Say NO to TO!, page-140

Is this a possible reason for wanting LMax? Can he see a logical step to take LMax into brines. With the salts already in solution, SL is not needed (the HF being the point of difference).

"The reason this one is interesting for me -

"Our focus is on exploiting potential new processing technologies that may enable lithium extraction and refining from brines."

+ Adrian Griffin (LIT - process for hard rock lithium processing)

Over 80% of lithium resources globally are tied up in brines with high magnesium content.  As we know, we are going to need a lot of Lithium.

Problem 1:  Producing a refined lithium chemical from magnesium rich brines is not currently possible at commercial scale due to the difficulty in removing magnesium.

Problem 2: It takes years of evaporation and removal of various salts in stages to produce a lithium rich liquor that is then refined to lithium carbonate / chloride.  This makes brines both prone to environmental risks and unable to quickly respond to changes or increases in demand.

Problem 3: Lithium chemicals refined from brines contain impurities that are less desirable by cathode producers.

Problem 4: Electrolyte producers prefer 99.99% purity chemicals, which requires multiple passes of processing to produce from brines.

Problem 5: Lithium metal produced from brines contains impurities that means it cannot be sold as a battery grade product, for example high levels of sodium that leads to significant performance issues.  Lithium metal will feature prominently in the next generation of batteries.

My guess is they are going to acquire the exclusive license for a process for refining brines that doesn't require evaporation, can refine Mg rich brines and produces a high purity product, solving all the problems above - on paper.   Then will be a long road to go from lab to pilot scale and to commercial scale.

Just a 100% pure guess, but worth a punt at this market cap."