General Discussion Banter GLN, page-12774

Hi Smith71

i am not critical of the chloride strategy , I think it’s a smart move . But the market needs to be convinced of this too and for the moment the evidence is that it’s not . I am holder of Pls too , yes its down a little in recent weeks but for context it’s up over 100% this year so its not really a comparator here . Cxo is getting smashed due to some very specific issues with their company . It’s stock specific , not lithium junior specific .

Your other point about the other brine developers not having an offtake is missing the most crucial point . They are all doing carbonate , where it’s very easy to find what the product is worth , be it industrial or battery grade and people can then make assumptions about future prices . It’s becoming a transparent market much so than in times past . No such price discovery exists for chloride but, this is why an offtake is needed to fill this void of uncertainty .

Also most of the brine developers in Argentina are established majors like Ganfeng / LAC or Ake and Livent . They already have downstream markets for their product . Ake are doing a downstream Jv for hydroxide in Japan , as too all the other more advanced developers have very clear and signaled marketing strategies and pricing . All of them too have clear ability sell their products to the export market , we don’t with this chloride intermediate so that again adds more uncertainty .

what I meant by not playing by the rules the game wasn’t meant to be a crack at the board or Jo’s personal qualities or work ethic , that’s way off base . I am sure they are all working hard , no argument .

What I meant was junior developers follow a pretty orthodox approach to market . You find a resource , you do studies , you firm up an offtake agreement and often that offtaker then assists with finance and often a cornerstone equity investment in the project . this then lays the foundation for debt funding .

Shareholders give up a bit of dilution to a cornerstone investor but they make it up with certainty of offtake and access to debt . Debt happily gets involved as they know the product can be sold at a price that delivers a margin . None of this complicated , it’s tried and tested and works . But we have gone off the reservation and not following this approach and sort of put offtakes down the priority list . So despite all the other good news on resource , grade etc we are 2 year lows and continually creating new lows each week. What Jp and the board are missing is this phase of the lassonde curve is about derisking the investment so capital comes on board and wants to come on board . Information is the key to de-risking .

We are instead are not prioritizing the really key bits of information the market needs to derisk , hence the share price hole. None of this is hard stuff , but board and management are making it way harder then it needs to be !