American Lithium recently participared in a webinar called "Potasio en Falchani" organized by Agromin (Asociacion Civil Agrominera del Peru), which is presided by Romulo Mucho, an old advocate of the Falchani and Macusani projects.
Along with Mucho, local Manager Ulises Solis, CEO Simon Clarke and COO Laurence Stefan had the opportunity to talk, but the main speech was that of Dr. Stefan, with a especial focus on the potential production of potash (SOP) from Falchani and its relevance for the peruvian agriculture.
Dr. Stefan explained how the separation and precipitation of cesium, rubidium and potash is not only good from an economic perspective (because those are seleable byproducts) but is also necessary to achieve the required purity of lithium. He also mentioned how 100% of cesium and rubidium are first separated from the solution first and only then a clean and hight purity potash product is obtained.
After Laurence's presentation, attendees had the opportunity to ask questions. Romulo Mucho asked about the state of the project and the next steps. Laurence replied that after the merge with $LI they have almost everything they need for the Falchani project, including the best engineers, access to the best laboratories in the world, excellent relations with communities, access to infraestructure and reagents locally, and, which is also very important, access to capital through the 50,000 shareholders the company has in the US. The only thing that is missing to advance the project at the desired speed is the permits from the government, which are require for almost everything.
They have been waiting for the permits to drill Falchani, which haven't been issued yet, and they don't know why. They have been waiting for a long time for the permits to start a pilot plat onsite, but given the endless delays they are now considering doing it overseas, in Australia. The goal is to advance to feasibility stage on 2023, but the government is clearly not cooperating. Also, and contrary to what has been repeated over and over at the Ministry of Mines, Laurence was very explicit in saying that there is no uranium in Falchani, literally saying "please shut that out to every dog and cat in Peru!".
Here's the link to the webinar's recording. Don't forget to turn on the English captions:
https://www.facebook.com/agrominperu/videos/794401694809494/