James Rodriguez de Castro is the founder and CEO of Mongolian Minerals, a mining company specializing in fluorspar, the main source of fluorine for the chemical industry. Amongst fluorine’s many uses, it is used extensively to make lithium batteries.

During his 13 years in the role he has acquired a portfolio of fluorspar licences in Mongolia and explored most of them extensively. The largest licence in the portfolio has been taken up to JORC/43-101 feasibility standard and is ready for development.

In addition to this, James has also worked extensively to understand and attempt to quantify the amount of fluorspar required to make lithium batteries.



Prior to founding Mongolian Minerals he has had a range of senior roles in finance in London, Tokyo, and Hong Kong. In his latest role at Merrill Lynch he was the head of equity and equity derivative trading for the Asia region.



He is a current member of the Institute of Physics, a Chartered Engineer, a past board member of ISDA and the Singapore Exchange Market Development Committee, and holds a BA and MA in physics from Oxford University.