Ann: Retail Shareholder Webinar, page-87

I think it’s fairly well grounded, but I’ll stand to be corrected if someone can make the case.

If an investor simply wants exposure to lithium prices then the best way of doing that is probably with a PLS or MIN.

If someone wants a bigger risk return then it’s time to look at an earlier stage explorer / developer.

CXO ticks neither box IMO. The competitive advantage for CXO was previously the idea that CXO could fast track small deposits and transition from one to the other with no downside and take advantage of higher lithium pricing. Not only is this in doubt, but the entire flowsheet is questionable. Potential addition of flotation in the not too distant future, potential mine wall integrity issues, pit flooding issues (weather dependent). Significant metallurgy issues (related to the flotation point).

Aside from these issues, the deposit itself is not particularly impressive. It’s small, spread across multiple pits and not particularly shallow.

Final point is the incredibly high opex cost per tonne. If lithium prices stay where they are or slightly lower for an extended period, high cost operations like CXO aren’t going to be attractive (ditto SYA) and very potentially ditto LTR once they get to production and find out how much extra real world cost hasn’t been forecast.