AZL General Discussion, page-14500

I prefer the alliterative "Battery Belt" to "Battery Corridor." As a poet, you should at least be mildly entertained by the alliteration also. I think I'll send the suggestion on to Paul for consideration.

But seriously, the GM investment in LAC is transformative on a number of levels. Firstly, and most obviously it's a very big vote of confidence in LAC and the court judgement going its way. As we all know, LAC has won every court case brought against it by the Earth Justice knuckleheads and the market fully anticipates this trend to continue. Second, the investment is a big confidence boost for sedimentary clay deposits and the market has full belief in the sulphuric acid process route and that it will produce battery grade product at low cost.

One point that many don't get with clay deposits is that the end product of the flow sheet is lithium hydroxide or carbonate, it's not 6% lithium in hard rock. This gives clay deposits a big leg up particularly when they are located in the (mythical) Battery Belt. The clay plants will be fully vertically integrated from sediment to battery grade end product.

Lastly, it shows that OEMs understand that the lithium shortfall is real and only going to get bigger in coming years. Stellantis bought into Ioneer last year and now GM buys into LAC. They know this is a game of musical chairs and there aren't anywhere near enough projects to go around. All OEMs with the possible exception of Toyota and Honda know this and AZL should expect a similar offer once the drilling is completed and the DFS finalised. Just a year away. This will be terrifying to LF. AIMHO.