Joe Lowry interview, page-25

Hi EstGreg. I'm really struggling with the short to medium term supply/demand model right now and reading through a lot of local Chinese data. So the hard rock versus brine is a bit of a side event to me.

I would say this. Personally I prefer hard rock right now and think it will be more valued if the supply chain tightens. The brines versus hard rock has been done to death so I do not need to go there.

Having said that, the Chinese battery co's really want to be the best and are under a lot of compliance pressure to be just that. They do tend to look to North Asia for a lead on how to improve quality. They have reverse engineered Panasonic batteries as far as I can see so they naturally look to North Asia for the lead on where to source Lithium. That has caused a tendency for some battery co's to look to brines in the belief that it can result in a higher quality product. That is not something I believe but I'm not writing the cheque. It's also what I see as a minor but not inconsequential shift. Finally, its worth noting that all the majors source locally in China when needed so likely use at least some of both,

This is all about supply and demand. That's top of the triangle and to some degree nothing else comes close in importance.