Yeah fair enough ... depends on how one perceive's a project...

Yeah fair enough ... depends on how one perceive's a project evolving.

For PAM's Thailand Lithium Project it has 3 distinct "areas" (but it would all feed 1 plant that processes the lepidolite to Lithium Carbonate).

(a) RK ... and in announcement 22/5/23



That's the purpose of drilling ... get the maiden MRE and then keep updating it with step out and infill drilling. Release top assays (usually 3-5 holes) to keep market excited. It's the MRE that is the important document.

The focus would then shift to the Met testwork (but drilling has effectively concluded) as input for some sort of feasibility study.



(b) In the same announcement we have

with the obligatory "assays results include"

Then a pretty decent update on Sep 7, 2023 which included this statement
"We are making good progress with our drilling at the BT Lithium Prospect, with three diamond rigs operating we are on track to deliver an inaugural Mineral Resource Estimate later this year"
Trouble is when you make such statements you must deliver


(c) What we got on Nov 2, 2023 was a Updated MRE (for) RK absent the inaugural BT piece.



That is really "the promise" from May ... but I guess better late than never.
Paul Lock, commenting on the Mineral ResourceEstimate update said: “This is a solid result, increasing the Mineral Resource by nearly 50% is in itself a great outcome but shifting 50% of the Mineral Resource into Measured and 75% into Measured and Indicated and delivering 164,500t of LCE, is a fantastic outcome."

And that's hard to argue with.

To me, that is the "concluding" document ... definitely for RK. But missing in the BT component (that was promised).

(d) Then on 11 Jan 2024 an update was released on BT




And that's where I'll agree with you @avexdevil PL has "dropped the ball" as the Thailand lithium project has expanded with the addition of KT, without properly concluding the work at BT (as in where the bloody hell is my MRE). Sure the RK MRE is enough to start with to get the partners together ... so come on Thai Gov't pull your finger out.


But setting Thailand aside they are doing what they can do for the limited capital they have - and that is do the IP work at Rosario so a targetted drill campaign can done and completed this year. A discovery hole will put PAM back in play for sure. But why???

The why (IMO) is because PAM is working a prospect that is "oxide" based. AFAIK there really are only 2 ways to get refined copper:

1. Copper Sulphide concentration and smelting ... currently ~85% of world production comes from (deep) sulphides and this is EXPENSIVE, TIME CONSUMING and not all that environmentally friendly.

2. Copper Oxide processing by Solvent Extraction and ElectroWinning (SX-EW) which have a much lower capital intensity (so cheaper), easier to build (so less time consuming ... ergo payback is faster) and friendlier to the environment. What's not to like.

Oxides are shallow deposits ... so shallow drilling (some of the drill holes for the large sulphide deposits in Chile are well over 1,000m). PAM is talking holes in the 100m's ... so nowhere near as expensive. The original drill hole for the Marimaca oxide deposit which I've posted on earlier was in the 250m - 300m range.

At least they are spending capital on something that could have an immediate impact. Who knows, maybe we get lucky.