Management

Marc Fogassa has been a director and our Chairman and Chief Executive Officer since 2012. He has extensive experience in venture capital and public company chief executive management. He has served on boards of directors of multiple private companies in various industries and has been invited to speak about investment issues, particularly as related to Brazil. Mr. Fogassa double majored at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (M.I.T.), graduating with two Bachelor of Science degrees in 1990. He later graduated from the Harvard Medical School with a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1995 and also from the Harvard Business School with a Master of Business Administration degree in 1999 with Second-Year Honors. At Harvard Business School, he was Co-President of the Venture Capital and Private Equity Club. Mr. Fogassa was born in Brazil and is fluent in Portuguese and English. Mr. Fogassa is also the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Jupiter Gold Corporation and Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Apollo Resources Corporation, two companies in which we own equity positions.

Mr. Talbot has an extensive track record as a technical and operational leader throughout his career with over 30 years of experience in mining operations. In particular, he has extensive experience in DMS (dense media separation) plant development and operation. Most recently, Mr. Talbot was employed by RTEK International DMCC (“RTEK”), a consulting firm that advises lithium developers and producers. From July 2022 to September 2023, Mr. Talbot was the Chief Operating Officer at Sigma Lithium Corporation, a Canadian lithium producer with operations in Brazil. At Sigma Lithium, he oversaw the development of that company’s flagship Grota do Cirilo project from construction through commissioning and operations. From 2017 to 2022, Mr. Talbot held positions as General Manager and Head of Australian Operations at Galaxy Resources, now part of Arcadium Lithium PLC, one of the world’s largest fully integrated lithium companies. While at Galaxy Resources, Mr. Talbot was instrumental in increasing the production at Mt. Cattlin (a hard-rock lithium mine in Ravensthorpe, Western Australia) which resulted in record production. From 2015 to 2017, Mr. Talbot was at Bikita Minerals in Zimbabwe, which owns and operates the longest running hard-rock lithium mine in the world. Mr. Talbot holds a bachelor’s degree in chemical engineering with Honors from the University of Witwatersrand, South Africa.

Gustavo Pereira de Aguiar has been our Chief Financial Officer, Principal Accounting Officer, and Treasurer since 2022. From 2016 until 2022, Mr. Aguiar was the Controller of Jaguar Mining, Inc., a Canadian publicly traded company with two producing gold mines in the state of Minas Gerais in Brazil and current market capitalization of approximately $270 million. From 2013 to 2016, Mr. Aguiar was Controller at Grupo Orguel, an enterprise in the construction equipment rental sector in Brazil which received funding from Carlyle, a U.S. private equity group, and from 2010 to 2013, Mr. Aguiar worked at Mirabella Mineração, which at the time was developing its nickel project in the state of Bahia in Brazil. From 2006 to 2010, Mr. Aguiar was an auditor with Deloitte in Brazil. Mr. Aguiar has undergraduate degrees in Business Administration and in Accounting from Universidade FUMEC in Brazil. He has an executive MBA and further post-graduate education in finance from Fundação Dom Cabral in Brazil. Mr. Aguiar is fluent in Portuguese and English and is a licensed accountant in Brazil.

James Abson has served as the Chief Geological Officer for Atlas Lithium since September 2023. Mr. Abson is also a Qualified Person for Lithium in accordance with guidelines from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. He has over 29 years of experience in multi-commodity mining and mineral exploration, specializing in Lithium and Tantalum and has held various positions from Exploration VP to CEO.

Mr. Abson was previously Chief Geologist and exploration manager for Bikita Minerals Lithium in Zimbabwe, where he primarily oversaw the Geology department that undertook the pit reserve and resource expansion and hard rock mineral resource exploration for spodumene. He has also worked for Oceana in Brazil.

Over the last 15 years, Mr. Abson has also been involved in the exploration and assessment of various lithium plus tin-tantalum pegmatite projects in Afghanistan and Africa, including the Manono lithium project in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Desert Lion and UIS in Namibia, and the Arcadia lithium mine in Zimbabwe.

James was educated at Rhodes University, South Africa, and holds a BSc. Honours degree in Geology. He has been registered as a Professional Natural Scientist for over 13 years.

