Board and management
Managing director – Adrian Griffin
Mr Griffin has more than 40 years’ experience in the mining industry – in project identification, development and financing, as well as oversight of integrated mining and processing facilities. A founding director of Northern Minerals (the first heavy-rare-earths producer outside China) and Parkway Minerals (developer of the K-Max™ process to recover potassium and other metals from glauconite), he is also a non-executive director of Reedy Lagoon Corporation. With particular expertise in processing technology, Mr Griffin is currently identifying unconventional sources of lithium (including mine waste) and developing the technology to process them plus more conventional feed stocks such as spodumene. As managing director of Lithium Australia, he is also focused on the downstream production of lithium-ion battery components, as well as the recycling of battery/e-waste to recover the energy metals they contain. In so doing, Mr Griffin is positioning the company as a vertically integrated producer of lithium processing technology, a manufacturer of battery components and a developer of battery recycling technology, the aim being to access all facets of the lithium value chain.
Company secretary and CFO – Barry Woodhouse
For some 25 years, Mr Woodhouse has been involved in manufacturing, mining services, exploration, mine production (gold, oil and gas, iron ore, bauxite, lithium, copper, uranium and manganese) and information technology in his roles as, variously, chairman, director, CFO, financial controller and/or company secretary of a number of listed and private entities.
His career has granted him exposure to a number of jurisdictions, including the US, Indonesia, China, Vietnam, Europe and India. In general, Mr Woodhouse involves himself with a company while it is establishing or redefining its investment strategy.
Non-executive chairman – George Bauk
Mr Bauk’s 25+ years of mining industry experience include particular expertise in critical metals. Skilled in strategic management, business planning, the establishment of high-performing teams and capital-raising, he has held senior operational and corporate positions with WMC Resources and Arafura Resources and was managing director of Indigo Resources (formerly Western Metals).
Since 2010, Mr Bauk has been managing director and CEO of Northern Minerals, overseeing that company’s heavy-rare-earth project in northern Australia. This has involved organising a successful greenfields exploration programme, obtaining government approvals for production and co-existence agreements with traditional owners, initiating a definitive feasibility study and establishing off-take agreements with international suppliers, as well as substantial fund-raising. Such activities have granted him valuable exposure to critical metals markets – experience that’s now directly applicable to advancing the activities of Lithium Australia.
Non-executive director – Kristie Young
Ms Young’s varied background includes more than 20 years’ experience across a range of sectors, including technical engineering, project evaluation, strategy, business development, growth, marketing, commercial, client management, governance and human resources.
Most recently, Ms Young held senior growth and business development executive roles with leading professional services firms PwC and Ernst & Young. She is a non-executive director with Primero Group and sits on the boards of Wesley College and the Petroleum Club of WA.
Ms Young holds a Bachelor of Engineering (Mining) Hons from the University of Queensland and a Post Graduate Diploma of Education (Mathematics & IT) from the University of Western Australia. She is a graduate of the Australian Institute of Company Directors and holds a CertIV HR from the Australian HR Institute.