Sayona Quebec : chemical plant must be JOInTLy agreed upon, page-6

I spent a lot of time at IMARC talking with representatives of Quebec Govt. Enlightening. Oh and also listened to (and recorded on my phone) Dougal's presentation (SYA Finance Mgr).

2 parties have to agree to invest Capex ... whether that's to expand mine capacity or build a refinery.

On that Carbonate refinery ... you just heard Patrick Brindle explain it needs at least US$200M spent on it to get it operating properly. That's $50M from PLL and $150M from SYA. Can't see that happening.

One thing I did pick up on is IQ has a preference for carbonate... but could not get why.

But more importantly when we discussed (hypothetical scenarios) to illustrate what was in the the best interests of EQUITY shareholders of SYQ the view from IQ was more that as long as the project offered an economic return it should be taken ... not that it has to offer the best economic return to the equity shareholders. They hold preference shares redeemable at their option if conditions to the sale agreement are not met (such as spodumene conversion).

I doubt the carbonate refinery gets a $200M+ investment decision in its favour. Its also OLD designed more than a decade ago.

IMO it will eventually come down to LiOH refinery and then it where, when, how much and who pays the CAD$1B needed to build it.

Does that help?