For nearly a decade, Bless served as president and CEO of Century Aluminum Company, a global producer of primary aluminum, and was a member of the company’s board of directors. Prior to becoming CEO, he served as executive vice president and chief financial officer of Century. Previous to Century, he held a range of executive positions with several companies including Maxtor and Rockwell Automation.
“We are honoured to welcome Christy and Mike to the newly created directorships,” Piedmont board chairman Jeff Armstrong said in a statement. “Their extensive knowledge and backgrounds will be key as we and our partners look toward our targeted timeline of bringing lithium production online in 2023, 2024, 2025 and 2026.”
Earlier this week, Piedmont announced it has amend its existing offtake agreement with Tesla.
Under the amended agreement, the company will now deliver approximately 125,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate to Tesla beginning in H2 2023 through the end of 2025. The spodumene supply will be sourced from North American Lithium, a project based in Quebec that Piedmont acquired in 2021.
Shares of Piedmont soared 15.4% by market close Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $884.5 million.
