RE:Glencore's Pyro-Met hire at Frontier Lithium
I think we need attention to JV or offtake or other arrangements to get things moving.
Prepreduction resource cmpanoes need three things to be successful.
1. Great resource.
2. Good location and that includes fiscal regime, regulatory environment, and also location in terms of infrastructure and customer location.
3. Easy access to capital.
#1 is a box that has been checked.
#2. is pretty good in many ways, in Ontario and in a great spot to to participate in North American supply chain for EV batteries. And local infrastrucure is on the way.
#3. is a problem, to jump start mine to chemical grade lithium hydroxide, even with intermediate step of production of spudomene concentrate, requires $500 million that cannot be borrowed and cannot be raised by little equity sales at this procepoint. We need a major partner that will infuse cash in return for equity and guaranteed access to the resource. Only alternative is buy out of the company by a majoe that has money to invest. And the proce may seem attractive at first, but we won't participate in the really good part of the story.