First Phosphate Corp. (CSE:PHOS, OTCQX:FRSPF) CEO John Passalacqua joined Proactive to discuss the company’s newly launched 30,000-meter drill program, its goals for defining the resource, and how it fits into plans for producing North American lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cells.
Proactive: You've just launched a 30,000-meter accelerated drill program. What are the key goals, and what do you expect to learn from it?
John Passalacqua: The main goal is to fully define the resource. We want to do it properly, all at once, so that once it's done, we can move forward to the next steps, like a feasibility study.
How will this final geological model fit into your long-term plan for vertical integration and LFP cathode material production in Quebec?
Initially, the downstream facilities might use outside materials, but ultimately we want those plants to be backward integrated directly into our resource. The faster we can get the resource into production, the better.
The program is fully funded. Can you walk investors through the budget, timeline, and when they might see updated resource results?
We’re starting this week and expect to finish by April 2026. We’ll drill through the fall, take a short break around Christmas, and then resume. Timing is key. We drill before the frost, pause during it, then continue after, finishing before the thaw.
Everything is fully funded. We have two drill crews—one First Nations group and another local team—and we’re moving as quickly as possible.
John, you recently produced what may be the first commercial-grade North American LFP battery cells. How does this drilling tie into scaling that achievement into full production?
The company’s goal is a fully vertically integrated model from mine to LFP battery together with our partners. We can move from mining phosphate and iron at our Bégin-Lamarche property, to producing phosphate concentrate, iron powder, purified phosphoric acid, and ultimately lithium iron phosphate cathode active material and batteries.
This is a critical initiative. All the pieces of our vertically integrated supply chain are starting to come together, which is particularly important given current U.S.-China relations. China has now threatened to cut off LFP battery supply, along with other rare earth supply chains.
Quotes have been lightly edited for style and clarity