General Comments & Banter, page-11858

Lithium Brine risk mitigation lesson 101: location, location, location
(nice photos @spinc )

Go back and take a look at the LAC, ALB and SQM photos... the thing they have in common is their ponds are located on the salars.

Now go and look ORE... they're ponds are on the edge of the salar and look in great condition compared to the other three (though they may also have experienced different weather conditions in their location - but the principle remains the same none the less).

Now consider AGY's Stg 3 location.... Mina Romula was specifically purchased in 2017 as the site for Stg 3:


Note that, in addition to being located next to both road and rail, it's high above the salar, hence flood risk during heavy rain is significantly mitigated.

So back to the risk mitigation trifecta... it should really be "location, location, construction"... and I think you'll find that AGY have done exactly this:
1. Location of Salar: Not all salars experience the same weather conditions. Advice I've had is that as of last Thursday, AGY had 65mm of rain (however, that's not to say they may get heavy rain falls at some point in the future - we can't control nature... hence the importance of things we can control in points 2 and 3)
2. Location of ponds: An elevated position, outside of a flood plan.
3. Construction of ponds: Ponds constructed with sturdy dam like walls that can channel rain run-off around and away from ponds.

I can't recall AGY ever talking about looking into direct extraction as an option?

IMO, whilst it may prove to be commercially viable in years to come, at this point in time, the best investment is picking the right pond location and construction method to suit the salar you're operating on.