Good morning
@jaydee74. Thank you for reposting this brilliant interview. (Reply window is at the bottom.) Even though I've listened to this more than once, replaying particular sections, the point you reference I heard differently to earlier listenings. As
@Learning_2B1 picked up the plural "businesses" yesterday, Joe here uses the plural for both resources and reserves.
"We've got the world's only mineral resources and/or reserves of undeveloped caesium and rubidium, which I think is another angle here that will give us and our technology a real competitive edge."Is Joe referring to Alvarroes, as well as Karibib? My understanding from our reports is that these are the only 2 JORCed reserves globally for the combination of lithium, caesium and rubidium. Key to this is his use of the word "undeveloped." EMH have zinnwaldite in the Czech Republic and is JORC compliant since I believe 2017, but are not producing yet. Cornish Lithium in the UK is presently drilling, hoping to announce a maiden reserve of their zinnwaldite resource before the end of the year. Furthermore, as we know, there are multiple mica sites around the world, just not proven up yet with a JORC, micas historically having been problematic to process, thus this sentence from Gary's 2016 AGM Address to Shareholders, that is fresh in my mind after falling upon it whilst looking for something from the PLP days over the weekend:
"L-Max® is the key to unlocking the value of lithium contained within micas, bringing about new opportunities including tailings processing, mineralised mine waste dumps and traditional exploration on both greenfield and brownfield targets."So, 2 main points here:
- When our processes are proven commercially, will savvy other tenement holders be either offering feedstock for our P2s or licensing our tech for their own mica reserves? (Or spodumene, of course.)
- Is Alvarroes still in play? I've believed it's remained in our back pocket, even though it's dormant in terms of Portuguese government approvals and Mota CeramicSolutions.
7 December 2017 LPD announced the Alvarroes MRE. Even though our last announcement on Alvarroes was on the 8th of March 2019 (
Alvarrões assays indicate larger lithium Resource), it is bullet pointed in our DFS, page 5:
- Lepidico has developed JORC compliant Mineral Resources at Karibib in Namibia andAlvarrões in Portugal, which are understood to be the only Code compliant estimatesfor caesium, lithium and rubidium
From pages 8-9 in last year's FInancial Report:
Alvarrões Lepidolite Mine (Gonçalo), Portugal1, Feasibility Study
Since its acquisition in 2019, the Karibib Project represents the primary mineral source for the Phase1 Project DFS. The term sheet for Alvarrões ore off-take with Mota Ceramic Solutions (MCS) lapsedon 9 March 2020 and is not planned to be renewed, with both companies preferring an alternativestructure.
1Lepidico announced on 9 March 2017 that it had signed a term sheet for ore off-take from the Alvarrões LepidoliteMine with Mota Ceramic Solutions, the 66.6% owner and operator of Alvarrões. Imo "with both companies preferring an alternative structure" sounds like the door isn't fully closed. Alvarroes is not mentioned in this year's Financial Report, however this sentence infers that if something has not been declared, the status has not changed. From page 17:
SIGNIFICANT CHANGES IN THE STATE OF AFFAIRS
Other than as mentioned in the Review of Operations, no significant changes in the state of affairs of theConsolidated Entity occurred during the financial year.
(20min delay)