MLS must be getting desperate to use terms such as "Exceptional"...

MLS must be getting desperate to use terms such as "Exceptional" for 13m @ 1.03% Li2O, 0.27% Rb. This is by all Australian lithium exploration results, average or sub-par, which thankfully has been duly noted by some commenters. Although what many fail to acknowledge, is that other companies which are being compared to are drilling purely spodumene pegmatites, not lepidolite dominant containing some spodumene*.

*

I commonly hear reference to someone called Blind Freddy, and I reckon Blind Freddy could see that the dominant Li-mineralisation here is lepidolite (purple). There is still no economic commercially proven technology in the West for extraction of Li from mica, hence why MLS is going the lepidolite concentrate route. However, exclusion of what amount of spodumene would drastically lower the Li% grade, depending on the spodumene composition percentages, potentially up to 10%. That 13m @ 1.03% might become closer to 12m at 0.85-0.95% of lepidolite-Li, if they exclude the spodumene. This is the danger of cross-contaminating spodumene and lepidolite mineralisation that no-one is willing to acknowledge, it is dilutive unless a company plans to take both, which would require different plant setups and hence more CapEx.


If the most significant intercepts they can pull out of the ground at Bandicoot is 7m @ 0.82% Li2O then that will also turn up uneconomical.



Using the intercepts as a scale, if the length of the black intercept bar is 8m, then 1mm = 0.53m. At best the true width of the pegmatite is ~7.5m.




And on that note for scales, it just gets worse. They are vertically or horizontally exaggerating their diagrams to make the pegmatite look wider than it is. Here is their scale bar superimposed over the intercepts. How can an 8m intercept be nearly 20m long according to their scale? Substantially deceptive at worst, or extremely poor work and lack of peer-review of their publications at best from MLS.


An overall >1% grade deposit at Foundation (based on cumulative grades below) to produce a 3% lepidolite concentrate* just isn't going to cut the mustard when all other JORC-compliant lithium deposits in Australia are greater than ~1% and at significantly higher tonnages, and producing a 5-6% spodumene concentrate. What many posters fail to realise while referencing sky-high lithium prices, as that MLS will not be participating in any downstream processing of Li into Li2CO3, they will be producing a lepidolite concentrate. What the market will pay for that will be substantially lower than current lithium carbonate and spodumene concentrate prices.
*





Whether or not the rubidium, or potentially a tantalum by-product as well, can drag this into an economical project will be the major question, although the amount of money required to get to that point would be substantial. The market is clearly not convinced about the substantiality of MLS's claims. A geologist on the board would be a good start.

	Deposit	Tonnage	Grade
1	Pilgangoora	309Mt	1.14% spodumene
2	Wodgina	259Mt	1.17% spodumene
3	Mt Marion	71Mt	1.37% spodumene
4	Greenbushes	360Mt	1.5% spodumene
5	Mount Holland	185Mt	1.5% spodumene
6	Mt Cattlin	11Mt	1.2% spodumene
7	Kathleen Valley	156Mt	1.4% spodumene
8	Anna	15Mt	0.97% spodumene
9	Finniss	19Mt	1.32% spodumene
10	Archer	10.5Mt	1.0% spodumene
11	Manna	9.9Mt	1.14% spodumene
12	Pioneer Dome	11.2Mt	1.21% spodumene
13	Manindi	>3Mt*	>1%* lepidolite dominant + rubidium