General Comments & Banter, page-11847

I'm not 100% sure how this recent weather event will play out .. Some ramblings:

Affected brine supply means less Lithium on the market, less of the "oversupply" narrative. This is commented on in the Livent report saying that they have lost 2 weeks of production (at least).

It also opens up the discussion of weather related risks of Brine supply, in favour of hard rock (which can also be flooded too). This is a discussion I don't think we want to be having with potential off-takers. I would rather not have the discussion "Why would we sign a multi-year deal with you when you cannot guarantee supply due to weather events?"

It will help push the industry towards processing without ponds (POSCO, Lilac, etc), I remember there being a JZ comment somewhere saying that when Stage 2 is up and running with a team that Pablo may be given the Stage 1 facility to test "direct extraction" techniques. This helps Argosy by already talking about the technologies required, but I'm not sure just how far behind other players AGY is in direct extraction. It was an old comment, but is still relevant.

Of course there's also a place for mixed Ponds + Direct Extraction, where the ponds help increase efficiency when they are working as planned. I feel this would be the way forward for many companies.

I don't believe the massive flooding in the North of Atacama relates to the ponds of other companies being destroyed, there doesn't seem to be as much water on the ponds as per the images from @spinc. Argosy has also received some water on the ponds, though it looks like a smaller amount than the others.

An interesting turn of events, I'm intrigued to see how the market reacts to this as information comes to light from the other companies affected.