General Discussion, page-1904

Financial Times 2.4.23 said

"Europe’s transition to electric cars is under threat because of persisting shortages of lithium...EU plans to ban sales of new petrol and diesel cars by 2035 mean demand for lithium is set to surge FIVEFOLD by 2030 to 550,000 tonnes per year — more than double the 200,000 tonnes the region will be able to produce, according to Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.“The whole global market is still set to be in a deficit by the end of the decade,” said Daisy Jennings-Gray, analyst at Benchmark Mineral Intelligence.“Europe will probably sit in a tight position in terms of availability and cannot afford any delays to domestic projects [to extract the metal]".

The projected lithium deficit in a market already suffering global shortages and high prices of $62,000 per tonne — more than five times the average cost of production despite a recent drop — may prove EXISTENTIAL (! My exclamation; & all emphases mine) for European carmakers.

Without a homegrown supply of the battery gold, Europe’s auto groups could find it difficult to compete with China, which is rapidly expanding its electric car industry and making inroads into the European market.A sign of China’s dominance in the field is that it controls 60 per cent of global lithium processing, which turns a concentrate produced from brine or ore into lithium chemical compounds such as carbonate or hydroxide that are used in car batteries".

https://www-ft-com.ezp.lib.cam.ac.uk/content/154c53aa-5a9a-4004-abf9-2e6e5396dca4

This "existential threat" to the EU EV industry, of a Li deficit in local EU-sourced Li, & its unwillingness to rely on China, should bode well for ESS-. It has a very valuable asset, & is much undervalued @ the 50c T/O offer.

I will vote NO.