Stroke of genius may be a little on the over positive side. Management wasted the better part of a year on JV discussions with Codelco and they could have been drilling deeper into old code at any stage. Management were caught holding an appendage IMO.
splitting into stages was the only thing to do to progress the development as IMO they had not appropriately addressed the new code risks. Remember they wasted time (and money) taking the government to court.
the resource and location stands on its own - despite IMO extremely marginal/questionable management efforts and decisions.
I can’t find the ownership map just now but I understood that Codelco owns tenements in the Salar which is where the drilling will be done - this is what the contract is for and I agree this is good news. I agree that Codelco need to bring something to the table, not merely their CEOL and defining their resource is the first step. Agreed this would be for a major stage 2.
but look at who one the other tenements in the Salar - compare this list to those who bid for the CEOL and I think you will find the likely suitor for LPI should it go that way.
LPI Price at posting:
76.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
