FIREBIRD METALS LTD (FRB) - Australia Can Build A Non-China Battery Materials Alternative

The EV battery revolution isn’t just about who sells the most cars, it’s about who controls the materials that make batteries cheaper, safer, and easier to source. I’m joined by Ron Mitchell, CEO of Firebird Metals, to talk about a different kind of advantage: taking manganese concentrate and turning it into high value battery materials in a single integrated processing circuit, rather than shipping intermediates across a fragmented, multi-country supply chain. If you care about Australian critical minerals, battery materials, and the future of energy storage, this conversation is packed with practical detail.

We walk through Firebird’s “concentrate to cathode” approach, including high purity manganese sulphate production and why that product is such a strategic pinch point outside China. Ron explains why manganese is attracting serious attention as battery makers chase the holy grail of lower dollars per kilowatt hour, and how LMFP (lithium manganese iron phosphate) is emerging as a compelling evolution of LFP chemistry. We also dig into what “lithium manganese rich” (LMR) means, why it can reduce reliance on high nickel cathodes, and why Western OEMs are watching closely.

From there, we get into the moat-building pieces: Firebird’s exclusive LMFP patent licence through to May 2045, the commercialisation pathway that leans capital-light through partnering and licensing, and the importance of proving the technology in a Western setting via a demonstration plant near the Perth CBD. Ron also shares what it means to secure an ARENA Battery Breakthrough Initiative grant, and what shareholders should watch for across 2026 as equipment lands, commissioning ramps up, and new IP is lodged.

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Transcript

Andrew Musgrave

Welcome again to ASX Briefs. And today we're joined by Ron Mitchell, the Chief Executive Officer of Firebird Metals Ltd, an Australian company developing a world-first fully integrated manganese concentrated cathode active material processing capability targeting the rapidly growing EV and energy storage markets. Ron, great to have you with me today, and welcome to the AFX Briefs podcast.

Ron Mitchell

Great to be with you, Andrew.

Andrew Musgrave

Now, Ron, for listeners that may be unfamiliar with Firebird Metals, can you give us the elevator pitch? What does the company do and what problem are you solving for the global battery supply chain?

Ron Mitchell

Yeah, look, we're a really unique value proposition in terms of the technology we're offering this industry. We're very uniquely positioned globally. We're the only ones doing what we're doing. And what we're demonstrating is a world first. So, in essence, what we do in a single circuit, we're collapsing a fragmented, multi-facility, multi-country electric vehicle, battery material supply chain into a single process circuit. And what that delivers ultimately is a product that has very unique energy density properties at the lowest cost point and the first quartile on the cost curve. So, we take a manganese concentrate, we process that material into various inputs into the battery value chain, first and foremost being a high purity manganese sulphate, and we keep that material in solution to produce precursor cathode active materials. And for your listeners that do know, the cathode active material being the positive electrode is where all the magic happens in the battery. And our technology really is applicable across multiple fronts. All e-mobility products, electrification, energy storage, and obviously there's this very rapidly emerging opportunity in the defence sector for rechargeable batteries. So, stay tuned. This is a process that's been successfully demonstrated over a three three-odd year period at a pilot plant in China, and we're now looking to deploy this technology for the first time in a Western setting here in Australia by way of a demonstration facility, which will be commissioned this year. So super exciting time, and we've got a great team and really looking forward to the challenge.

Andrew Musgrave

And the company describes itself as having a concentrate to cathode strategy. So, what does that mean in practice and why is it so significant that you're doing this in a single integrated process line?

