At the corporate level, the Galaxy balance sheet is in the strongest position it has ever been, with closing cash and liquid assets of $285.3 million and no debt. This provides financial flexibility to Galaxy and allows Galaxy the ability to continue to progress the development of Sal de Vida to ensure that its true value is unlocked and enhanced.
...we still currently are engaged with a small handful of counter-parties to, essentially, negotiate a transaction structure and, more importantly, a value that we think is more appropriate for Sal de Vida. And so that process is - that internal process is ongoing. It's just that we've basically stopped the banking process.
...we will push ahead and develop the project and to - we will concurrently kind of look to bring some of those handful of discussions that we currently are continuing engagement on to fruition. But going forward, Reg, expect to see probably a little bit more detail from plan of activities and milestones, et cetera from Sal de Vida.
...we will be pushing ahead on development and we essentially are still aiming to bring in a partnership. Obviously, in all scenarios, we'll be evaluating the different options.
...In terms of the partnership, we've always been looking for a balance of someone who has the financial capability but also would have the ability to add value on the execution side. And so as a result, we've been quite particular about the profile of that partner. In terms of the execution side, I mean, it could range based on the counter-parties that we're dealing with, people who have existing exposure or experience within the lithium industry as well as those that more broadly have a project execution kind of track record as well.
...probably about 18 - 12, 18 months ago, you probably had a larger share of what I call more straight financial investors. Whereas now, I think each of the parties that we continue engaging are very much strategic in nature, either in terms of within the industry or outside of the industry, but with very substantial industrial operations and project execution kind of track records. So I think probably if you think about it not too distant to the public capital markets, you probably had a very different type of investor in the sector, 15, 18 months ago versus what you have today.
...I think that the see-through that we've always been looking to achieve is essentially the see-through that was more indicative as a result of the POSCO transaction. So if I recall, the POSCO transaction at the time that we announced was essentially a sale of approximately 1.58 million tonnes of measured and indicated resource so 2-plus-million tonnes of total resource from a consideration of $280 million. I think if you actually pass that number back through kind of what we actually retained in terms of total resource at or measured and indicated resource at Sal de Vida, that kind of implies a $700 million kind of see-through. Now obviously, the way that you structure the transaction has implications on pre-and post-money valuations. But I think what we are trying to achieve at the moment is a combination of having appropriate, whether or not we can actually kind of hit that $700 million number is one thing. But on the other hand, I think we would not be doing any - our shareholders any favors if we turned around literally back to back and did a deal on Sal de Vida for USD 70 million - or USD 170 million. Because that, in our view, is not proper - ascribing kind of proper value to the Sal de Vida asset. So I think where we are at the moment is we're prepared to be strategically patient and continue to kind of engage and work with these parties. Obviously, one, the market cap, and two, just obviously as you can appreciate, just the market sentiment especially in the last 6 to 8 months would have been very played at some part and how counterparties come up with their valuations as well.
...We are essentially still confident that we can get a deal done on Sal de Vida. I guess between the market and the company's kind of expectations in terms of valuation, we may have to come - trying to come and meet in the middle somewhere. But we're prepared to kind of be strategically patient and try and kind of negotiate that through. Obviously, there is aspects of structuring that we can do to obviously kind of to help kind of contribute towards getting that done whether it's by way of not necessary a sell-down but some form of kind of earning structure.
