Speaker 1The following interview is sponsored by First Phosphate. Always do your own due diligence before making any investment decision. This is the Commodity Culture Podcast, where we interview prominent investors, fund managers, analysts, and company CEOs to give you an edge when it comes to investing in the commodity space. Hello, everybody, and welcome in to Commodity Culture. Today is August 17th, 2026, and my guest is the CEO of First Phosphate, a mineral exploration and development and clean technology company dedicated to building and reshoring a vertically integrated mine-to-market supply chain for the production of LFP batteries in North America. It's Jon Pasolacqua. Great to have you back on the show.
Speaker 2Yeah, great to be here, Jesse.
Speaker 1Now, I had our friend, Jonny Kovacevic, on the show recently. He's very bullish on First Phosphate and the phosphate market in general. He said something interesting about the different kinds of phosphate out there and why igneous phosphate is the superior version of the mineral. Of course, that's what First Phosphate is involved with. Can you break that down further for us and explain igneous versus other phosphate varieties?
Speaker 2Yeah, so igneous phosphate is very rare. It constitutes only about 5% of the known reserves of phosphate in the world. And it's actually extremely pure. So it's basically phosphate that has kind of been trapped in the lava rock, phosphate from the stars, if you will. And all you need to do to separate that one is you've got to pull up the magnetite and the ilmenite, and you're left with a very pure phosphate. Whereas when you're dealing with the sedimentary phosphates, these are phosphates that have accumulated at the bottom of old oceans, swamps, seabeds, things like that. And so basically, they've come with a lot of cadmium, uranium, thorium, and other heavy and deleterious metals. So the purification on those is much more difficult. You can purify once, and then that's enough to get into fertilizer grade. But to go up to that second stage, that's got to go into purified phosphoric acid, which is what is required for batteries or for human consumption. It's a lot more difficult. And only a small portion of that can be converted up to this purified phosphoric acid. So basically, to sum it up, igneous phosphate rock, at least the type that we have in Saguenay and Lac-Saint-Jean, Quebec, 91.1% conversion to purified phosphoric acid. Thereby, you go directly to purified phosphoric acid. You don't have to go through the fertilizer industry. Sedimentary rock, a lot lower, sometimes lower than 50%, 40%, 30%, 20% that can be converted into purified phosphoric acid with a big residual stream that has to go into a fertilizer stream, meaning you're sort of bound to the fertilizer market first and foremost. So we're able to just focus specifically on the high technology industry immediately.
Speaker 1Well, LFP batteries. The main demand driver for phosphate and for this purified phosphoric acid. And these appear to be the dominant player in the battery game right now. Lithium-iron phosphate batteries. Around 81% of Chinese EV battery installations in April of this year use LFP batteries. Now a whopping 95% of new utility-scale battery contracts and project selections globally also LFP. Now people talk about, oh, Samsung's making a silver battery. What about sodium-ion batteries? Now these are interesting concepts, but the stats say LFP is king. Do you expect LFP battery market share to remain this dominant moving forward?
Speaker 2Yes, I mean, Jesse, LFP batteries were about 30% to 40% of battery chemistries three, four years ago. Now, like you said, they're approaching 70%, 80% and going even higher and growing and everyone's moving into LFP. The real big dominant factor with LFP, believe it or not, is the fact that it's very versatile. Everybody always wants to talk about EVs, but if you look at the EV component, it's only 14% of the LFP battery component. Other components of LFP battery are things like energy storage, data centers, small mobility, telecom, even EV charging stations are on LFP batteries. So the EV battery is very versatile. It really gets into every single aspect of where you can find a battery. So this is what's really propelling it that. And it's got superior fire safety. It's the lowest cost. It's the lowest battery in the market. And it seems to have very long cycle life as well.
Speaker 1And what are you watching right now when it comes to the LFP battery market? What are the major catalyst trends that you see driving that sector forward? And then by proxy, of course, driving demand for the type of purified phosphoric acid that you're extracting at first phosphate?
Speaker 2Well, LFP battery, the growth is just incredible. I mean, if you look at China, it's growing at somewhere between, I've heard estimates anywhere from 25 to 30 up to 60%. And that's just driving a tremendous amount of LFP cathode active material and LFP cam, LFP cam and phosphate that's required for it. Just to give you an example, in the cathode of an LFP battery, it's only 4% lithium, about 35% iron, but it's 61% phosphate. So every time you have an incremental increase in the amount of LFP required, you've got only a 4% bump in lithium, but you've got a 61% bump in lithium. So every time you have an incremental increase in the amount of LFP required, you've got only a 4% bump in lithium, but you've got a 61% bump in phosphate. So the amount of phosphate being required for these batteries is almost a one to one. The amount of phosphoric acid required is almost one to one to the amount of LFP cam requirements. So it's just growing leaps and bounds right now.
Speaker 1Now, China accounts for roughly 44% of global phosphate production. The Asia Pacific region as a whole held about 56% of global phosphoric acid market volume share in 2025. How important is it to bring? How important is it to bring phosphate and phosphoric acid production online in North America, especially given the geopolitical uncertainties facing the world today?
