QUEBEC CITY, QUEBEC--(Marketwired - Jul 9, 2015) - Nemaska Lithium Inc. («Nemaska» or the «Corporation») (TSX VENTURE:NMX)(NMKEF) is pleased to announce that it has hired Simon Thibault as Director of Environmental and Social Responsibility. As such, he will be in charge of the various tasks associated with permitting and environmentally de-risking the development of the Whabouchi Project. In addition, Mr. Thibaut will be in charge of maintaining and expanding the relationships Nemaska Lithium has established over the years with the concerned communities, both for the mine and hydrometallurgical plant.
Throughout his career Mr. Thibaut specialized in environmental mining policies and permitting in Canada, especially in the provinces of Québec, Ontario and Manitoba. For the past nine years he has led or collaborated on Environmental Permitting of mining projects, Environmental and Social Impact Assessments, and Environmental Auditing and Environmental Baseline Studies, Preliminary Economic Assessments, Pre-Feasibility Studies and Feasibility Studies. During this time he has forged excellent relationships with Provincial and Federal authorities as well with local communities and First Nations. Prior to joining Nemaska Lithium, Mr. Thibault worked for Roche Ltd. from 2006 to 2015. While at Roche he was the lead consultant on the Nemaska Lithium file from December 2013 to present, intimately involved in both the Federal and Provincial permitting applications. Mr. Thibault has a M.Sc. in Plant Ecology from Laval University.
Mr. Thibault is the most recent hire for Nemaska Lithium. Over the past eighteen months, Nemaska Lithium has added two engineers to its technical team led by Jean-François Magnan. Mr. Nicolas Laroche is specialized in Electrochemical Engineering and Technologies from masters studies at both Université de Sherbrooke and McGill University. Since joining Nemaska Lithium in January 2014 as a process optimization engineer, he has played an active role in the Company's pursuit of patents covering its innovative technologies, of which he is a co-inventor. Mr. Laroche is joined by Mr. Bertin Ouellet to round out the technical team. Mr. Ouellet is a professional chemical engineer, who graduated from Sherbrooke University, with more than 30 years of experience in various manufacturing industries, mainly the industrial chemical sector: production of sodium chlorate, phosphorus, phosphoric acid and phosphate salts, chlorine, sodium hydroxide, hydrochloric acid, electrolytic magnesium and magnesium alloys. His previous roles include process engineer, health, safety and environmental manager, and senior process safety engineer. He has been a HAZOP leader since 1985 with over 200 safety reviews performed.
"I am pleased that we have been able to attract such qualified and experienced talent to the Company," commented Guy Bourassa, President and CEO. "As we transitioned from exploration to mine development stage, it has been necessary to add different skills sets. Jean-François has built an excellent technical team which has further refined our technologies and improved our patent portfolio." He continued, "I will be working directly with Simon as we enter the project development phase of the Company. The Crees are an important stakeholder group and our relationship to date has been excellent. Simon will be a tremendous asset to the Company as community relations is ongoing and ever important."
About Nemaska Lithium
Nemaska Lithium intends to become a major lithium hydroxide and carbonate producer, mainly for the growing lithium battery markets. The Corporation is developing in Quebec one of the most important spodumene lithium hard rock deposit in the world, both in volume and grade. The spodumene concentrate produced at Nemaska Lithium's Whabouchi mine will be shipped to the Corporation's lithium compounds processing plant to be built in Salaberry-de-Valleyfield, Quebec. This plant will transform spodumene concentrate into high purity lithium hydroxide and carbonate using the proprietary methods developed by the Corporation, and for which patent applications have been filed.
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The statements herein that are not historical facts are forward‐looking statements. These statements address future events and conditions and so involve inherent risks and uncertainties. Actual results could differ from those currently projected. The Corporation does not assume the obligation to update any forward‐looking statement.