CHINA WILL BE VERY MUCH SHORT IN LITHIUM, page-224

I was referring to downstream processing for Aus industry in general. I can see how you may have determined that KV has low cost power.

Would you mind substantiating that for me including ongoing energy costs compared to ROW or Australian peers.

Regardless it leaves the elephant in the room as to why LTR's forecast costs aren't much lower. If you are to believe some high profile posters here about the nature of KV orebody and plant, it doesn't make sense for LTR to be marginal. Perhaps the higher cost of UG mining vs peers offset LTR's energy savings, or is mentioning that considered blasphemy in these parts? Happy to substantiate how KV UG mining costs are high compared to their own OP and vs peers however I suspect you would prefer I didn't.

We are also still left with the extremely high cost of labour facing LTR and Australian peers.

Beyond that I've previously compared Aus inflation vs China (which was very much spared the past 5 years) and I believe Aus mining as a sector has been hit harder than average. If you would like, I can drag out what LTR said KV would cost to build. I believe that is relevant if you want to have a discussion about going downstream at KV.

Inflation is not something LTR is responsible for but does partially explain why domestic Chinese lepidolite has become more competitive with imported Australian SC.

If CATL is taking a loss in Jianqxi, it may not be as significant as some believe. I'll add to what I mentioned last night but don't think many fully appreciate. I believe when CATL took it's plant offline last year, one of the primary reasons was for technical upgades. I get the impression reading some posts here that many believe the plant was just in C&M and returned to operation as is.

Anyway, I don't have an issue with LTR going downstream if and when they can afford it / if a partner is willing to substantially free carry LTR like what happened with PLS and POSCO. I just don't think it should be done within Australia. There's likely a greater ROI in expanding KV when the time is right and price mechanisms mean LTR get a fair share of the Li Chem price. We are not in a similar situation to the last downturn when Chinese converters were making bank while Aus SC producers were going under.

Am curious to understand why it is necessary in your view for the SC that ends up in an EV cell be 6.0 grade. Could please you elaborate a little as to why that is important to you?

You mentioned ideally you want KV block chain certified SC6 in your future solid state EV. That isn't something LTR produces at KV. It is possible it never will. Would you be willing to accept a KV SC5.2 based cell or do you believe that the proportion of lithia in the hard rock feed has a significant impact on the performance and reliability of cells?