G'day @stevo004, That's correct mate, the $22m is across both...

G'day @stevo004,

That's correct mate, the $22m is across both companies. Though it's important to note that AGY's portion is just a fraction (~A$1.5m) of the total, with 93% (~$20.5m) attributed to spending at Rincon:



Argosy's PEA estimated that labour costs would account for 5.1% of OPEX (for the 10 ktpa expansion):



The most recent OPEX projection stands at US$7,500, allowing us to calculate the anticipated yearly labour expenses for the 12 ktpa operation as follows:

US$7,500 x 0.051 = US$382.50 labour cost per tonne

US$382.50 x 12,000 (cumulative nameplate) = US$4.59m (A$6.95m) annual labour expenditure.

Currently, with 191 staff members on payroll and an average industry wage of A$23k, approximately A$4.4m would be allocated annually for salaries alone. This represents roughly two-thirds of the estimated total labor expenditure for the entire 12 ktpa operation, despite currently only operating at 2 ktpa (nameplate, not actual production). Given the dwindling cash reserves, IMO this is a bloated workforce for the current stage of development. 53 off-site employees working at the Salta office seems a bit generous, but I suppose you can do that when you can just tap shareholders for more funds to keep the salaries flowing for friends and family.

For comparison, LAAC have approximately 400 employees at their Cauchari-Olaroz site, which is at a similar developmental stage but ramping up a 40 ktpa operation. They maintain a workforce twice as large for an operation twenty times the scale.