I looked into the kaolinite-lithium matter, and I now suggest...

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Pioupiou

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29/10/22

02:38

Post #: 64469956
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Originally posted by Pioupiou ↑

Imrys is the world's largest kaolin company. Its other major interests are in other industrial minerals (minerals not mined to produce metal). It is getting into lithium extracted from clay (see https://www.imerys.com/minerals/lithium), because kaolin is a clay, and Imrys owns many kaolin deposits globally, and the target deposit in France is deemed economically viable as a source of lithium.

I wonder if WAK's kaolin resource is a suitable source of lithium-from-clay as a byproduct to kaolin. Like extracting ultra-high-purity alumina from kaolin, lithium is a rah-rah-rah storyline
that can generate publicity, but WAK's sober-minded Management would be inclined to say nothing (swien in Middle English – I often wish that word had not been lost in Modern English).

I view this topic as a conversation opener when talking to Andrew. My personal view is that the major owners of WAK are not going to want to wait a hundred years to extract value from Wickepin. They will push the company to be commercially viable at a scale that would not escape the attention of Imrys and others, and thus make WAK an acquisition target. That is what I call a Golden Swan event that would boost the SP beyond any price that we could currently dream of. Imrys would see great value in both Wickepin as a resource, and WAK's patents to exploit it

One has to value WAK using conventional valuation methodologies, which in themselves are subjective, and hence wrong, so I would not add the Golden Swan to the valuation to make it even more pie-in-the-sky valuation. Treat it as a possibility to ginger up your dreams.

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I looked into the kaolinite-lithium matter, and I now suggest the idea has no merit as far as WAK is concerned. Some granites have lepidolite, a lithium-bearing mica, so kaolonised granite deposits might have a commercially interesting lithium content, but most do not. Because Wickepin kaolinised granite is of high quality from the kaolin perspective, I assume it has near-zero lithium content.

Kalonisation means the granite is decomposed by weathering, so even if there were lepidolite in the granite, water would react with the lithium, and carry it away as a salt, which is why brines, and even sea water, contain lithium. When clays contain lithium, the lithium is usually trapped by contaminants in the kaolinite, especially magnesium.

So much for that fond dream.

WAK Price at posting: 19.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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0 Great analysis

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