Nicholas Rowley joined the Atlas management team following a lengthy and highly successful career at Galaxy Resources Limited, a lithium-focused company with assets spanning Australia, Canada, and Argentina where he held several key roles, most notably Director of Corporate Development. In this position, he contributed significantly to the growth and enhancement of the Galaxy portfolio of assets through partnerships and divestitures and later to the implementation of its AUD 6 billion merger with Orocobre Limited in 2021, creating Allkem Limited, one of the world’s largest lithium producers.

Mr. Rowley is also the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Electramin, a global battery metal trading company. In addition, he is the founder and executive director at R-Tek International, which has offered mining engineering, planning and business development services to hard-rock lithium explorers and producers worldwide. Mr. Rowley holds a Bachelor of Commerce degree majoring in Finance and Management from the University of Notre Dame, Australia.

Igor Tkachenko has been our Vice President of Corporate Strategy since 2023. Igor Tkachenko, a Ukrainian-American and a US-trained physician, has served as a strategic advisor to us since 2021, lending his leadership talents and private sector experience to further the company’s mission to become a leading hard-rock lithium provider for the green energy transition. In 2022, Mr. Tkachenko began consulting for us as our Director of Strategic Development, overseeing the rapid expansion of our investor relations efforts. He participated in the design and execution of our organizational growth strategy that led to our successful up-listing to Nasdaq in January 2023. On the heels of this major milestone, Mr. Tkachenko transitioned from his academic role as a Clinical Assistant Professor to take on an executive position at Atlas Lithium and began serving as our Vice President of Corporate Strategy in 2023. His education includes a Bachelor of Science (Summa Cum Laude) and a Doctor of Medicine degrees.

Raimundo Almeida Jr. has served as Vice President of Lithium Processing at Atlas Lithium since December 2022. He brings 23 years of operations management experience in the mining industry, with expertise in processing plants for specialty minerals such as spodumene, tantalite/cassiterite, manganese, and gold.

Mr. Almeida has 14 years of hands-on experience with lithium ores. He previously helped manage the first flotation pilot plant for AMG Mining and oversaw the commissioning and operations of the dense media separation (DMS) pilot plant for Sigma Lithium. His well-rounded background includes roles at prominent mining companies like AMG Mining, Mineração Taboca, and Equinox Gold.

In addition to a Production Engineering undergraduate degree, Mr. Almeida holds a Business Administration master level degree and a post-graduate certification in Development Management from Fundação Dom Cabral in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Joel de Paiva Monteiro, Esq. has been our Vice-President, Administration and Operations, since 2020; our Chief of Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance (“ESG”) matters since 2021; and our Secretary since 2022. Previously he was a partner of the Brazilian law firm PRA Advogados with three offices and headquarters in Belo Horizonte, state of Minas Gerais. Mr. Monteiro has worked with all aspects of Brazilian business law and has extensive experience in a wide range of areas, from strategic business planning to litigation. His prior clients included large corporations in a variety of economic sectors in diverse states in Brazil. Mr. Monteiro has a law degree from the Milton Campos Faculty in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Subsequently, he achieved a post-graduate degree in Business and Civil Law from the Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais. Mr. Monteiro is also a director of Jupiter Gold Corporation and Apollo Resources Corporation, two companies in which we own equity positions.

Brian W. Bernier has been our Vice-President, Corporate Development and Investor Relations since 2019. From 2010 to 2017, Mr. Bernier was at Four Spring Capital Trust, and from 2017 to 2019, he was at Noble Capital Markets. Mr. Bernier graduated with a degree in Management from Boston University.

Areli Nogueira da Silva Júnior, Geol. has been a consultant to us since 2018 and became our Vice-President, Mineral Exploration, in 2021. Under Regulation S-K 1300, he is a Qualified Person for lithium, iron, and gold, He is the Founder and was the Chief Technical Officer of MineXplore, a consultancy focused on mineral rights in Brazil. Mr. da Silva Júnior has been a consultant geologist with GeoEspinhaço, a firm that undertakes geological studies in a variety of minerals across Brazil. Mr. da Silva Júnior has also been a college faculty member teaching geology. Previously, he worked at the Brazilian mining department and before that as a geologist at Usiminas Mineração. Mr. da Silva Júnior has a Master of Geology degree from the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, and an undergraduate degree in Geological Engineering from the School of Mines of the Federal University of Ouro Preto, the oldest mining college in Brazil. Mr. da Silva is also a director of Jupiter Gold Corporation, a company in which we own an equity position.