Thank you, Madam Chair.
My name is Jean‑Sébastien David and I am the president of NioBay Metals. NioBay is a mining company listed on the Toronto Stock Exchange. We are recognized for our work on the extraction of two critical and strategic metals: niobium and tantalum.
We have two projects in Ontario in the James Bay Lowlands, and another in Quebec, the Crevier project, where two metals, tantalum and niobium, are found in a single deposit. The deposit was discovered in 1974, and I am here today to tell you that this project will come to fruition purely because of developments in the battery industry. The advances that Toshiba and Echion Technologies have made in recent years have meant that, in the last two years, we have put time into resurrecting this project. The objective is to extract 1,500 metric tonnes of niobium oxide and 125 tonnes of tantalum oxide per year.
The Philippines, which are included in your list, are interested in tantalum. I would point out that another country is interested as well, but it is not on the list: South Korea. That country has been a big consumer of niobium for several years now. It uses it in its steel mills. So it's important that you add South Korea to your list.
Niobium is actually a relatively rare element. There are only three mining sites producing it on the planet. Two sites are located in Brazil and the third is in Canada. The entities in Brazil are China Molybdenum, which is 100% owned by China, and CBMM, a family corporation 25% of whose shares are owned by China. It is therefore logical for there to be a purely Canadian product.
The considerable progress that has been made in respect of niobium batteries relates primarily to recharging capabilities, that is, charging speed. They can take a lot of recharge cycles and they can also function better at very low temperatures. We first saw these batteries on the market a few years ago now. For batteries made of niobium anodes, it was about three years ago. At this time, however, we are seeing the development of batteries made of niobium cathodes.
For tantalum, as I mentioned, the Philippines would be buyers. The main production of tantalum is in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.