Ron Mitchell

Yeah, well, first and foremost, we do have an upstream manganese resource up in the Pilbara, but our focus is really and our core technology, our patented technology, is really around the manganese molecule as it leaves the ground and is processed into a battery input material. So, we take a manganese concentrate, as I mentioned, we keep that material, process it through an electric calcination process, which we've developed and patented. It delivers a very significant energy saving over traditional gas-fired calcination. Importantly, that kiln technology, we believe it's strongly suited to a whole range of battery materials, including lithium and vanadium. So, there's opportunities there for us. But ultimately, we produce a high purity manganese sulphate on the lowest cost quartile, which really matters. There's only a handful of companies, in fact, two outside of China that are currently producing commercial quantities of high purity manganese sulphate. This is a material equivalent to a lithium carbonate or a lithium hydroxide in the lithium industry. And as I said, we're incredibly uniquely positioned. We do have a very significant cost advantage, and we have some outstanding performance metrics in terms of this product. And we're able to take this material all the way through to produce a cathode-active material based on a lithium manganese iron phosphate chemistry, which really is the future. We know there's a lot of work going on. This product has been commercialized by some Chinese car makers, and we are seeing very strong interest from a number of Western car makers as well, because it is the next generation of battery tech. You know, the beauty about manganese compared to some other competing battery metals, such as nickel and cobalt, is quite simply it's cheap, it's abundant, it's safe, and most importantly, it's sourced from you know politically stable jurisdictions. So that is the reason there's very strong interest from the car makers in the ex-China markets. And of course, this product ultimately delivers what's most crucial in this industry, and that's producing the highest quality at the lowest dollar per kilowatt hour. So that really is the holy grail, and what we've seen in recent times is some incredible performance metrics. You know, we're seeing now EVs with more than a thousand-kilometre range. We feel manganese is a key contributor to that level of performance, the BYD Blade Two, by way of example. That was around 10 models the back half of this year. But this is game-changing technology. This really, in my view, completely obligates the conversation between internal combustion engine technology and electric vehicles. It really does not become a debate anymore. EVs are cheaper, particularly around the capital cost now for deployment, but also the ongoing operational costs. If you've got some access to, you know, whether it's solar rooftops or even sourcing your power from the grid, it's a far cheaper option operationally for an electric vehicle. And of course, the energy storage market is one that is really going from strength to strength. If we consider, you know, what's happening in the macro at the moment globally and geopolitically, there's a there's a wonderful opportunity for this lithium manganese ion phosphate chemistry to be deployed widely within the energy storage market. So, we've got some really strong tailwinds with regards to the market. You know, the battery materials market, most analysts are forecasting that that market to really explode in the coming years. We feel we've got a really unique offering. And importantly, we're competing on the cost curve even against our Chinese peers. So, yeah, as I said, really exciting time, and I'm thrilled to be, you know, leading Firebird as we execute this world first.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, and turning to China, one of the standout milestones for the March quarter was securing the exclusive LMFP patent license, which runs until May 2045 and covers five core patents. So, how does this IP position strengthen Firebird's competitive moat globally?

Ron Mitchell

Yeah, we announced the execution of that agreement in February this year, and I still don't believe the market fully appreciates how significant that announcement was. Ultimately, it's demonstrating to the world that we have full IP and commercial ownership of the technology. We were very deliberate in terms of filing the patents to ensure that the IP was locked down under our Chinese subsidiary based in Hunan and that license agreement signed between our subsidiary and the Australian parent being Firebird Metals Limited really gives us worldwide exclusive access to the technology and to deploy the technology for all markets and jurisdictions, ex-China, at no fee. So, it's a very, very important announcement, you know, both technically but also commercially as well, because that really sets us up for our commercialization strategy, which is a capital-lite process. You know, we are expecting to prove this technology in a Western setting by way of our Australian demonstration plant this year and into next and then the next step for us is to take this chemistry, this technology commercial. We will sort of go down a commercial partnering piece probably about this time next year. And we'll look to license in the tech into an operating joint venture by which we effectively garner a royalty on all product sales from that that particular entity. So yeah, we're getting a lot of thought to the commercialisation pathway and really bringing value to our shareholders because it's this is not like a typical mining business where you need to really move through multiple commodity cycles to be able to de-risk your project and bring it to market. Our commercialisation strategy is near term. And importantly, it's next generation. We are processing a critical mineral. Manganese is considered a critical mineral in a number of jurisdictions. It's next generation battery tech, and, as I said, it's positioned on the first quartile of the cost curve. So, there's a lot of great things about what we're doing, and certainly our Australian demonstration plant will certainly prove that up for the market, both in terms of an IP ownership perspective, because seeing is believing, building a tangible asset, you know, that strategic investors, partners can touch, and feel is going to be very important. So, we've been very deliberate around the site we've selected for our plant. It is ilocal, it’s only 10 minutes from the Perth CBD. So, access is great. It's got sufficient layout space and of course power requirements to meet our meet our needs. So yeah, look, as I said, we've got a very experienced team here executing this project, and we've got a very high confidence of being able to you know achieve the milestones both in the near and medium term on schedule and on budget, most importantly.

