Hi all,
I spent a number of hours reading a few different documents and collating the various bits of info from investor presentatioins, interviews, announcments etc etc to form this little document that I'm sending to a couple of friends and wanted to share here. I've never started a new thread so forgive my vanity on this occasion - I thought if I could ever warrant a new one this might be it. I've been as accurate and measured as possible but I'm still new to the space so their may well indeed be errors.
Enjoy.
GreenTechnology Metals - GT1 - Canadian based, ASX listed lithium explorer
Whoare they?
GT1 is a Canadian based, ASX listed lithium exploration company operating out of Thunder Bay on the shores of Lake Superior in Ottawa.They listed on the exchange last year in November at $0.25 per share and have had an all time high of circa $1.25 in April of this year.They were borne out of a company called Ardiden that had some lithium leases it wanted to sell off so it could focus on its gold tenements.Ardiden had done some drilling on their claims, mainly just enough to prove up a small JORC resource and indicate the ground was very prospective for lithium bearing spodumene pegmatites. GT1’s aim is to become Ontario’s preeminent vertically integrated lithium firm combining extraction, processing and conversion.
Board& Management – not exhaustive
John Young – Chairman and founder of Pilbara Minerals a $9.5 billion ASX lithium producer
Cameron Henley – founding MD of Primero Group – a full service lithium foucsed engineering group
Patrick Murphy – MD of AMCI – a $9 billion investment group specialising in mining
Luke Cox – CEO – geologist and mine manager from Wogina lithium mine in WA
Matt Herbert – GM North America – exploration manager and senior manager from Rio & FMG
Partnersand strategic investors
Lithium Americas (LAC – CAD $5billion lithium company) invested AUD$14m in April 2022
AMCI – 10% holding from outset – they are a multi-billion dollar fund specialising in the mineral exploration space including M&A and operational expansion
Primero – 6% holding from outset – they are a lithium process design, construction and operation engineering group.
Whylithium in Ontario?
Currently Western Australia produces around 55% of the world’s lithium.This is then put on a boat in raw form and sent to China where it’s processed into SC6 a concentrated form of lithium before it’s then sent to another plant where it’s further processed into lithium hydroxide for lithium batteries.Much of the power in China is coal fired notwithstanding the fact that it takes a very long sea journey beforehand to get from WA to China in the first place. As countries, companies and ultimately individual buyers look to purchase electric vehicles much of the focus will move towards ‘how big was your carbon footprint to produce this in the first place?’ type scenario.There is also a major push from the US government to sure up its supply of critical minerals so that should the geopolitical situation become even more shaky then it’s no longer relying on China for many of these.Joe Biden has recently declared three nations to be on a free trade list for critical minerals, these being Canada, Chile and Australia.With all that in mind, the key customers being auto makers like GM and Ford and companies building gigafactories for lithium batteries like LG are all a short distance from the point of origin thus enhancing the ‘green credentials’ of the product.
Thegeography and infrastructure
As mentioned, GT1 ‘s operations are headquartered in Thunder Bay on Lake Superior and their tenements are located within 30km – 80km of the city.There is an abundance of transport infrastructure including railway, highways, all-season tracks to some sites, and hydroelectric power for running camps, machinery and processing plant. The bulk of the resource is still fairly underexplored and underexploited so there’s plenty of drilling to coming up over the next two years.Having said that, the flagship resource at Seymour can mined to begin to generate cashflow reducing the need to go back to shareholders further down the track.
The resources
GT1 has a number of different claims.All are in slightly different phases of exploration.
Seymour
·Initial JORC resource recently doubled from 4.8MT to 9.9Mt.From what I can see on the map, this is the closest to Thunder Bay (30 – 40km) and will most likely be the first to go into production.
