Alex Cheesemen (@ACheesey on Twitter) is an ex Australian military officer and a significant player in the Western Australia lithium industry. Alex had the unique “opportunity” to be one of the last people standing at Altura Mining. In this episode Alex will share what he learned in the process of helping bring a significant hard rock asset into production and then, due to the vagaries of lithium asset financing challenges and unfavorable market conditions, he was tasked with taking it through the receivership process. Alex has a great perspective on the WA lithium industry past, present, and future.We discuss:The timeframe for bringing projects into productionPros and Cons of having a lean project teamDMS vs flotationThe financial struggles of junior mining companiesLearning how to connect Altura’s product with the conversion market in ChinaThe receivership experience and how the WA mining community helped outThoughts on when currently shut in spodumene capacity will come back onlineMineral Resources and Albemarle aka “watching the elephants dance”How much spodumene production can we expect from Australia in 2025 and 2030How soon price will recover and to what levelChina and Australia trade tensionsWhy I may never be let back into WAPlus “Rapid Fire”