Speaker 2Yes, well, there already is a lot of purified phosphoric acid production in the West. One thing to note is that it's all being used in traditional uses. So it's being used in things like carbonated beverages. For instance, you'll find it in Coca-Cola. You'll find it in toothpaste. You'll find it in cosmetics, pharmaceuticals, water treatment, food and beverage industry. You'll also find it in industrial uses like paints and also in fire extinguishing. So there is a lot of traditional use already for purified phosphoric acid in the West. But we haven't even started to scratch the surface of that requirement once LFP hits. All of the LFP batteries right now, for the most part, 99%, if you will, are being made in China. So we're trying to onshore that LFP battery technology for one simple reason. You know, from China, not only comes the cathode active material. It's in the battery, but also the battery pack and the actual finished product. So when you buy an EV, the battery inside of there is LFP. But, you know, you're being sold the whole end product. Same thing with a stationary energy storage system, an energy storage system, or, you know, a small scooter or bicycle. The battery comes with a unit. So it's really important for the Western world to onshore these processes to make these batteries so that we can also onshore the whole, you know, downstream value added that comes along with them. So the amount of purification. So the amount of purified phosphoric acid that's going to be required to onshore these LFP batteries and these products running LFP is nothing short of, you know, astounding.
Speaker 1Well, let's talk about how first phosphate fits into the picture because you're mine to market. Walk us through that process from extracting phosphate and from bringing to market LFP batteries. Where are you right now in that entire supply chain process? And what's the long-term goal? Any details you could share with us on that would be great.
Speaker 2Yeah. So these batteries that you see right in front of you here, this is an LFP 18650 cell. This was made using our phosphate from the Beijing LMR's property. And it was actually made using full North American critical minerals for the anode and the cathode of the battery. It's the first time that it's been done in 25 years since the technology was first invented in North America and then obviously was overtaken in China. So basically, where are we at? Well, right. Now we're at our mining project where we're at the at the start of building the mine. So right now we've got to finish our feasibility study. Once the feasibility study is complete, we've got to get our permits and then we've got to move into building the mine. And that will yield the phosphate rock that then yields a phosphate concentrate, which then yields the phosphoric acid, the LFP cam. And then the LFP cam goes into the cathode of this battery. Obviously, require other things like in the anode, which we have in here is graphite as well. We have graphite from Nouveau Monde. We have graphite. So it's quite a quite a complex process to make the battery. But the LFP cathode active material is seen one of the as one of the more important elements to be able to onshore to be able to have independence and being able to manufacture our own batteries.
Speaker 1Well, there's big news coming out of the company recently because you listed on the Nasdaq. You recently rang the Nasdaq bell to celebrate. The ticker is P.H.O.S. How significant is this listing for the company and the access it gives you to a huge amount? It's a huge network of new potential shareholders.
Speaker 2Oh, it's it's it's really massive. I mean, we had topped out. There was a lot of institutions that just could not participate in the equity of the company because we were listed only on the OTC QX, which was the highest order of the QX exchange. But they really needed us to be on a major exchange, whether New York or Nasdaq. Now that we're on Nasdaq, it's a perfect fit for us because, you know, we're from mine to market. So there's a very large technology component, if not a major technology component. technology. component in this company as well. So NASDAQ is the most fitting exchange for us. And NASDAQ and the convergence between critical minerals, the supply chains and the technology and us going from mine to market, NASDAQ is a perfect venue for us. So it's really opened the doors to a lot of funds and larger investors that could not own us to being able to own us. In fact, since we listed on the NASDAQ, there's already been a massive swell in the trading of our shares across all the exchanges we've experienced probably in the last three days, record trading volumes that we've never seen in the life of the company. So the liquidity has just been massively improved. It's just an incredible phenomenon to watch where all the funds that were willing to own us but couldn't now have the ability to do it.
Speaker 1That's fantastic. And more great news, Quebec's Ministry of Natural Resources and Forests selected the Beijing La Marche project for fast track status in July 2026. What advantages does this expedited permitting pathway provide? And how much could it shorten the timeline to production?
Speaker 2Yeah, it's a really big one for us, actually, Jesse. It's one of the most major ones on an operational level. So what does it mean? Our permits go through the Quebec government. And there could be sometimes up to three, four, five different ministries that you have to go through for different permits or different aspects of the permit or different aspects of permitting process. So what this does is it brings all of these ministries to the table. There's just one central input spot that we dialogue with the government. So when we dialogue with the government, and it's already started, we dialogue with members of the three or four different ministries involved at the table at the same time, we produce one report for all two or three different uses. And it's meant to streamline, it's meant to have no red tape, no double dipping, if you will, or double replication of information. And it's meant to make projects go much more smoothly. And to really pinpoint on those projects that Quebec is really interested in advancing. There were three projects put under the status, we were one of the three, which is great. So it means that we have really the eyes and ears of basically the whole administration and the whole political process in getting this project moved forward. So it's been a great one for us. Fast tracking. Yeah,
Speaker 1sounds like a game changer. And in June of this year as well, you announced that you have formalized international investment and offtake agreements under the Critical Minerals Resilience and Production Alliance. And this was at the 52nd G7 summit. Can you unpack the details of these offtake agreements and what they mean for the company moving forward?
