Exiting the company are Winton Willesee and Hugh Bresser, with Kevin Joyce remaining as managing director.

Langford and McKay believe that to maximise shareholder value, Birimian should proceed with mining Bougouni rather than selling the project.

Last year Langford was involved in the MoU Birimian signed with Chinese commodity trader Tongdow Group, a claimed multibillion dollar company featuring “high tech logistics and commodity trading operations".

Langford was also involved in the MoU signed by Birimian in December with Hong Kong-listed lithium battery manufacturer Far East First New Energy Co.

The new board members have said they aim to accelerate the development of Bougouni, with a current prefeasibility at the project due to be completed next quarter.

Before then an upgraded resource estimate is expected in May, with the company earlier this month reporting a current resource of 27.8 million tonnes grading 1.42% lithium oxide.

Metallurgical test work results are also expected prior to the PFS report.

Birimian started 2017 with $7.5 million cash.

Shares in Birimian were up 10% in early trade to 32.5c, capitalising the company at $64 million.

The stock traded peaked at about 48.5c last September, with shares changing hands for 11c 12 months ago.