New CEO Dr. Thomas Benson on Positioning Lithium Africa for the Rebound
Summary
New CEO Dr. Thomas Benson argues that buying distressed ground through the lithium slump gave Lithium Africa district-scale African positions just as prices rebound.
Cheap pre-drill work like geochemistry and geochronology (dating rocks) is used to de-risk expensive drilling across soil-covered West African ground.
Both anchor projects are drilling now: a 2,000-metre RC (reverse circulation) campaign at Adzopé, Côte d'Ivoire, and 3,500 metres at Springbok, South Africa.
A permitted past-producing mine at Springbok holds a 30,000-tonne spodumene stockpile at 1.6% lithium oxide, a potential non-dilutive (no new shares) funding source.
Africa draws roughly 5% of global lithium exploration spend despite hosting far more of the resource — the gap Benson's local-teams strategy targets.
Key points on Barrick Mining
- The guest says Lithium Africa co-founder and board member Mamadou Koulibaly previously worked for Barrick Gold in West Africa, and calls him one of the best African geologists.
Dr. Thomas Benson's takeaways
- Top takeaway He argues the lithium cycle has bottomed and is swinging back up (as of July 2026), and that exploring counter-cyclically — consolidating distressed ground and raising money in the slump — is what positions the company for the rebound.
- He champions a low-cost exploration method for soil-covered terrain: geochemistry, geochronology and outcrop studies before any drilling, combined with machine learning, to de-risk each drill hole.
- He cites a PhD in lithium and work behind several of the largest global lithium resources, including Thacker Pass, as the technical basis for his strategy.
- He argues Africa is underexplored — around 5% of global lithium exploration spend despite hosting far more of the resources — and that being local, with African teams, is the key advantage.
- He says his focus is drilling strong lithium intercepts to drive shareholder value, pointing to near-term catalysts: Azope and Springbok drill results and the sale of the Springbok stockpile.