KOREA INSTITUTE OF GEOSCIENCE AND MINERAL RESOURCES

MOU Signing Ceremony between KIGAM and MRIWA

On March 15, a Memorandum of Understanding(hereinafter referred to as "MOU") signing ceremony between Korea Institute of Geoscience and Mineral Resources (KIGAM) and Minerals Research Institute of Western Australia (MRIWA) was held at InterContinental Seoul COEX in Seoul. The MOU was signed in the presence of Dr. Pyeong-Koo Lee, a President of KIGAM and Dr. Nicole Roocke, a CEO of MRIWA. Also, Mr. Bill Johnston, a Minister for Mines and Petroleum; Energy; Corrective Services; Industrial Relations of Western Australia, honored the signing ceremony with a personal visit.

This MOU can not only generally support cooperation between KIGAM and MRIWA in the field of earth scienc, but also provide a framework for the exchange of scientific and technical knowledge across the entire mining value chain with a particular focus on critical minerals.

Based on this Cooperation with MRIWA, convergence research in connection with exploration and investigation of national critical minerals, which KIGAM is currently taking the initiative on conducting, is prospected to be conducted. Furthermore, it will contribute to making supply chain of strategic minerals in the Republic of Korea more stable by securing additional critical minerals suppliers.

"Securing and diversifying stable and resilient supply chain of critical minerals is a first priority to sustain major industries of the Republic of Korea such as K-Battery Industry," Dr. Pyeong-Koo Lee said at the signing ceremony. Also, he added that "By cooperating with Western Australia, which is one of the largest lithium producing states, we will continue to do our best to secure and diversify our supply chain of critical minerals."