·Currently drilling and expanding the resource
·Exploration target of 22 – 26MT
·Very large spodumene pegmatites with some measuring up to 4.5% Li2O in an area called Pye
Root
·Exploration target focused on a dense pegmatite swarm
·Currently two drill rigs on the go, proving up the resource
·Exploration target is 20 to 24MT of Li2O
·Current program includes 24,000m of diamond drilling over three targets
·Potential for all three to be connected over 7km running east to west
·Dual focus to define the resource but also to extend and step out drill
·Ardiden returned a 67m result at 1.75% Li2O from their historical drill campaign
Wisa
·8 km from the US border
·All seasons track
·8 – 10 MT exploration target
·Multiple sheeted lithium bearing pegmatites
Other recently acquired claims:
·Allison Lake batholith
·Gathering Lake
·Root Bay
·Superb Lake
·Pennock Lake
·All comprising multiple pegmatite swarms
Below is a timeline indicating current and planned activities to get the lithium out of the ground and to market as fast as possible:
During a recent interview with North American GM Matt Herbert, I heard him drop a few pointers on what makes the opportunity a compelling one.
·They are a running a full year campaign meaning they don’t stop for snow season when it can get down to minus 45.
·During the warm season known as exploration season, the camp is full and they are busy mapping, finding new drill targets, conducting geological studies, and carrying out environmental checks
·In winter when target acquisition is not possible, they continue to drill and send samples for assaying
·They are very keen to position themselves as a North American lithium producer
In another interview with CEO Luke Cox, I thought it was interesting how he mentioned that they don’t really need to try to negotiate off-take agreements at this early stage as they’re pretty much in the driving seat.They’re cashed up for the next two years of drilling and day to day ops and the market is only going to strengthen over time with the lithium deficit continuing to grow.
StrategicPartners – further detail
As mentioned earlier, GT1 has several strategic partners at board level and at cornerstone investor level.I think this is one of the things that make it such an interesting proposition.Right from the outset, this organisation was setup to have in place the right people and connections to take it from exploration to exploitation then further investment to facilitate concentration and processing to final product.They have the on ground geos, the money people in AMCI, the chemical process design and build in Primero as well as now the sharing/collaboration with Lithium Americas and their significant expertise as a senior established player in the space.
Federaland provincial government support
Another of the key areas that is working in GT1’s favour is the level of support they’re being given, particularly at provincial level.Ontario Premier Doug Ford and his Minister for Development have recently unveiled a plan around their support for the critical minerals industry starting with CAD$29 million to support junior exploration companies looking to develop and process critical minerals like lithium.They see the level of opportunity to deliver fully sourced and processed minerals under the made in Ontario brand.Doug Ford and Greg Rickford have met with representatives from the EU and US to establish strategic alliances around mineral supply for the automotive, defence and technology sectors.
The strategy includes initiatives such as:
·Providing tax credits for exploration companies
·Creating a made in Ontario brand for critical minerals
·Joining the mineral rich north with the south where these can be processed and refined
·Actively investing in lithium processing plants of which there are none in Canada
·Growing a skilled labour force for the supply of technical roles
·Supporting indigenous business and build lasting economic development partnerships
Miscellaneouspoints of interest
·LG and Stellantis have recently inked a deal for the construction of a CAD$5billion giga factory in Canada to produce batteries for the automotive industry – it’s just across the border from Detroit.
·Recently Chairman John Young put in another $30k to buy just over 50,000 more shares on market.Always positive to see management supporting their own company with their own money.
·In another interview with CEO Luke Cox, he noted that the team at AMCI indicated they needed a minimum of 10Mt of spodumene to get funding for a processor.They have the 10Mt now.
·They are cashed up following the AUD$55million raise in April
·Multiple drill rigs are running now so news will be constant with further assays from drills also coming in on a regular basis
The metallurgy is very favourable - large spod crystals making for much easier concentration and processing
FinalSummary
Overall I’m a really big fan of GT1 and how they’ve gone about getting the team together, creating their strategy and leveraging their contacts and current market conditions to catapult what is essentially a very new explorer, potentially into a key player in the region in the not too distant future.That triumvirate of exploration, finance and processing has the key bases covered so that when they are indeed ready to start the next phase, they have many of the relevant parts already in place or are having discussions that are already well advanced.Its that system where they have a lot of moving parts happening in parallel instead of in a linear fashion that will ensure they’re able to get their product on shelves as quickly as possible.
