Ann: Strong lithium intercepts from drilling at McDermitt (US), page-11

It has become quite clear that increasing the size and confidence of the resource at McDermitt adds little market value to JRL - it is already a monster of global significance.

What we already have is the potential for a generational mine that many of the majors could be willing to pay potentially upwards of 10 digits for once de-risked to an acceptable level.

What we need is more confidence around processing, economics and permitting.

IMO, these are the pieces of news flow that could take JRL to around $500m MC:

• Confirmation that McDermitt can produce an on-spec product (or bulk production of a lithium chemical from clay by a competitor)
• Analysis around the economics of an operation where the end product is Lithium Iron Phosphate (US$12,000/t), rather than Lithium Carbonate (US$70,000/t), and medium to long term market research on the price of Lithium Iron Phosphate. i.e. we know that once the Lithium Carbonate price drops to a more sustainable level ~$25,000/t that almost every Lithium Carbonate operation will still be printing money... is this the case once Lithium Iron Phosphate drops to its steady state
• LAC success in court in January

Better marketing may have an impact on the retail market (although no trading liquidity makes price discovery difficult), but the big fish who will end up buying McDermitt already know it is there.