Ann: Lithium Industry Support Program, page-61

Hence my geopolitical point about development not following an incentive price.

On a side note, I think it would be easier if we started talking about Manono North (Zijin) and Manono South (KoBold). As even Anatol acknowledged, Zijin is constructing fast. I believe it is wrong for people to be applying WA build times to Africa. We've seen in Zimbabwe and now at Manono via satelite (Check out Sentinel EO if you want to look around for yourself) that the Australian timeframes just don't apply. For those questioning the roads, did they fly in the plant in pieces?

I have a feeling there will be a bunch of investors in a year's time completely confused by reports of lithium out of the DRC, because they've been told it's too hard, the roads aren't there, or it takes many years to build a mine. China moves fast in the DRC. When it wants roads built they appear quickly - CREC gets right on it. Prior to Zijin, China had no incentive to build suitable roads to Manono. Keep in mind it is quite obvious that AVZ were kicked out of Manono because they were not wanted there by China. By the time AVZ stopped focusing on European roadshows and turned back towards China offtakes the damage was done. Now the political landscape has shifted with the US making serious political inroads. So it looks like Zijin gets away with AVZ's North and KoBold will pay for the South.

Regarding the comments around paying off rebels etc. Yeah, this is true and anyone seriously following African mining accounts for Capex, Opex and Bribex. The thing is that in most cases the far lower Capex and Opex offsets the Bribex. I've seen hidden costs (aka Bribex) in Zimbabwe of US$200t (that particular operation had CFR cost to China of US$650, so profitable regardless), but would anticipate bribec would be higher in the DRC. Thankfully for KoBold, Trump has declared bribery to be ok for US companies abroad, which I happen to agree with from a level playing field perspective in locations where anti-bribery measures have utterly failed.

Ultimately if not for Bribex, Manono would be the cheapest operation globally IMO. Will still be low cost because it is in the interest of rebels and officials to keep the mines operating.

I do understand the newer HC LTR narrative that it is all good, the more the merrier because the supply will be needed. That is a calming thought. However that stands in stark contrast to some of the past posts that were along the lines of, why won't other operations moderate to give LTR a fair go, and the ongoing need for Lithium pricing to signifcantly rise in the near term.