Lithium has historically gone in cycles and is shaping up as...

Lithium has historically gone in cycles and is shaping up as continuing to go in cycles. While investors appear to be pricing on the assumption existing prices continue into the future, if you have cyclic prices this is frequently a terrible assumption. When prices are low, the best assumption in a few years time may be that they are actually high. When prices are high, the best assumption in a few years may actually be they will be low. If prices are heading up, in a few years they may well be declining. If prices are declining, in a few years they may well be increasing. The cycle length depends on many factors but the last two peaks were 2018 and 2022. The previous low point in cycles was 2020 and two years later prices were at eye-wateringly high levels. For some unexplained reason, investors are pricing lithium stocks as if this cyclic behaviour has ended and current low prices will continue indefinitely.

Given mine development timeframes you want to be working on developing mines at exactly the time when lithium price signals say you shouldn't be. Those price signals suggesting not to work on mines during low prices contributes to the continuation of the cycles into the future.

The geographic locations of Mt Ida and Yinnetharra don't lend themselves to DSO unless prices are really high. The plan for both is likely to be an onsite concentrator that probably involves flotation and therefore perhaps 18mth-3yr build and commission timeframes although CE/MinRes have mooted some plans around developing lithium processing hub's which may simplify capex demands (at the cost of higher opex).

CE's got a few year under his belt and seen a heap of different commodity cycles so he knows that you need to be preparing for the next boom period. If gold prices are high, Delta will get good coin from monetising the gold assets although its unclear at this stage what exact approach is being used. Several exist. Mining costs are typically the largest cost in hard rock lithium scoping studies being released. Within this mining the waste rock is by far the biggest cost. If CE and team can agree someone else to do the waste rock mining to create the open pit and access to the lithium bearing pegmatites, Delta will have a low cost structure. If gold has a high enough price to do this and Delta to receive payments for this, even better.