While the visual impact of pond lining is obvious, the next big announcements to look out for will be commissioning of pilot plant and thereafter the first samples produced for customer qualification.
These will occur in next couple of months while pond feed, which is decoupled from pilot plant for now, is around 8 months from having first flow to plant.
The big question is whether Simon Hay's pilot plant flow sheet produces suitable results.
It is quite an ambitious flow sheet for a conventional method due to it's relative simplicity and lack of purification stages. If it can produce industrial/primary grade product with the right levels of impurities, the simplicity alone will be a standout for future Capex and Opex.
These are advantages that are potentially achievable due to the highly favourable chemistry of the Salar.
Low boron and more importantly super low Mg/Li ratios are being leveraged for a potentially advantageous result compared to peers.
I personally believe most investors are unaware of the extent to which mild differences in impurity levels between Salars have a profound affect on costs. Even with the most experienced technical advisors.
The Lithium brine industry has high barriers to entry on three major fronts: Access to technical expertise which is severely lacking, A suitable source of brine because even the greatest gurus cannot sufficiently reduce reagent usage or additional purification steps, and high levels of Capex compared to Hard rock.
I would add a 4th, high quality Salars are located in regions that require an extraordinary level of commitment to local communities that takes time to establish and for international companies can be quite difficult to make progress with local officials, especially when you take into account what some consider Bribex. For ethical companies this means building infrastructure and providing a greater level of employment within the community than may be necessary for operations, as opposed to paying off officials.
This is something Galaxy has demonstrated commitment to over a long period of time and it's promises haven't been empty.
For those that have heard Livent CEO Paul Graves speak, there are ways to get around the local 'cultural expectations' and building infrastructure is a cornerstone of their commitment to the local communities as well.
I am a personal fan of Direct Extraction advances, in particular Lilac's ion exchange breakthrough, yet I do wonder how supportive locals will be when it comes down to environmental perceptions in less water risk regions like Argentina vs the major employment disparity of operations without evaporation fields.
The pay off, ofcourse for successful brine producers is a position on the far left side of the global Li Chemical cost curve.
I think it is important to recognise that not only does GXY have the sizable resources of favourable chemistry, they also have the major permits required, including environmental, to move ahead with development of a far greater scale than currently planned. This alone adds substantial value to the asset and distinguishes itself from other explorers hoping to transition to development.
In summary there is clear speculative risk to the development of the SDV asset, however having read the majority of peer feasibility studies and researched existing producers and their methods, I am quite impressed by the SDV flow sheet.
Keep an eye out for results of the pilot plant, not just the ponds which are of lesser importance.
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