Building a Sustainable Future: How Switch Metals Plans to Address ESG Challenges in Mining

In this episode, we chat with Karl Akueson, Founder, CEO, and Director of Switch Metals, who are the largest holder of coltan (tantalum and niobium) and lithium licences in Côte d’Ivoire with over 3,000 km2 of licences with their flagship project being the Issia coltan project. Karl is a natural resources entrepreneur and former investment banker with BMO Capital Markets in London, who co-founded Awale Resources and has now established Switch Metals. In this episode, he talks through his entrepreneur journey, the background to Switch Metals and their projects, Côte d’Ivoire as a mining jurisdiction, and the tantalum market, plus more. KEY TAKEAWAYS Switch Metals is primarily focused on tantalum, a metal used in various electronic devices due to its unique properties, such as heat resistance and conductivity. This focus differentiates the company from other mining ventures that typically concentrate on more common commodities like lithium. Cote d'Ivoire is highlighted as an attractive mining jurisdiction due to its infrastructure, stability, and under-explored potential. The country has a growing mining sector, particularly in gold, which provides a supportive environment for new ventures like Switch Metals. The company aims to generate early cash flow through shallow coltan placer mining at the Issia Coltan Project. This approach is designed to provide a strong cash flow foundation, allowing for sustainable operations and further exploration without relying heavily on equity financing. ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) considerations are integral to Switch Metals' operations. The company emphasises ethical sourcing and community engagement, ensuring that local communities are informed and involved in the mining process, which helps mitigate the risks associated with artisanal mining. The immediate focus for Switch Metals is on resource definition through systematic pitting and bulk sampling to estimate the grade of tantalum. Following this, the company plans to conduct metallurgical studies and a scoping study to establish economic parameters, paving the way for future production. BEST MOMENTS "Tantalum is a metal that we use daily... It's used in capacitors, in the electronics industry particularly, but also in the cutting industry, in the alloy industry in general." "Cote d'Ivoire had that potential, but nobody really knows about it... I decided to build a company around this potential in the past few years." "We have this advantage of having both some material at surface... It's generally called placer deposits... It's something you can scratch from at the surface very shallow, it's free dig." "ESG is inherent to what we do... We have no choice but to meet all these ESG criteria because our end clients want us to demonstrate that we have traceability." VALUABLE RESOURCES Mail:        [e-mail] LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-tyson-3a26a68/ X:              https://twitter.com/MiningRobTyson YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/DigDeepTheMiningPodcast  Web:        http://www.mining-international.org This episode is sponsored by Hawcroft, leaders in property risk management since 1992. They offer: Insurance risk surveys recognised as an industry standard Construction risk reviews Asset criticality assessments and more Working across over 600 sites globally, Hawcroft supports mining, processing, smelting, power, refining, ports, and rail operations. For bespoke property risk management services, visit www.hawcroft.com GUEST SOCIALS https://www.linkedin.com/in/karl-akueson-b3456617/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/switch-metals/ https://switchmetals.com/ ABOUT THE HOST Rob Tyson is the Founder and Director of Mining International Ltd, a leading global recruitment and headhunting consultancy based in the UK specialising in all areas of mining across the globe from first-world to third-world countries from Africa, Europe, the Middle East, Asia, and Australi