Admittedly with my limited knowledge of lithium stocks, those...

Admittedly with my limited knowledge of lithium stocks, those that I've looked at, the pegmatite does seem to be down quite deep, so to me moving a heap of dirt seems to be part of the game. In GL1's case it may be more than others, but as it expands its drilling to the north east it perhaps may find mineralisation that is closer to the surface thus making the run of mine costs cheaper. Hopefully in a few months there will be some early indicators.

In terms of the capex and the raising of $430m, it does not necessarily have to be through share issue and thus dilution. There may be battery manufacturers such as SK from Korea (have an MOU with GL1), who are willing to make available a loan for first access to the lithium and the loan repaid through profits once the mine is in production.

The other possibility is that GL1 does not get to the capex raising stage if it is taken over by a bigger entity. The share trading the last few weeks in GL1 seems to be determined to keep it in a tight range predominantly between $1.50 and $1.60. If this is happening, I would speculate that perhaps it's to make a a $2.25 takeover offer attractive (my wishful thinking).

I think the CATL proxy would be willing to take that price as CATL is using funds to buy up struggling Chinese lithium miners in order for them to get the lithium for less than 100,000 RMB per tonne https://cnevpost.com/2023/03/08/catl-takes-over-chinese-lithium-miner-sinuowei/. I personally would love to see CATL's proxy off the register, as the agreement seems to be for CATL to get 30% of the mineral at 'market price', which I take to mean whatever the prevailing price is in the Chinese market. Basically, CATL wants to screw miners in order to benefit its Chinese car maker mates https://cnevpost.com/2023/03/10/catl-confirms-its-negotiating-new-prices-with-ev-makers/.