You're right, its not (spodumene) ... the name of the game for...

You're right, its not (spodumene) ... the name of the game for PAM (from RKLP) is Lithium Carbonate ... that's the output from refining lepidolite concentrate and the intent here is to feed that into a CAM plant in Thailand.

Uranium69 maybe a little confused with his grades wrt to Lepidolite and Spodumene but he is not confused about lithium market supply (and for our Asia market that's Lithium Carbonate CIF China and that price has plummeted) and demand, predominantly from EVs has "moderated" for the moment. But demand can change swiftly and supply cannot ... not quite as easy as it is in O&G production.

We're at ~15Mt M&I+I and ~11 M&I at ~0.45% Lithia. That's more than enough for 10Ktpa of Lithium Carbonate for 10 years



Question is -- is that enough for IRPC -- if the plan is local supply of (Thailand) Concentrate to CAM, that sort of capital investment will likely want a minimum 20Y LoM to feed the CAM. I don't think we want to be importing Chinese lepidolite to refine to Carbonate. I guess we could always buy Lithium Carbonate to feed the CAM ... but then why would IRPC need PAM for that?

To quote PL
"we entered into an MOU with IRPC in Thailand and that MOU is to negotiate a definitive agreement to build a mine, process the mine output into lithium chemicals and then explore other options downstream from that. " - Simples right?

"The reality in Southeast Asia for us is, we're targeting to produce 10Ktpa - 15Ktpa LCE for 10 to 15 years at this point" - well that Resource suggests just 10 years for 10Kt LCE ... if we want 15Y then either the grade needs to be better (model says 0.65%) or greater tonnage (20Mt at 0.45%)

This still remains a "capital allocation decision" IMO ... PAM isn't proposing new technology ... processing lepidolite into carbonate is commonplace in China and all PAM is proposing to do in Thailand is replicate a Chinese plant using "Other Peoples Money" (IRPC's to be exact). PAM has the MRE and IRPC has the capital.

What we don't have is any sense of urgency ... a 3Y Non-Binding Framework Agreement to evaluate the viability of developing a lithium mining operation (on PAM's lithium prospects), a lithium conversion facility at IRPC's industrial zone and a CAM facility at same industrial zone with a knowledge partner.

Meanwhile PAM sufficates from its own lack of capital. I was expecting better/sooner. That said I guess its a case of hurry up and wait for the cycle of PFS ... comprehensive JVA ... DFS ... funding decision ... mining license .... to run its course.

I guess on an LCE to EV basis we are good value (as @Jazzaborg was pointing out) but then I've held many an O&G with a great resource valuation metric that did not translate into share price returns.