The Kidman Li proposal* at LJ was the only one that really had...

The Kidman Li proposal* at LJ was the only one that really had any meaningful chance of moving the needle for POS, imo. From memory, the others were pretty flimsy and smacked of being only about stimulating sentiment &/or to raise into.

*POS entered into a MOU (moo!) with KDR back in mid-2016 and subsequently granted (in late-2016) KDR an option to refurbish and lease the LJ processing facility to process their Li ore. If exercised it would have resulted in (min.) $6m p.a. lease revenue to POS over an (initial) 3-yr term. However, the option was never exercised because KDR and SQM entered into their 50:50 JV for Mt Holland in July, 2017 (i.e. one month before the option expired/lapsed). That all pre-dated WES's take-over of KDR in late-2019, which resulted in the current WES-SQM tie-up of those Li assets.

It aslo pre-dated BMM's failed 'spoiling' takeover attempt of POS immediately prior to the mid-2018 $70m int'l raising which resulted in a somewhat paralysed Board caused by the stand-off between the (then) two cornerstone holders in AF (existing LTH) and BMM (new Barbarian). This set the scene for the non-restart in late-2018, with $70m in cash that eventually burned a hole in the company's pocket over the next few years.

The single beneficial legacy of that lump-sum was that PH prudently used $25m of it in mid/late-2020 to fully retire the legacy CN loan. The remainder, and a bunch more (via additional CRs), was burnt.