Thanks for asking Cyber. Yes, I think it's all been going pretty well. Despite some delays and the odd mis-step, they're doing what they said they would do. A few thoughts in no particular order:
I'm now convinced JP and co do want to take it all the way to production.
They seem to have got their head around the importance of keeping news flowing through; the market is a competition for investor's money and if there's more exciting stories elsewhere money will get bored and move away, so that's a good development to see.
I thought that $30M raise into a +20% bounce was a good idea (they needed more cash sooner or later), but I thought they should have tried for more so as to space out the required raises, i.e. $60M now and then $100M a bit further down the track / closer to production. There was a huge amount of euphoria at the time - Allkem/Livent merger, brokers visiting HMW etc, so it's a shame they didn't go a bit harder, especially since the share price cratered afterwards regardless.
Some of their communications are frustrating, i.e. I don't agree with the way they've presented both Candelas and other tenements as 100% owned in various announcements, and then later paid cash or shares and re-announced them as 100% owned. It's not a huge issue but it does make me wonder what else they're being a bit cute about - I mean, ownership/title of tenements is a pretty straightforward matter. But it is what it is.
I expected the full permit, given they'd received all the other permits, but it's nice to have it in the bag. That really does just leave the funding to be dealt with. For reasons explained above I wouldn't be holding my breath for any offtakes just yet but it'd be a nice surprise.
Galan seem to have a genuinely strong relationship with the Catamarca government, a heap of work will have been done behind the scenes which we simply haven't seen and JP deserves a lot of credit for that.
In terms of my own position, I remain as interested as ever. I plan to remain on the sidelines as in my own mind I am convinced they will require a chunky equity raise and I don't see the need to own this yet. This is not intended as downramping at all, it's just my realistic opinion based on real examples of many resource projects I follow. Whilst it's probably fun/reassuring to talk about big prepaid offtakes funding large chunks of the capex, there simply aren't any other examples out there to quote - so will Galan be the first? Unlikely. Almost all other lithium developers have gone predominantly with equity (including LTR, who had $300M debt at BBSW +1.5%, a knockout rate, but who have also raised hundreds of millions alongside it). Debt is pretty expensive and deals are currently being done around SOFR +5% so that's actually quite onerous to service if you have any stumbles during ramp-up. They had $45.1M at 30 June and are now moving into full construction mode so I suspect there may be another raise towards the end of the year.
This stage of the Lassonde curve isn't very fun for holders but it's a super interesting time for the company, and I genuinely hope they can make the next step up to producer - JP has taken it from explorer to developer, and many don't even get that far.
(20min delay)