasure to be here, 1.5m away from you.

Rachael Jones: Now, first of all, could you start with an introduction to the company?

Andrew Haythorpe: LI3 was floated a few years ago, 20 cent IPO, and of course, over the last few years, it's been a very tough market for junior explorers. And during this last sort of six months period, the company's been looking at refocusing, rebuilding, and looking at new opportunities to develop wealth for shareholders.

Rachael Jones: Thanks, Andrew. Now, could we talk about those WA projects? What do you have planned?

Andrew Haythorpe: Absolutely. Well, just before Christmas, we completed a deal where we acquired a large land holding of properties in the Murchison Province in West Australia.

The Murchison district's a famous gold-producing and base metals district in West Australia, been producing for over 100 years. Things like Mount Magnet in particular have been quite well known around the world with substantial production over the last century.

So, we have a portfolio of ground holding in that district area. So, we're now working on exploring those areas.

Rachael Jones: And what do you have planned for your African lithium assets?

Andrew Haythorpe: With the African assets, we're looking at farm-out opportunities, and again part of the focus of the company is reducing the historical burn rate and really focusing on low-cost exploration opportunities with a high reward potential for shareholders.

Rachael Jones: Now let's talk about financials and strategy. What is your strategy for turning the company around?

Andrew Haythorpe: Strategy is to, as I mentioned earlier, reducing costs and the underlying burn rate for the company. So, most of that's been well advanced and is in hand now.

And moving forwards, our exploration portfolio, most of it is about six hours' drive north of Perth, so we don't even need to fly in, fly out. We can actually drive in, drive out. We've done two rounds of exploration already during the March quarter, having only completed the acquisition of the ground at Christmas time. And we've got assays pending, waiting for the second program sampling results to come in hopefully next week.

Rachael Jones: And what's your cash position?

Andrew Haythorpe: Cash position as of December 2019 in our quarterly report that we put out in January 2020 was over $900,000. So, moving forwards, given the current circumstances, we're being very careful with our cash and very focused on what we choose to do with it.

Rachael Jones: Excellent. And, Andrew, to the last question now, is there anything else you'd like to add?

Andrew Haythorpe: I think we've got a great portfolio of ground. We've got a great board of directors, a great management team, great technical depth, and a good focus in our own backyard in West Australia. I think we have great opportunities this year for shareholders.

Rachael Jones: Well, best of luck with everything. Andrew Haythorpe, thanks for the update.

Andrew Haythorpe: Thanks very much, Rachael. Pleasure.

Source: Finance News Network