Dignitaries attending included Jujuy Province Governor Dr . Eduardo Fellner, National Mining Secretary Eng. Jorge Mayoral, Yoshihiro Miwa, Deputy Director General of the Embassy of Japan in Argentina, Naotaka Ad achi, Executive Director of Japan Oil, Gas and Metals National Corporation (JOGMEC) as well as executives from the project JV partners and Mizuho Bank .
Cristina Fernandez de Kirc hner, President of Argentina participated in the opening ceremony with a special address via video conferencing , offering congratulations to all involved in the achievement at Olaroz. Orocobre was represented by Chairman , James Calaway , Managing Director, Richard Seville and Country Manager, Jose de Castro amongst others. Approximately 400 peop le attended the opening ceremony including government department representatives, employees, contractors , suppliers and members of the local communities.
A common theme of the speeches made was that the project’s success was due to its strong partn erships , its use of local contractors and the teamwork of all those involved. In particular the relationship with, and inclusion of, the local communities in the development plans was highlighted.
Richard Seville Managing Dire ctor and CEO of Orocobre said :
"It is almost exactly seven years since we first traded on the ASX on the 4 th December 2007 with the hope that our Olaroz lithium project would have real merit. It is hard to believe that in such a short time we have taken Olaroz through exploratio n, feasibility studies , permitting , financing , construction and now on to the commencement of production. I would like to publicly thank all of the Sales de Jujuy/Or ocobre team, our partners TTC and JEMSE , our fi n anciers Mizuho and JOGMEC, our contractors and suppliers and the members of the communities where we operate. We are looking forward to becoming a major reliable supplier of lithium chemicals to worldwide industry ."
