The Big Rethinking Begins in the Lithium Space

Today, MGX Minerals Inc. made an announcement which underscores the potential "global lithium dominance" to be realized faster than many may think (including myself). According to today‘s landmark news, lithium-bearing brines are being shipped from "four Chilean mining companies" to MGX´s pilot plant in Calgary, Alberta, where these will be processed with MGX‘s proprietary rapid lithium extraction technology. At the moment, there are just 2 active lithium producers in Chile: SQM and Albemarle, so it might be them, MGX is working with.

The joint brine testing involves lithium projects at various stages of developement at multiple salars located throughout Chile. Therefore, the chemical composition probably varies greatly. In case MGX‘s technology is capable of processing these different brines successfully, joint ventures may be formed to commission extraction systems on site in Chile. In a heartbeat, this would make MGX world-famous.

Nowadays it‘s commonly known that continental brines in Chile (and elsewhere on this planet) must be pumped into gigantic evaporation ponds to be concentrated to lithium chloride. This is being achieved alone by the power of the sun, despite this being a very time-consuming (>12 months) and cost-intensive (e.g. CAPEX for the ponds) process. The dependence on the weather is a big disadvantage everybody had to put up with. Now comes MGX with a technology that promises to produce highly concentrated lithium chloride in a matter of days, at competitive costs.

Chile is home to about half of the planet‘s lithium reserves and is responsible for a third of global lithium supply. The world‘s largest lithium producers are all active in Chile, because the country hosts some of the largest and highest grade salars worldwide. As Chile is a mining-friendly nation, exceptionally well-developed infrastructure (e.g. big plants to upgrade lithium chloride to battery-grade lithium hydroxide) with a skilled labor forces exist. The new incoming Mine Minister, Baldo Prokurica, who was elected recently and is taking office next month, has publicly stated his intent to reform the country’s mining industry through the rollout of a new mining development plan that will stimulate foreign investment into the country.

Naturally, as each brine production site has a different chemical composition, each one has its own economics such as recovery rates, production costs and effiency ratios. MGX is not allowed to talk about such numbers – although such numbers abundantly exist and the company could talk about them all day long. It‘s because one can only talk about such numbers if a NI43-101-compliant resource or PEA ("Preliminary Economic Assessment") exists. However, one may report certain "actuals", which are material, when being in production (one can go into production without a compliant resource or PEA, albeit with a somewhat higher risk of failure of course).

So it will be interesting to see if MGX will publish some tangible results from the testing of the 4 Chilean brines as one of them probably involves a project with a compliant resource, not to speak of being in production. In terms of the first petrolithium system in North America, MGX would be in a position to report financial and efficiency ratios as soon as commercial production starts (as announced earlier, MGX expects to deploy its first petrolithium system in March). As the testing of Chilean brines are performed with MGX‘s pilot plant in Calgary, results could be announced in the very near-term. This will provide "a basis for future potential joint venture locations that will utilize MGX’s lithium extraction technology", as the company puts it.

Company Details

MGX Minerals Inc.

#303 - 1080 Howe Street

Vancouver, BC, Canada V6C 2T1

Phone: +1 604 681 7735

Email: jared@mgxminerals.com

www.mgxminerals.com

Shares Issued & Outstanding: 99,758,991

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Canadian Symbol (CSE): XMG

Current Price: $1.52 CAD (02/13/2018)

Market Capitalization: $152 Million CAD

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German Symbol / WKN (Tradegate): 1MG / A12E3P

Current Price: €0.97 EUR (02/13/2018)

Market Capitalization: €97 Million EUR

Previous Coverage

Report #43 “Global Lithium Dominance? MGX Doubles Performance of Lithium Extraction Filters“

Report #42 “Scores of Tail Winds for MGX becoming a Leader in the New Energy Economy“

Report #41 “MGX Goes Big, Develops Utility-Scale Battery Storage System“

Report #40 “Positioned to Profit from Transition to New Energy Economy“

Report #39 “MGX Assembles Dream Team For California Lithium Strategy“

Report #38 “MGX: The Next GreenTech Energy Giant“

Report #37 “MGX Partners with Highbury Energy to make Petroleum Coke more Clean“

Report #36 “Technological Breakthrough in the Mass Energy Storage Industry“

Report #35 “Eureka! MGX Starts Developing Silica Projects after Acquisition of Mass Storage Battery Technology“

