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International Battery Metals names Iris Jancik as new CEO

Iris Jancik, new CEO, IBAT.

VANCOUVER and HOUSTON — International Battery Metals Ltd., announced its new CEO, Iris Jancik, has taken the helm of the company, effective Aug. 20, following her June 3 appointment. Jancik will be focused on expanding commercial deployment of IBAT’s patented modular direct lithium extraction (DLE) plants and engaging with potential partners and buyers.

Now that IBAT has achieved its first commercial operations, she will advance ongoing discussions the company has held with large industrial companies, including automakers, as well as oil and gas majors and brine-resource owners, and seek additional prospects and potential stakeholders. Jancik succeeds Garry Flowers as CEO. Flowers joined IBAT for a two-year period, starting as president in July 2022 and then named CEO in December 2022.

IBAT established a global lithium industry milestone in July when it announced it achieved first lithium from the only modular DLE operation in the world and the first commercial DLE operation in North America at a facility outside Salt Lake City, Utah. The landmark plant is co-located at the operations of US Magnesium LLC and is successfully extracting lithium from a complex byproduct magnesium chloride/ lithium chloride resource derived from historic magnesium production.

“The timing of IBAT’s breakthrough technology is ideal given soaring demand for lithium batteries to power EVs and energy storage. I look forward to accelerating our growth as we expand commercially to meeting this demand with an unmatched lithium extraction technology that can be cost-effectively and quickly deployed, sustainably operated to respect water resources, and easily scalable in a variety of brine resources,” Jancik said. “I can think of no one better to partner with on this journey than our chief technology officer, founder and DLE pioneer, John Burba.”

Prior to joining IBAT, Jancik served as CEO of IDE Americas, a subsidiary of IDE Technologies, a global desalination and water treatment solutions company.

Jancik, based in Texas, will immediately engage with colleagues, partners and potential partners in the U.S. and abroad. Her initial schedule includes travel to Europe, followed by a speaking engagement at the Financial Times Live Mining Summit in London, September 26-27.

IBAT’s DLE technology selectively extracts lithium ions via absorption with a proprietary crystal structure, resulting in a lithium-chloride solution with the requisite feedstock purity to produce battery-grade lithium. The technology has been independently verified by SLR and Mehos Consulting to extract more than 97% of available lithium from Smackover brine.