Critical Elements Lithium Corp V.CRE

Permit timeline

[Wheeler]

I was just looking at some of the dates of Nemaska’s permitting milestones to get a sense of what we might be able to expect in the coming months and thought I’d share. NMX finished their federal public comments invitation period on their draft EAR and Conditions document on June 5, 2015 and received their federal permit about 7 weeks later on July 29, 2015. We will finish our federal public comments period on April 16. NMX finished their provincial public hearings and 1 month comment period on May 30, 2015, they received a recommendation to proceed from comex 7 weeks later on June 18, and their provincial permit about 10 weeks after that on September 8. We finished our provincial public hearings and 1 month comment period last week on March 18. If we were to follow the exact same timeline as NMX we would get our Federal permit during the first week of June and our provincial permit during the third week of July. Comex meets this week on March 25 according to their posted schedule, I guess it is possible that we may receive their recommendation then, however, it is also quite possible that they may not have their decision prepared by then and we may have to wait until their next meeting, which is to be held on April 22. I tend to think that given all the attention that the battery metals space is receiving right now and Quebec’s eagerness to become a fully integrated player in this space that once the provincial government has comex’s recommendation they will not sit on their decision, rather get it out the door as quick as possible, in other words we may see a decision quicker than NMX did. Same thing on the federal level, especially considering all the time that was lost due to covid. As well, though the federal government extended their timeline by 90 days, it doesn’t mean they intend to take a full 90 days. I believe the 90 day increment is just a standard. Also, I have no idea what their previous deadline was, the clock stops and starts every time they hand questions over to the proponent so it’s almost impossible to figure out from the iaac website. However, I suspect they would not want to hold up a potential employer, especially during a period of record unemployment. So based upon this, I would think that the fully permitted by mid 2021 timeline is still very much intact. To me, this week’s news of the draft EAR going online and open to public comment was a bit of a game changer, especially with the positive commentary regarding the project’s unlikeliness to have negative environmental or social impacts and the fact that the permitting process was a collaborative effort between government and indigenous parties. I know the Rose mine will be an inconvenience to some, I like quiet roads and fishing too, but I’m sure that if there were any significant negative impacts that posed credible roadblocks to our receiving federal and provincial permits, we would have certainly heard of them by now. Our permits are just a matter of time. After that, I don’t think we will have to wait very long for financing/partner/offtake. Throw some fresh drill results on top of that and a construction decision and $1.45 per share is going to look real cheap. Bring it on baby…

[subaru123]

Wheeler, I agree ...   BRING IT ON !!!  

[Nord43]

Great job Wheeler. Very much appreciate the legwork.