Replying to MondyReserves are reserves. It doesn't really matter...

Replying to Mondy

Reserves are reserves. It doesn't really matter whether they classified as Probable vs Proven (from a practical standpoint). There is just a higher level confidence between the two classifications. Generally, "Indicated" resources will translate to "Probable" reserves and "Measured" resources will translate to "Proven" reserves (as a direct 1 to 1 mapping). Before getting too worked up about Probable vs Proven resources it might be worth looking at what majors have done with respect to their resource classification. There comes a point where the cost vs benefit (in terms of confidence) is not worth increasing in order to progress the project forward (i.e. you could spend an infinite amount of money increasing confidence but why would you?).

For those that are not aware here are the LTR, PLS and MIN reserves. The highlighted column shows the percentage that are Proven vs Probable:


Also, reserves are just a function of the DFS (or PFS in some cases) output over the years modelled. Once a study is done on subsequent phases more of the resource will be moved to reserves, its that simple.

And when you state that "it’s widely accepted that brine is much more difficult to extract and process" you are wrong. In fact, the opposite it true... i.e. it's well known that generally brine is easier and therefore cheaper to process than hard rock. I think you might be comparing the production of carbonate (a finished product) to the production of spodumene concentrate (an intermediate product).