ASX Today, page-44273

@JRSelvedge

LTR made the wise decision to step away from fickly bank debt to an equity funding from its customer. As someone who has been through the financing cycle this is exactly the right decision given the difficult environment: LTR wants equity, not debt at this point in time.

The lithium market is in a fine balance. There is no "glut" of lithium at all: The difference between supply surplus and deficit is very small. Lithium demand is growing strongly at double digit levels – whether or not EV sales in US and EU have slowed down or not does not change this. Grades and long term supply agreements play a huge role. Combined with an immature "spot market" (SMM GFEX etc, which does not deserve the term because quantities are so tiny), which only plots extreme ends of the pricing, this makes for a volatile price enviroment that can shoot up, and down quickly, as we have seen.

In this market situation it is foolish to argue that exposing oneself to debt, which just wants steady cash flows, is a sensible way to go. You need equity and equity like financing from sources that take a long term view, which clearly points to a vast undersupply, not oversupply of lithium.

To your point that that "we haven't been told the details of the findings of the expert" – The below may make informative reading for you:
https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/markets/benchmark-gigafactories-apac-lithium-execs-want-funding-certainty-for-risky-critical-minerals/ar-AA1qqILQ

LTR Chief Commercial Officer spoke today at the Benchmark conference exactly this point. Banks withdrew their support at terms that LTR could accept because of low prices. It's not a conspiracy theory, but plainly obvious. Of course you know this.

LTR accepted the superb terms offered by LG. Exactly what I would have expected from an a grade management team.