Less than 7 days to commission our pilot plant, E3 took 3 weeks...

Less than 7 days to commission our pilot plant, E3 took 3 weeks and they will be running for 3 x longer with 3 DLE techs. I would expect the cost of our pilot plant to be significantly lower, there's cost around 5 million. And we are simultaneously building the production well pad in Torquay. Good to see the cash burn now coming with significant progress.

Cost to produce LCE is 5-8k and Paul mentioned we will be in the lowest quartile with Prairie. Standard Lithium is moving forward with their "1A Project" 217 mg/L project first and their "S.W Arkansas" 437 mg/L project will follow after. Even though they have the cost at $6800 per tonne LCE (P1A) vs $4100 per tonne LHM (S.W.A).

There's a bit of mixed information regarding the impact of grades on cost for DLE. Standard's CEO Robert Mintak says they are directly related, linear even. Paul and E3's Doornbos have said grade is not that important. It may be related to the DLE tech chosen. I'm guessing for ion exchange grade doesn't matter that much, as the same amount of I.E material would be used to extract the same amount lithium whether its 100 mg/L or 400 mg/L. When Mintak elaborated he did only mention grade affecting the cost to bring it to surface. So factors for that are grade x flow rate. Prarie flow rate is 2,700 m3 day, Standard's (P1A) 1,715 m3 day. Our deliverability (grade x flow) is roughly the same, a bit lower from our 127 mg/L grade and a bit higher from our 160 mg/L. I couldn't find the flow rate of S.W.A but I know their drilling went deeper to 3km. Prairie and P1A are both around 2km deep. Deeper drilling will increase capital costs and it will be interesting to see if there's a lower flow rate that offsets the higher grade.

I'm looking forward to the data coming out of the pilot plant which I think should start within a fortnight.