Imperial Mining’s Cashin on the ‘huge’ scandium market moving forward

“I bring attention to that Bloomberg article at the end of October speaking about the scandium market and some of the players. I was particularly surprised and pleased on the projections on consumption by 2035 of 1,800 tons of scandium. The current players, the advanced players that are in the scandium space are maybe 400 so I think there is a lot of opportunity for new players to come in and establish themselves in what I think is going to be a huge market going forward.” States Peter Cashin, President & CEO of Imperial Mining Group Ltd. (TSXV: IPG), in an interview with InvestorIntel Corp. CEO Tracy Weslosky.

Tracy Weslosky: It has been too long since we have received an update. What is going on with Imperial Mining?

Peter Cashin: Very busy summer and fall trying to get our projects up and going since inception in January. A gold project in Chibougamau, the south belt I told you about, was in a press release earlier this week and then of course active on our Crater Lake scandium project in northeastern Quebec. We are doing a lot of metals marketing, strategic marketing for scandium particularly in the EU and U.S. trying to get a pulse of the market because I think there is some potential big growth happening in the scandium space.

Tracy Weslosky: Okay. You have jumped right into scandium so let us go there. Is it too late to get into scandium because scandium has had some major movement in the last year. 

Peter Cashin: Correct. I bring attention to that Bloomberg article at the end of October speaking about the scandium market and some of the players. I was particularly surprised and pleased on the projections on consumption by 2035 of 1,800 tons of scandium. The current players, the advanced players that are in the scandium space are maybe 400 so I think there is a lot of opportunity for new players to come in and establish themselves in what I think is going to be a huge market going forward.

Tracy Weslosky: Some of you out there may not be aware the fact that Peter Cashin is one of the most respected experts and knowledgeable players in the critical materials sector. I am going to ask you to dumb it down for me. Is it too late to get into the scandium market?

Peter Cashin: Not at all. I think that there is an opportunity for growth. I think we are just in the early stages. The benefits of scandium were really fully understood starting in the 1970s and lots of R&D capacity went into learning the product and learning its benefits and looking for new markets. But, all plugs were pulled on all that R&D initiative back in 2012 because they could not get any sustainable supply. It was China or Russia and those are not reliable supply chains. You are starting to see the peers, my peers, now getting back into R&D with industry leaders. That is usually a precursor for explosive growth in the market. 

Tracy Weslosky: Okay. I heard that precursor for explosive growth in the market. I am also seeing here that you just put out a news release about mining samples at Crater Lake project in Quebec. Can you talk to us about these samples? 

Peter Cashin: Crater Lake is our flagship. It is a large intrusive complex. We knew about scandium back in 2014 when I was running Quest Rare Minerals. We did our work. We understand that there is about 6 kilometer long horizon that is very enriched in scandium that we have only just started to dust off now. This past summer was exactly intended to start opening up the zone, try to fully understand it and sample on its length for the purpose of identifying additional drill targets…to access the complete interview, click here

Disclaimer: Imperial Mining Group Ltd. is an advertorial member of InvestorIntel Corp.