Andrew Musgrave

You also commissioned your LMR CAM equipment at the China pilot plant during the quarter and also commenced initial production. So, what is LMR and why are the major OEMs like Ford and GM excited about it?

Ron Mitchell

Yeah, look, there's a lot a lot of acronyms in this business, and that's just a case of it is a technology business, right? So first I'll just touch on the LMFP. So that is lithium manganese ion phosphate, you know, a number of forecasters, and we firmly believe that LMFP will continue to displace LFP, traditional lithium-ion phosphate battery technology and chemistry going forward, because of those performance and cost advantages I talked about. If you're if you look on the roads now, probably eight out of every 10 EVs you see on the road are using an LFP battery. The other two of those 10 vehicles on the road are more likely to be a high nickel composition battery, either a nickel cobalt aluminium-based battery NCA or a nickel cobalt manganese NCM. Now, those nickel-based batteries typically deliver higher energy density, which equates to longer range, but they do come at a trade-off in terms of cost. And there's also obviously some you know political uncertainty around the sourcing of those materials given the lion share of the nickel is being sourced from Indonesia currently. So, what we're offering, by the way, manganese is equivalent energy density in an LMR platform, and LMR simply stands for lithium manganese rich. So, what we're doing here is instead of applying you know nickel at very high componentry, you know, maybe 90 parts nickel within the cathode, we're displacing a very significant portion of the nickel content with manganese. And again, for the reason it is cheap, safe abundant, but it does deliver an equivalent energy density. And that is, as I said, the reason Western car makers in particular, I think, acknowledge for the most part that playing catch-up with China on the LFP front is very challenging. They are competing on the cost curve. Absolutely, that's true. So, this is where LMR can potentially you know increase their market share going forward. Great cost advantage, and of course the performance advantage using manganese. So just in an LMR cell, just to give you sort of a flavour of how much manganese is used, it can be up to 50% of the entire cathode is manganese. So, it does displace a significant portion of that nickel content.

Andrew Musgrave

And your LMR development program is co-funded 50-50 with a strategic partner, Taza Metal Technologies. So, how does that partnership reduce your capital exposure while accelerating the technology?

Ron Mitchell

Oh, it's the perfect outcome, to be honest. This is a fantastic relationship with one of the world's largest high purity manganese sulphate producers based in Kazakhstan. They clearly see a future for LMR and have been a wonderful partner meeting 50% of all our RD commitments around our LMR development work stream. Now that is ongoing in China and will continue to be ongoing. So, there'll be well, there is a lot of results coming to market throughout the course of this year. So do encourage shareholders to stay tuned. And in fact, we do have some results that are imminent. We did commission that particular process line early this year, and again, we're seeing very strong interest from some automakers as well with regards to our LMR research and our platform. As I said, we've been at this for quite some time. This isn't something we've developed overnight. We've been at this since 2023 and been operating a pilot plan extremely successfully during that timeframe. So, the plan our LMR program is to successfully demonstrate the tech, announce the results through third-party verification in China. And then once we complete our LMFP program in Australia, we'll then look to move on to a combination of our LMR program as well in in Australia. So, there's a lot to look forward to in terms of news flow and we believe these two battery chemistries are going to be a big part of the future. So, as I said, please do encourage all listeners and shareholders to stay tuned to a lot of news flow ahead.

Andrew Musgrave

Okay, and you mentioned the demonstration plant in Australia, which is described as the only fully integrated manganese concentrated cathode active material processing capability outside of China. So, why does the world need this facility and what gap does it fill?

