Subscribers of Stockhouse Exclusive Ticker Trax first received this report Monday, June 22, 2009.
TORONTO – Geologist and “terminated” President Judy Baker did exactly what she said she was going to do.
Ms. Baker located a Quebec lithium property, raised $3 million or so for a neglected Canada Lithium Corp. (TSX: V.CLQ, Stock Forum) and helped negotiate a Japan battery-testing program for the property’s lithium carbonate.
Ms. Baker, whom I have met and interviewed on several occasions, captained the tiny company’s booth at conferences as president and CEO. She endured squeaky cab rides, a jag down and back to a Chile lithium conference … and a string of half-day city drop-ins across North America this past winter. Her efforts were all in a search for lithium believers and partners.
As a geologist and an MBA, Judy boned up big time on lithium: supply and demand forecasts, metallurgy and perhaps most importantly, the need to ally a potential lithium producer with a Japan trading house. See articles.
Judy Baker’s competitors – and these days there are quite a few lithium explorers and wanna-bes – were as surprised as I was the other day when Canada Lithium declared it was “terminating” Ms. Baker as president.
“What the hell is this about?” Haywood Securities manager and geologist R. Edward Flood shot to me from his London office. “They aren't even polite about showing her the door?”
Flood is associated with competitor Western Lithium Corp. (TSX: V.WLC, Stock Forum), which is staking its batteries to a Nevada property. Western Lithium’s CEO, Jay Chmelauskas, told me, “I don't have any insight as to what happened with Judy. She was obviously putting in a major effort.”
The company’s statement did not mention that Ms. Baker was, to the best of my knowledge and recent press releases, CEO as well as president of the tiny Canada Lithium. In January, if this be a clue I know not, the company said it had “settled an aggregate of $20,000 of indebtedness by the issuance of 200,000 common shares to Judy Baker, a director, president and CEO of the company.”
To be even handed in this termination, I must point out that successor Kerry J. Knoll has a CV that appears almost overqualified to take on such a tiny company. His associated companies over a three-decade career include Glencairn Gold Corp., which is now B2GOLD Corp.; Wheaton River Minerals Ltd., which is now Goldcorp (GG),; Blue Pearl Mining Ltd., which acquired Thompson Creek Metals; Thompson Creek Metals; Golden Goose Resources … and pleasantly, stints at The Northern Miner Magazine and Canadian Mining Journal.
Mr. Knoll told me today (Monday) in a voice mail and an e-mail that he would speak to me further about the executive change – perhaps later in the day. We just missed connecting in the morning.
Ms. Baker, oddly or not after such a dismissive press release, remains a director to Canada Lithium. Mr. Knoll had been a board director. Top executives at the company hold low-priced equity options.
As I scan my notes from our first encounter in February, I see now that Judy Baker notched practically every goal she set for herself after stepping into Canada Lithium’s barren shell of a company in 2008.
For example, Ms. Baker, pushing aside her Dipsea Café plaque-attack breakfast of ham, eggs, has browns and a ton of brown toast, sketched for me exactly how the production of lithium carbonate must meet rechargeable battery specs that Japanese trading houses accept as gospel.
She and her laboratory team got the aluminum, iron and other damaging components out of the lithium concentrate they were pulling from the Quebec Lithium Project.
I was hooked on lithium, (which is also used in medications), and I let our Stockhouse audience know it. We did not at Ticker Trax name Canada Lithium shares as a Planetary Prospect – perhaps because I was occupied with silver and gold companies in Mexico and South Africa, molybdenum in Canada and anti-viral drug discovery in Alabama.
Still, we followed Judy Baker’s efforts and watched as she tripled the Toronto company’s market worth to $25 million. Canada Lithium is now shipping lithium carbonate samples to Japan. As Canada Lithium meets the primary endpoints of the goals Judy was sketching on her napkin some six months ago, worldwide demand for hybrid electric vehicles expands daily.
Market share reports forecast the “audience” for hybrids growing to about 14% of all worldwide vehicle sales by year 2020. Right now, hybrids such as the Toyota Prius and other energy-savers account for about 1% of vehicle sales.
Judy was among the first to explain to me why lithium demand almost surely will see a four-fold rise in the next 10 or so years. Currently, 125,000 metric tons of lithium carbonate equivalent (Li2CO3) are produced a year.
If Canada Lithium Corp. succeeds in a pre-feasibility study of its Quebec Lithium Project, the marketplace almost surely will have to boost its dollar-sized respect for the deposit. As prices for battery grade lithium carbonate rise steadily, the project’s value could dwarf the current $25 million market worth of the company.
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THOM CALANDRA of Ticker Traxhelps his audience find value in a quagmire of investment choices. Thom co-founded CBS MarketWatch andMarketWatch.com. As the voice of Thom Calandra's StockWatch and The Calandra Report, Thom pegged $300-ounce gold as a long-term hold.
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