Blair Way has retired as COO of Patriot Battery Metals, the hard rock lithium exploration company announced this week.

Way will continue to serve on the Patriot board as a nonexecutive director and will provide advisory services on a consulting basis over the coming months.

"On behalf of the board and management team, I would like to extend our gratitude and best wishes to Blair on his retirement from executive duties. His contribution cannot be understated, having led Patriot Battery Metals through its formation and the extraordinary Corvette lithium discovery, through the unprecedented challenges of the pandemic and external market conditions over the past four years,” said CEO Ken Brinsden.

“Blair's tireless efforts and leadership have been instrumental in the success of the company to date, growing from a sub $10-million market cap in late 2020 to now being one of the leading lithium raw materials development projects globally.”

Patriot did not name a successor for Way, but announced the appointment of John Drapack to the role of director, studies and Cathryn Moffett to the role of director, environment.

Drapack has more than 30 years' experience as a mining and mineral process engineer, including the project management of extensive underground and openpit study and development initiatives. He will be instrumental in the progress of the upcoming preliminary/scoping study, and the ongoing feasibility study which is targeted for completion in the September quarter of next year.

Moffett has more than 15 years’ experience in environmental- and social-impact assessments including numerous mining projects requiring fish compensation and offset plans. She will be critical to the oversight of the environmental and social-impact assessment, which is on track for completion immediately following the feasibility study.

Patriot in 2017 discovered the CV lithium trend, an emerging spodumene pegmatite district that spans more than 50 km across the Corvette property. The core area includes the approximate 4.6-km-long CV5 spodumene pegmatite, which hosts a maiden mineral resource estimate of 109.2-million tonnes at 1.42% lithium oxide inferred.