Back to the cut and thrust
June 19, 2023Michael Anderson returned to the cut and thrust of minerals exploration in early March 2023, admittedly back in the game after a challenging year on both the personal and professional fronts.
Over the months since his return, it has been a fast-paced reinitiation to familiar territory for him. He has been travelling across the country, speaking to investors about the explorer’s efforts to explore the Canadian lithium frontier.
“Since the beginning of 2022, our family has had a pretty tough trot losing both my brother and uncle to cancer and my mother-in-law to motor neurone disease,” Anderson reflects.
He shares some family photos featuring a cheerful Irishman with rosy cheeks, standing proudly alongside his wife, Lisa, and their accomplished daughters, Bronwen and his youngest, Lauren.
Michael Anderson with Ironwoman daughter Bronwen and wife Lisa at IRONMAN Western Australia.
“Through everything I have undertaken in my career, the support of my family has been crucial to me – I guess it comes with age, but we have a small family that is gradually shrinking,” he says solemnly.
Anderson returned to the fray with an understandable degree of hesitation. But after just a few months, the Forrestania team gained morale and a clear understanding of purpose – most notably with Anderson himself.
Upon his arrival, he made it his mission to do justice to the assets in Forrestania, staying true to his word by achieving exceptional lithium intercepts at the namesake location – but even more determined never to remain still.
Recently, he surprised the market by announcing a joint venture partnership with Canadian explorer ALX Corp and plans for a bold push into the country’s rapidly growing lithium industry.
As Anderson explains, ALX is ideal for Forrestania’s newfound acute sense of purpose — moving at pace to begin exploration at the Hydra Lithium property proximate to Patriot’s whopping Corvette Lithium discovery.
“One of Hydra’s sub-projects is right next door to Corvette. I think everything in James Bay is about trying to replicate what those before have done, and I think we have a great opportunity to do that,” Anderson points out.
“Expanding Forrestania’s presence in another top-tier lithium exploration jurisdiction, I am confident, will create similar opportunities,” he adds.
“Given we are competing for resources with many other outstanding companies in this prolific region, it’s great to have the ALX team raring to go for the start of what I am sure will be a very active field season in the James Bay area this year.
“As I alluded to before, having a partner like ALX gives us access to a team with years of experience and know-how in Canada and the region.”
According to Anderson, the fires will remain blazing at home, with plans for the earliest possible follow-up work at its potentially sleeping Giant project at Forrestania.
“The results at Giant were highly encouraging, and we’ve got more work to do there. Equally, across the 100 kilometres of the Forrestania Greenstone Belt, taking in South Iron Cap East and Calypso, where drilling is planned. We’re very excited about the prospective there too.”
Anderson’s leadership leaves no room for doubt: anything is possible.
He emphasises his commitment to delivering value for shareholders by always remaining open to business opportunities, no matter where they may be. As he puts it, “Complacency is not an option in the exploration game – the more opportunities you pursue, the greater your chances of making a significant discovery.”
The Right Man for the Job
Anderson has excellent experience in exploration and project development and has been highly successful. He previously served as managing director and led Exco for five years, from 2006 to 2011. During that time, Anderson played a crucial role in successfully developing the White Dam Gold Mine in South Australia and the profitable sale of the Cloncurry Copper Project to Xstrata. Thanks to these successful ventures, Anderson left the Company in excellent financial standing with a market cap of $260 million, including $255 million in cash.
Subsequently, during a decade with Taurus Funds Management, he served as a director for various companies across the globe. He travelled to far-flung locations like Kenya for mineral sands, Ghana and Burkina Faso for gold, Chile and the DRC for copper, and Guinea for bauxite. Anderson recalls this period of his life as “fulfilling, varied and interesting.” He initially dealt with equity investments and later transitioned to overseeing several debt transactions, predominantly in West Africa.
But Covid was primarily responsible for stopping the party as travel became challenging and the pipeline of opportunities slowed.
“Having left Exco, with the attitude that I wasn’t sure I ever wanted to be an MD again, I was suddenly back in the chair following an unexpected offer to join West African Gold and Lithium play Firefinch. Anderson recalls
Despite the headwinds of Covid and political instability, the Company maintained a positive momentum over the mainstay of its 15-month tenure. Firefinch’s market cap went from $200 million to well over $1 billion before the demerger of Leo Lithium. – Being part of creating that growth is something that I remain immensely proud of and sets a precedent and a challenge for what we hope to create with Forrestania,” Anderson says.
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