don’t forget @ggwill , millenial lithium concentration was average , circa 400 ppm , and impurity level quite high , so you could bet the opex cost they had published was just crap ( or to put it more politely they would have limited empirical evidence they could actually achieve the Opx cost they were claiming) and more likely in an operating plant situation it could/would take them years of work to make a 20,000 ton producing Plant consistently achieve battery grade across the board for all production . You will note that most dfs studies assume plants get to optimal production and costs within 1-2 years , which is just crap full stop but that is a criticism of pretty much everybody that writes up these sorts of analysis in the entire mining sector , anyway something to note when you read them , do they have lead in periods for optimisation.
Likely MLS faced a development path akin to orocobre who quite a few years into production, still have over half there production at technical grade . Add to that the political situation in Argentina and the currency issues and devaluation of their currency which is problematic when their loans are written in USD, so you you will have difficulties getting finance, doable with the Ev revolution but it will take work and it won’t be cheap finance like a Tier 1 jurisdication and the amount debt leverage will be more limited which in turn will mean more equity dilution. Then add to that a board who were only ever in it for a short term buck , their ceo has made a career out of starting a company then flipping it , the price never had to be top market for ganfeng to get a willing seller .
From what I have read on Lpi , should be at a significant premium to ML and if the Mitsui deal can firm up both offtake and financing and there is reasonable result ( status quo) in Chilean elections this stock could easily run to $ 1 per share within next 12 months . That’s not counting if they find anything greenbushes .
LPI Price at posting:
24.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
