Hi Brucie. No one really knows when a DFS can be completed. As you know, it is an independent review process to determine the commercial viability of a project. This is impacted significantly by supply chain issues etc, so it's not just European Lithium but all companies waiting on DFS. As much as DRA Global can promise a March 2022 deadline, due to price volatility alone means they would have issues quantifying how much the sell price of end product (just one example) eg. lithium hydroxide from $16k/tonne to now $80-$100k/tonne, as well as cost eg. hydroxide plant $400M to now $500M, and to average it all for the life span of the project eg. Wolfsberg's 20 years. The silver lining with Wolfsberg, and the confidence provided to investors are the PFS that was followed by a very lucrative sneak peak DFS figures which is actually on the lower side of profit margins, hence this was released prior to cap raise, and cap raise attracted a lot of sophisticated and institutional investors. There's no longer any doubt that the project is profitable, and the DFS will confirm, and highly likely increase the commercial viability of Wolfsberg project - this is no longer the question. The question is by how much? So I wouldn't worry too much on DFS anymore (although it is still very important).
The share price doesn't really get too impacted by retail investors. The hesitation when it comes to more 708 investors to invest further is this - sure the project is economical and profitable, but so is a number of other projects... would the project go into production though? Ski field concern, ESG, and politics especially EU's NIMBY attitude gets discussed and considered. Hence some just like to have a small investment for now but not fully invested yet. Anything less than a million dollars is a small investment" (hence why retail investors don't really impact the share price).
My two cents to this is instead of waiting on DFS, since we already know the project is profitable/economical, I much prefer to know a secured/binding offtake agreement. A binding agreement with BMW, especially if it's them who announce it, means European Lithium would more likely and more able to meet schedule to meet customer requirements, as opposed to a constantly moving deadline.
That said, as with any mining company, once a DFS very profitable is announced, often doubles the selling share price. Whether that is October, November or even June 2023... personally I don't care at this point, rather, get a customer and work on construction to get to production. Although I suspect, there has been some profiteering going on, EUR not wanting to sell themselves short in an ever increasing lithium hydroxide price... but the market has moved on since due to volatility and uncertainties, moving towards T&M contracts rather than fixed price.
Hope this helps.
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