Speaker 2Sure. So basically, to just step back a little bit, so we had very good support at the municipal level, even with our indigenous groups, local communities, at the Quebec provincial level, and even at the Canadian level, as you know, we've received $21.5 million of contribution from the federal government. And now when all that came into place, the G7 has been looking for companies to position itself to be able to get to be able to, to resolve supply chain issues that they have. So the G7 came out in June of this year and said, there's a number of supply chains that are fairly controlled by one country in particular, they never mentioned any names. And they said, we would like by 2030, for there to be no supply chains that we are critically dependent on, where more than 60% of the supply chain is focused in any one country. So as we know, with LFP, it's over 98% focused in Asia, mostly in China. So how do how do their question is, you know, how do we decouple from that? So they looked at the first phosphate as one of the means or one of the companies in the Western world to be able to do that with a deposit and the whole mine to market strategy working in North America. So what they've done is they've looked at the first phosphate as one of the means or one of the companies in the Western world to be able to do that with a deposit and the whole mine to market strategy working in North America. So what they've done is, a number of the nation states came forward, one major offtaker came forward as well. And so at the G7 critical G7 summit and the G7 critical minerals alliance. Basically, we were given letters of interest and letters of guarantee from the Danish government and from entities of the Italian government to be able to advance the mine, and also the phosphoric acid plant, which represents the second transformation, the phosphoric acid, which which then goes into making the LFP capital. So that was the first phosphate that they were able to do. And then after that, the material. So the offtaker took 200,000 tons of phosphate concentrate from the Beijing La Marche mine, and 60,000 tons of phosphoric acid from the phosphoric acid plant at Port of Saguenay.
Speaker 1Excellent. Now I want to talk about catalysts for the company coming up in a moment. But first, I just wanted to ask you based on the conversations you're having with investors, both institutional and retail, around first phosphate, are you seeing an increase in knowledge base when it comes to the commodity sector when it comes to understanding the critical importance of phosphate? Because as we know, commodities in general, very under invested in for a while now, some are talking about a commodity super cycle coming up. I'm just wondering, based on your conversations, are you seeing increased investor awareness in the importance of critical minerals like phosphate?
Speaker 2Yes, for sure. And our NASDAQ listing really points it out in the great reception that we've had since we've been listed on NASDAQ. I mean, we have opened up the capital category of igneous phosphate, if you will, as an asset class. Everyone is scrambling to these what I call exotic rare earths, things like erythrum, antimony, tantalum, tungsten, gallium. I could just keep going down the list. And igneous phosphate is another one of these really rare commodities that has a really, really big impact on the technological world and the future output in the new economy. So, we've been sort of, I guess, embraced on that basis. And it's very nice to see the amount of volume that's occurring now in our securities now that we're listed on NASDAQ. So, yes, we see ourselves as another subsector of the rare earths, if you will, or of the rare commodities.
Speaker 1Catalysts for the company. What are the main upcoming catalysts, news flow that's going to be coming out of First Phosphate that shareholders of the company can look forward to?
Speaker 2Well, as you can see, there's always surprises along the way. But what we communicate and what we can communicate directly to the markets is the next major milestone for the company is the feasibility study. The feasibility study we're hoping to have completed by the first quarter of 2027. And then after that, it's permitting. And then after that, it's final investment decision for which, as you know, as we spoke before, we already have major sovereigns at the table, nation states at the table. And after that, we're hoping, we're hoping to get the mine up and running, open pit mine, 2029, 2030 at the latest.
Speaker 1And is there anything we haven't yet touched on or anything you think it's important to emphasize when it comes to First Phosphate and the value proposition it currently presents to investors?
Speaker 2Well, Jesse, I always say to everybody, it's LFP, right? So it's lithium iron phosphate. We know where we can get the lithium. Lithium is 4% of the cathode. There's over 150 publicly traded companies on stock exchanges worldwide. If you want lithium, you can get the lithium. Lithium exposure, iron is fairly standard, though it is rare in its powder format, which is required for LFP. But P, the phosphate, 61% of the cathode of the LFP battery is something that we have not given much thought to. And First Phosphate is out there. We're the only company, as far as we know, that's fully 100% dedicated to phosphate, high purity igneous phosphate for the LFP battery
Speaker 1industry. Well, I'm going to go ahead and put a link in the description below to the First Phosphate website, as well as social media for people who can follow along with the company. And of course, now listed on NASDAQ under P-H-O-S. John, always enjoy our conversations. Thank you so much for coming on the show.
Speaker 2Yeah, thank you so much, Jesse. Great to be here.
Speaker 1Commodity Culture is a podcast that covers investing in commodities and natural resources. If you'd like to hear more, be sure to subscribe so you are always alerted of the latest episodes. Thank you.
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