Why Lithuania?
Lithuania gives us the right mix: educated talent, a mature electronics cluster producing tens of millions of devices a year, and Free Economic Zones that waive corporate tax for a decade. That's fertile ground for manufacturing batteries, motors, and boards.
The infrastructure backs it up. Lithuania runs a 200 MW national grid battery that keeps industrial power stable, and semiconductor manufacturing is growing. Just over the border in Estonia, a new rare-earth magnet plant signals a Baltic materials hub we can plug straight into. The EU's Critical Raw Materials Act rewards exactly what we're building: in-EU processing from diversified, allied supply chains.
Then there's demand. Lithuania is pushing defence spending past 3% of GDP, Poland is heading toward 5%, and Lithuania is rolling out nationwide UAS training. Our first customers are on the doorstep.
For Lithuanians, this means skilled jobs, stronger local supply chains, and more security investment staying in-country. For AITAS, it means a shorter path from pilot to production.
Why Canada?
Canada is our allied rare earth backbone. It holds one of the world's largest rare-earth endowments inside a stable, rule-of-law mining system.
The policy environment is working in our favour: a national Critical Minerals Strategy covering 31 minerals backed by nearly C$4 billion, a 30% exploration tax credit, and a C$1.5 billion infrastructure fund to move projects from exploration to refining.
The transatlantic link is already in place. CETA removes tariffs on metals and minerals. The EU-Canada Strategic Partnership on Raw Materials integrates value chains. The new EU-Canada Security and Defence Partnership deepens defence-supply channels. Canadian critical minerals flow into EU processing and straight into our Baltic manufacturing.
Defense Metals Corp's Wicheeda project in British Columbia completed its Pre-Feasibility Study in early 2025 with the highest-grade flotation concentrate globally at 50% TREO. Their production timeline of 2028-2029 lines up with our commercial scale-up, creating a natural partnership window.