Hi everyone & greetings from the U.K.
I’m genuinely excited today about what could be coming this week as November ends. The way that Stu & Steve were upbeat last week shows the confidence they have not only in Kachi but the other 3 projects too. London 121 kicked off with the panel talking about commodities for 2019 and the gap between supply chains, especially around the battery metals. Copper got mentioned a lot and that’s no surprise given the amount of copper in an EV. It was stated a few times that there’s a huge problem for the Major’s out there. They haven’t been doing the exploration and now there’s a shortage on many commodities being ready to meet increasing demand around the EV market for end users and battery makers. It was interesting to see all the CEO & Chairmen fill the room for that discussion.
With regard to LKE, I’ll be happier if we can get the Maiden Resource out and then maybe a JV so that we’re less vulnerable to a major shark move. I’ve said it before but there seems to be a HUGE disconnect between the SP here and the upside at Kachi alone. So will the majors open the cheque books? Who knows but I can definitely see the progrss since I met Steve and Stu in May. I think though people are failing to understand the true scale of Kachi and the Advantage LKE have holding 69,000Ha in the Lithium Brine Basin. I believe that’s what strategic partners are after. Stu and Steve have been travelling the world and the countries they mention are not surprising but the big players in Korea, China, Japan & India will need to secure supplies soon and hopefully LKE can land a big deal like other explorers/miners have. (Refer back to m/a by Majors). The main thing I’ve learned this week is the importance of Kachi’s scale and 100% ownership by LKE as well as Brine quality & consistency. I can see why a strategic partner would want Lithium Brine from one source rather than multiple but thought this was primarily due to the logistics involved and added costs of transportation. However, the importance of consistency in a Brine is so important & so is the ability to extract Brine in such a vast scale for many years to come and build a plant at Kachi, it certainly makes it a very attractive proposition. It’s the scale of Kachi that got me interested but the more reading and research I’ve done on EV, the battery supply chain, megafactories increasing to 59 and the disconnect between Lithium supply and demand, the more I’m convinced by Lake Resources and the four projects. Seeing Stu & Steve in action and spending a good deal of time with them has just given me more confidence in LKE. I spoke to the VSA broker at 121, who did the research report. He was busy and in demand (positive views on Ghana too for #IRR). IMO he’s still very positive about LKE & Kachi & I said I look forward to his update. (I’m going back to read that report).
I’ve tried to compare the ORE story with that of LKE.
Apologies if my dates are wrong.
ORE started in 2005 & into production in 2016 (11 yrs)
LKE started in 2016: 2016 - Licences2017/2018 - Drilling Kachi 2018 - Maiden Resource Kachi 2018 - Drilling at Cauchari 2018/2019 - JV at Kachi ?2019 - Pilot Plant with Lilac & Ponds in tandem 2020 - Feasibility Study (who knows?)2020/21 - Production Plant 2022 - Commercial product (6 yrs)My wish list.
I’ll hopefully put more info up on that later but it’s clear when you compare dates that LKE are moving at a pace across four projects.
I managed to ask Steve about the Lilac partnership and the process itself vs traditional Ponds. I found a very strategic response, well thought out and practical. Lilac was certainly getting some discussion going over coffee. It is really groundbreaking but I believe each resource is different so there needs to be some adjustments. The pilot plant for 2019 sounds really exciting. I like the fact that you can put these guys on the spot and they’ll answer you about how the process works in detail and explain it to people like me in the slow lane. I really liked the way they explain the importance of getting consistency in the Brines from one project.
In fact I was so impressed with what I heard that I decided to do my own video showing the scale of Kachi and using Steve’s interview from May.
I expect it to be out of date soon though.
I’m writing up on other companies too but the excitement around LKE is quite compelling.
Video to be added next
(20min delay)