LKE towards TOP-5, page-1753

This is a very important point. The sheer need for lithium in the transition to green energy definitely affects DLEs prospects, and makes it far more likely in my view that we will find a way to make it work.

When coronavirus hit, we heard a lot about how difficult it would be to develop a vaccine, because nobody had developed a vaccine for a coronavirus before. But until 2020, coronavirus had largely been confined to animal populations, so there wasn't a particularly large need for a coronavirus vaccine. But the moment it became necessary, we found a way to do it.

I think the same dynamic will exist with lithium. If existing extraction methods will not sustain the transition to a greener energy economy - and it David Snydacker certainly seems to be of the view that they won't - then there are strong imperatives to find alternative extraction methods which will.

These imperatives are both economic and political. The economic imperative is easy to see - as demand for lithium rises, so too does price, and so too does profit opportunity. The political imperative, in my view, is less clear and perhaps less quantifiable, but no less real. As the green energy transition becomes more politically salient, then we should see increasing economic support for the transition, whether direct (e.g. grants for research) and indirect (e.g. subsidies for EVs).

Both directly support the prospects for DLE, including Lilac's method.

My views only, happy to hear alternative views.