South Star Announces Resignation of CEO
Harry Minnis
11 September 2025
Key Highlights:
- Richard Pearce resigns as President, Director, and CEO of South Star Battery Metals, effective immediately
- Pearce to support the company through a 14-day transition period for an orderly handover
- Board member Tiago Cunha appointed interim President and CEO as search for a permanent replacement begins
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South Star Battery Metals Corp. (TSXV: STS) (OTCQB: STSBF) has announced that Richard Pearce has stepped down from his roles as President, Director, and Chief Executive Officer, effective immediately.
To ensure continuity, Pearce will remain with the company for a 14-day transition period while responsibilities are transferred to his successor.
The Board of Directors has appointed current board member Tiago Cunha as interim President and CEO and will launch a formal search for a permanent replacement.
Marc Leduc, Chairman of the Board, commented:
“The Board wishes Richard all the best in his future endeavors, and we thank him as founder and CEO for the past 15 years for all of his service to the company and the stakeholders.”
ABOUT SOUTH STAR BATTERY METALS CORP.
South Star is a Canadian battery-metals project developer focused on the selective acquisition and development of near-term production projects in the Americas. South Star’s Santa Cruz Graphite Project, located in Southern Bahia, Brazil is the first of a series of industrial- and battery-metals projects that will be put into production. Brazil is the second-largest graphite- producing region in the world with more than 80 years of continuous mining. Santa Cruz has at-surface mineralization in friable materials, and successful large-scale pilot-plant testing (> 30 tonnes) has been completed. The results of the testing show that approximately 65% of graphite concentrate is +80 mesh with good recoveries and 95%-99% graphitic carbon (Cg). With excellent infrastructure and logistics, South Star Phase 1 is ramping up commercial production with first sales shipped in May 2025. Santa Cruz is the first new graphite production in the Americas since 1996.
South Star’s second project in the development pipeline is strategically located in Alabama, U.S.A. in the center of a developing electric-vehicle, aerospace, and defense hub in the southeastern United States. The BamaStar Project includes a historic mine active during the First and Second World Wars. The vertically integrated production facilities include a mine and industrial concentrator in Coosa County, AL and a downstream value-add plant in Mobile, AL, which will be upgrading natural flake graphite concentrates from both Santa Cruz and BamaStar mines. A NI 43-101 Preliminary Economic Assessment demonstrates strong economic results with a pre-tax Net Present Value (“NPV8%”) of US$2.4B and an Internal Rate of Return (“IRR”) of 35%, as well as an after-tax NPV8% US$1.6B with an IRR of 27%. South Star has also received US$3.2 million grant commitment from the US Department of Defense Title III program to advance a feasibility study on the BamaStar project. South Star trades on the TSX Venture Exchange under the symbol STS, and on the OTCQB under the symbol STSBF.