1.5Bn , is in my humble view as a resource investor , a little...

1.5Bn , is in my humble view as a resource investor , a little to the high side . That’s simply because you have to weight for risk and a developing resource project has lots of risks . Country risk , financing risk , technical risk and on and on .

All of that said but we do have a resource that is more than just “in demand” , there is a seismic transition to evs going on as we all known, that is not going to stop or slow now. Secondly the approach to go a marketable chloride brine solution first is smart as this gets us to market faster and more importantly with a lot less technical risk and upfront capex cost and in consequence of this also much less financing risk. Do it right and you get yourself earning good cashflow earlier at a decent margin before you even have to worry about the vagaries of battery grade production . I would direct readers on this forum to most recent Joe Lowry podcast where he is talking about this to a director of Alpha lithium .

I note Joes comment that the Argentine authorities might be quite receptive to some sort of idea of giving new production start ups 5 years to get up and going where they can do via their permitting lithium chloride production first before having to transition to a higher value add battery grade product. Not a bad compromise all-round to get revenue flowing into both new brine producers and royalty revenue flowing into the Argentine government as well as local jobs . Let’s hope common sense , like this idea is pushing prevails.

Of course once the market fully appreciates ( and it hasn’t yet ) this will be the route to production , it firstly adds a lot to what a willing buyer might pay particularly if they have chemical conversion capacity in China they can supply into .

Second it really does put the spotlight on the pfs later this year as hopefully it will shed some light on the economics of this path to production. We need someone to ink a deal selling longer term lithium chloride even if it’s just a partial offtake to allow one to get a good feel of how much lithium in this form will move for in a contract situation , not a spot market situation . Hopefully our director Daniel will add some value here .

When one sees these economics, a 1.50 Bn price tag might not sound so expensive to suitors , especially if there is a shortcut to positive cashflow that doesn’t require full battery grade certification , which as the recent podcast alluded to, if you go down that path first , you’re going to be close to 2030 before you get any significant volume to market . This is people saying it with 25+ Years of industry knowledge and experience , so it’s wise counsel .

Personally I still don’t think we will get to production and we will be taken out before we get there . I said this 2 years ago on this forum and a lot has changed in that time in that we have gone from being unloved to now being more loved than a participant each year in the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras , which only makes even more likely now we will get swallowed ( sorry no pun intended ). However I take comfort Jp won’t be selling cheaply and nor should he if there is a credible lower risk path that still delivers a high margin outcome.