Trump is an unfortunate aberration whose days are numbered. His...

Trump is an unfortunate aberration whose days are numbered. His ill conceived "trade wars" and isolation ism will if allowed to run bring the US economy to its knees before China and the global economy with it.Just as the Wall Street spivs down the road from Trump Tower did in 2008 (eventually bailed out by China's growth performance).. The soybean farmers in Triump's "base" targeted by Shi for that reason are hurting after less than one season 

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/08/10/as-soybean-futures-fall-farmer-says-tariffs-have-devastated-industry.html

This week's inversion of US bond rates is the first sign which has preceded every recession. Ford are voting with their feet

An American led recession is  a greater threat to LKE than China seeking security of supply of its raw materials Not unreasonable .given that it will be the largest consumer.

Trump has abdicated the moral high ground to Shi on climate change and it is China's push which is in large part responsible for the accelerated development of EV's along with TESLA (and Warren Buffet) . That is the catalyst driving the global market that we aspire to supply The US will not be our customer but I doubt that  we will have any qualms in being paid  in RMB (or Yen etc)

We do not seem to have fared too badly supplying  iron ore to China despite their dominant position.

China can endure a Trade War as a short term inconvenience. The country's growth is increasingly directed to the largest consumer market in the World..... China. It is dynamic with fierce internal competition driving innovation (that everyone is scrambling to supply). If a policy is written into the Five Year Plan It will be done. It will take more than a repeatedly bankrupted New York real estate salesman to stop it

Share prices. Agree with all observations concerning short term opportunists which are of no consequence 

However for the last twelve days there appears to have been an effort  to finish each day's closing trading at .110 to .115 The spike of .130 was the day of the 3.30pm release of the  Maiden Resource and was quickly pulled back the following day. For what purpose I have no idea unless related to the Long State Equity quarterly draw-down which has a Benchmark price of .115  Perhaps it is just coincidence

See 4 "Corporate" of  the Summary: Quarterly Activities Report and Appendix 5B

• Release Date: 01/11/18 09:24
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20 Cent options. I gained the impression that it was important to secure the $6.6 million proceeds from conversion of the 20 cent options and that the various announcements including Cauchari might help achieve that.

But I wonder if that $6.6 million is critical after all  The Controlled Placement seems to assure sufficient working capital over 29 months (but not for the main pilot plant) while keeping dilution to a necessary minimum. Perhaps we are keeping   our powder dry with  a capital raise significantly higher than 20 cents down the track

Understandably the Buyer column for the options has been a blank since late last week

Cauchari results

Does LKE have absolute discretion on timing of the release of the Cauchari drill test results or is there an ASX regulatory requirement limiting how long the information it can be witheld ?

But it may not matter.

Four projects are too many to handle simultaneously. Kachi and Catamarca together would be as much as we can reasonably bite off and chew without choking. There are several references in LKE presentations to sale of tenements in the region  eg Galaxy to POSCO. If conversion of the 20 cent options is not the priority then monetizing  Cauchari by its sale to Ganfeng might well be the real goal and could go a long way to funding the Kachi pilot plant.......... PROVIDED THAT Cauchari results are what it is HOPED they will be.

Should Cauchari not be the real McCoy then that will shift the emphasis to Olarez.  Great flexibility