Strat, I'm an avid EV follower, so answering was not to much of...

Strat, I'm an avid EV follower, so answering was not to much of a hassle - not sure what happened to formatting though ie needs a little tweaking - here it is again tidied up

Direct Lithium Extraction (DLE) technology applies strictly to removing lithium compounds from the geothermal ‘brine’ waters = lithium carbonate. ZEO on the other hand is targeting a cleantech solution, that revolves around the production of lithium hydroxide, produced from spodumene concentrate that is derived from hard rock spodumene and, where Australia has one of the world’s largest resources ie presently there are some large-scale lithium hydroxide refineries under construction in WA, although the world’s largest producer is in China ie Ganfeng Lithium, who only in the past week or so, tabled an investment circa $250 million for a 50 per cent stake in a hard-rock lithium project controlled by a ASX listed Firefinch (m/c was less than $15 million 12months ago). So I think its safe to say, the production of lithium hydroxide is on the up and in its production (at the refinery level) out of 7 tonnes of concentrated spodumene feed going in, 6 tonnes go to process tailings waste stream, so there looks to be heaps of Li process waste feed coming ‘globally’ which one would think, is looking for a management solution and the sector is relatively new, so I imagine not a lot of solutions uncovered yet either.

So DLE process can’t be a threat, as in my reading although DLE is touted as the most environmentally friendly way to extract lithium from brines – many will firmly say that brine production of lithium carbonate is much less environmentally friendly than going the hard-rock spodumene route to lithium hydroxide (Ganfeng investment in Firefinch, IMO is an indicator in which form lithium is preferred, moving forward)As for your comment will there be enough demand for Li – that’s a much bigger question and in my humble view, will primarily be driven by the uptake in EV’s to the demise of ICE’s , several global auto makers have already slated production of EV only vehicles in the near future, so pretty sure that Li demand is not dropping off and both Li carbonate and Li hydroxide prices have moved strongly higher over the pass 12 mths (EV’s are the only consumer of battery grade lithium, the solar industry is also a player)Simply,

DLE is not threat to ZEO’s technology when applied to the downstream management of Li process residue (waste) produced by lithium hydroxide refineries – ZEO just needs to prove up the tech works economically, so I suppose that’s why they’ve gone with dual-feed pilot program.