First Phosphate Corp. (CSE:PHOS, OTCQX:FRSPF) CEO John Passalacqua talked with Proactive about a major milestone for the company, the successful creation and testing of lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells using North American critical minerals.
Passalacqua explained that the company has now completed the full cycle from “pit to battery cell” with its phosphate and iron materials.
The LFP battery cells produced were tested and demonstrated commercial-level performance.
According to Passalacqua, the cells achieved at least 80% capacity retention after 2,000 charge and discharge cycles, a result that aligns with accepted industry standards.
Proactive: All right, welcome back inside our Proactive newsroom. And joining me now is John Passalacqua, the CEO of First Phosphate Corp. John, always great to see you. How are you?
John Passalacqua: Yeah great. Thank you.
Good to have you along. Really exciting news out from the company today. Talking about the results of what really was a milestone event for the company and the production of this LFP battery. So let’s remind everyone a little bit about that milestone.
Yeah. So we came on about a month ago where we created the first LFP batteries from North American critical minerals that had been created in perhaps 20, 25 years. And what we’ve done now is we’ve had those batteries tested, and lo and behold, those batteries are performing at commercial rates. It goes to show that all the critical minerals that went into creating that battery, two of them being the phosphate, the purified phosphoric acid from Mars, and the iron powder also from La Marche, are perfect LFP battery components, as well as our processing. So it really validates these materials and our processing of them to be able to work in LFP battery components.
And John, I want to ask you about a couple of the numbers that came out of it because they’re really interesting. But first, just to remind people, it’s such a process to get to that particular point where the batteries are completed, but that’s really the part of the supply chain that you’ve talked about for so long.
Yeah, I think you’ll probably show this graphic as well on screen. But step one is taking the igneous phosphate rock from Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean. Step two is converting that into phosphate concentrate, some of the purest phosphate concentrate in the world. And then because of that purity, making purified phosphoric acid. With that purified phosphoric acid and iron powder, that also comes from the properties of secondary recovery, making iron phosphate precursor. From there, mixing that with lithium, making lithium iron phosphate cathode active material. Then taking anode material, which is basically graphite, which we used from Nouveau Monde Graphite in Montreal, and making an LFP battery cell that worked at commercial rates.
Yeah. At least 80% capacity retention up to 2,000 discharge cycles, that you mentioned in the news release. And it says in the news release that’s a really significant number to be hitting.
Yeah. So basically, when they test these battery cells, what they do is they charge them, discharge them, and repeat as many times as possible to see if there’s degradation in the battery. There are certain tests and acceptable standards, and we met all of those.
And lastly, obviously, these are numbers that you send out to the world. So what will you do with this type of testing? Who are the type of people that you would talk to and show these type of numbers to?
Oh, I mean, first of all, it’s for all of us. It’s for investors. It’s for partners as well. It shows that the critical minerals that came out of our property and our ability to process them has processed them up to not only battery grade, but battery grade that works in a battery. So the full end-to-end cycle of what we’ve always wanted to do, which was from pit to battery cell, is complete. It’s complete in a small miniature format, but it’s commercial. It’s commercial ready. It just needs to be scaled up. So it’s a really big accomplishment.
Quotes have been lightly edited for clarity and style