One would think that having a buyer effectively locked in, as...

One would think that having a buyer effectively locked in, as glencore seem to be, that a commercial bank arm or venture capitalist or the like, would be willing to get involved in funding the balance of state 1 provided the business case stacks up at current LCE prices. The fact there is a guaranteed buyer is everything to an arms length financier. Obviously that scenario has the reverse appeal to a battery maker or converter operator. And possibly the country has some negative rating also, albeit on the improve.
I don’t think the Glencore deal is necessarily as negative as many here, incl myself, have assumed.