Ron Mitchell

Well, there's a sovereign issue here. We're seeing clearly there's some challenging supply chains, and clearly, I think it's prudent on any business to have choice when it comes to the products, you're sourcing for your supply chain and your value chain. And clearly China's done a brilliant job in terms of building out that fully that full downstream capability when it comes to battery materials. But we see a really unique opportunity given we've licensed this tech, we have executed that license, we've built the capability, we have the expertise to provide an alternative source of supply and I think that just is part of every good business decision in terms of risk, having all your eggs in one country basket is absolutely a challenging thing. So, you know, building sovereign capability here in Australia, where you know, we're really lucky we have a multitude of battery materials, raw materials in this country, including some of the world's most well highest grade and largest lithium deposits by way of spodumene. We've got some terrific nickel assets here and of course manganese assets as well. So, it makes sense to look at this downstream opportunity. Now, I'm not saying to you listeners that you know we're going to build a commercial plant here in Australia. We very well may, but we'll also do it in consultation with one of our partners. Now, if we choose to move forward with the US partner, there's every likelihood that we'll have a commercial presence in the US. Similarly, we do believe it'll be a non-exclusive arrangement we pursue. So, there's opportunities to work with European partners, Japanese, Korean partners, and others. You know, we do expect to be a global business in five years from now with multiple footprints across the globe in terms of producing these advanced manganese-based battery materials.

Andrew Musgrave

You also receive the $2 million ARENA Battery Breakthrough Initiative grant. So, what does it mean to receive that kind of independent validation from a federal government agency?

Ron Mitchell 

Well, look, it's crucial, Andrew. Look, aside from the quantum of the grant, which does make 50% of our ADP budget, it's a really terrific third-party verification and validation of our technology, our project, and our pathway. I will say, after you know, being involved in a number of schemes of arrangement over my professional journey and you know, commercial joint venture partner partnerships and so forth, the amount of due diligence, technical and commercial, that was undertaken as part of us receiving this grant funding was really extensive. So that does create a natural barrier to entry. And we were one of the first companies to be awarded funding under this battery breakthrough initiative. So, you know, ARENA is a very well-credentialed agency within the federal government. It is a cash grant, so we spend a reimburse and it's based on really simple milestones as well. So, you know, we're really, really pleased with the outcome. The ARENA team have been incredibly supportive, they've valued this project from the outset. And to be honest, you know, we move through the approval’s pathway quite quickly if I compare it to other programs. So, very important. And ARENA typically, if you look at the history of ARENA, they've got a pot of about half a billion dollars to support these types of initiatives. They typically follow their money as well. But what it also does, it raises the profile of the company within the government as well. And that that's a very important step for us as we move forward with our commercial pathway.

Andrew Musgrave

Now, finally, Ron, as you look out ahead for the rest of 2026, what should shareholders be keeping an eye out for?

Ron Mitchell

Oh, look, yeah, there's a lot happening. We ADP, you know, we're very close now to placing the formal equipment orders. We do expect the gear to arrive in Australia in the third quarter. We'll be commissioning, we'll be in construction this year, producing samples. We'll have multiple site visits by government strategic shareholders. There's a lot of news around the patent, lodging additional patents. So please stay tuned for some really exciting news around additional patents on this advanced battery tech. There are some near-term commercial opportunities that we're looking at. There is a lot of news flow pending and very consistent news flow. So, yeah, as I said, multiple work streams across both our China operations and our Australian business. So, plenty to look forward to if you're an existing shareholder and most importantly, as well if you're a new shareholder.

Andrew Musgrave

Well, thanks for your time today, Ron. We look forward to tracking Firebird Metal's progress as the ADP takes shape in Perth and as your battery materials programs advance towards commercialization.

Ron Mitchell

Terrific, Andrew. Thanks for the opportunity.

Andrew Musgrave

That concludes this episode of ASX Breaks. Don't forget to subscribe, and we look forward to catching you on our next episode.