Report #34 “MGX Going Big on Petrolithium: The first large-scale integrated petroleum and lithium project ever developed“

Report #33 “Driving into the Realms of Tesla & Co: MGX Acquires Mass Storage Battery Technology from Teck Resources“

Report #32 “Backed by Private and Institutional Heavyweights: MGX cashes up for Lithium Extraction and Exploration“

Report #31 “MGX Revolutionizes the Lithium World - Commissions First Rapid Lithium Extraction System“

Report #30 “Full Steam Ahead: MGX Engages Senator Polanco (Ret.) to Head California Lithium Brine Strategy“

Report #29 “MGX to Target Geothermal Market for Extraction of Lithium and Gold“

Report #28 “MGX Minerals Commences Development of the World‘s First Petrolithium Field“

Report #27 “Canadian Government Backs MGX Minerals‘ Petrolithium Cleantech“

Report #26 “MGX Minerals Solves the Magnesium Problem of the Lithium Industry“

Report #25 “Hard-Rock Lithium Exposure for MGX“

Report #24 “One of the Largest Initial Oil Estimates in US History“

Report #23 “MGX starts Petrolithium pilot plant to deliver hard facts for strategic partners“

Report #22 “Time to bet: Sprott takes a position in MGX“

Report #21 “Petrolithium: First Come First Served“

Report #20 “Successful Independent Verification of the MGX Lithium Extraction Technology“

Report #19 “MGX to Drill the World‘s First PetroLithium Well in Utah“

Report #18 “MGX Reports Upgrading of Lithium Brine from 67 to 1600 ppm Lithium“

Report #17 “MGX technology nominated for prestigious Katerva Award, the Nobel Prize of Sustainability“

Report #16 “Unconventional oil play legend Marc Bruner to take MGX and PetroLithium to the next level“

Report #15 “Total Conviction: MGX forms PetroLithium Corp. to expand into the US oilfield brine markets“

Report #14: “MGX Extracts Lithium from Oil Wastewater - Begins Monumental Integration with Big Oil“

Report #13 "MGX Partners with Oil Major on Lithium Brine, New Energy Industry Facing Fundamental Shift“

Report #12 "Game Changing Potential: MGX Minerals‘ Pilot Plant for Rapid Production of Lithium Nears Completion“

Report #11 "MGX assays 34 g/t gold from surface sampling in British Columbia“

Report #10 “Official: MGX owns magnesium worth multi-billions of dollars and starts pilot plant shortly“

Report #9 “One of the world‘s largest lithium resources on the horizon?“

Report #8 “Ready for significant lithium brine work in Alberta“

Report #7 “At the forefront of Alberta‘s lithium brine riches“

Report #6 “Pioneering Lithium in Alberta: MGX Minerals Teams Up“

Report #5 “Time to Put a Lithium Production Process in Place“

Report #4 “MGX Minerals Taps Into Canada‘s Potentially Largest High-Grade Lithium Resources“

Report #3 “MGX Minerals Receives Mining Lease for 20 years (in British Columbia!)“

Report #2 “MGX Minerals Accelerates Towards Production“

Report #1 “MGX Minerals Plans To Enter The Magnesium Market“

Disclaimer: Please read the full disclaimer within the full research report as a PDF (here) as fundamental risks and conflicts of interest exist. The author hold a long position in MGX Minerals Inc. and is being paid a monthly retainer from Zimtu Capital Corp., which company also holds a long position in MGX Minerals Inc. The company may decide to advance its petrolithium projects into production without first establishing mineral resources supported by an independent technical report or completing a feasibility study. A production decision without the benefit of a technical report independently establishing mineral resources or reserves and any feasibility study demonstrating economic and technical viability creates increased uncertainty and heightens economic and technical risks of failure. Historically, such projects have a much higher risk of economic or technical failure.