Cleantech Lithium (LSE:CTL) — Company Update

0:01 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the CLEANTECH LITHIUM PLC investor presentation. Throughout this recorded presentation, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time via the Q and tab that's just situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Please just simply type in your questions at any time and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, all questions submitted today will be reviewed. A response is published on the investor meet company platform where it is appropriate

0:31 to do so. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll. And if you could give that your kind attention, I'm sure the company would be most grateful. And I'd now like to hand you over to CEO, Aldo Portano. Good afternoon, sir. Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. We're very excited, to tell you all the the news and the updated news of, CLEANTECH LITHIUM. I'm Aldo Butano. I'm the CEO of CLEANTECH LITHIUM. I have a a master's in engineering, a master's in business, and a doctoral degree in obtained in The US. I developed 800 megawatts of of various renewable energy projects. And like this project, developed from start to development to production, other projects.

1:17 With that said, I would like to introduce, our chairman, doctor Steve Kessler. Steve? Good afternoon. I think this particular CLEANTECH LITHIUM project is a very exciting, one. We have, three very interesting salars in Chile, two of which we've proved contain lithium. Aldo will talk later today. We announced an upgraded resource on on the Laguna Verde

1:51 Salar. Our intention is to use direct lithium extraction to extract the lithium from these Salars. These have the advantage of greatly reducing the environmental impact. We won't have the large evaporation ponds, which you'll find elsewhere in in in in Chile or Argentina. We won't have the open pit mines, which you'll find in in Australia. We will extract the brine, extract the the lithium from it, and return that brine back into the the aquifer. We aim to use this using renewable energy and produce as close to zero emissions, close to zero carbon emissions as possible, which we believe will give us a critical advantage in the fast growing EU market.

2:40 You'll see when you compare when you see our comparison of CLEANTECH LITHIUM to our peers in the market, we believe that for the size of resource, the technology we have, and our prospects in the future, we are greatly undervalued, and it's a very attractive entry point into the market. And we clearly see that in a very short space of time, there'll be a number of strategic partners who'll be interested in coming into our project. We have a a proven management team operating in the Chilean industry. I myself, my background has been forty five years in in the mining industry with major mining companies, Rio Tinto, BHP, and a number of juniors.

3:26 I spent over thirty years working in the Chilean mining industry in various areas, with Escondida as the first CEO of Coahuasi, which is the second largest copper mining project in the world. I've been CEO of lithium companies listed in in Australia. My own background is technical. I have a PhD in hydrometallurgy. So Chile lithium technology made me very excited to come on board as the as the chairman of this company. We're seeing that the new Chilean government

4:05 is very strongly supportive of the mining sector. It's recognized that over the last thirty years, the economy of Chile has grown tremendously because of mining investment, and it intends to see that you know, that investment continue, and that will lead to further economic benefits into the country. Okay. Aldo, if you go into the project. Yes. Thank you. Well, this is a snapshot of our t three projects. As as Steve mentioned, the lithium demand is here to stay, and and and we are a lot more environmentally friendly from from day one, from 2017, the way we envision our projects that are now coming closer to to production.

4:54 The the three projects are you can see at the bottom of the screen. They're starting the southern tip of the lithium triangle that is starts in Bolivia, goes all the way down to Argentina and Chile. It's Francisco Basin and Laguna Verde. Laguna Verde is the the one the more developed ones this morning. We released an updated York result from 1.2 to 1,510,000 tons. That's a 22 increase resource. But the most important part is now that 53% of those resources are measured and indicated to say 100 tons of lithium, and that gives us a projected more than thirty years of production at 20,000 tons per year. That's a very significant number, and it's once the scoping study is finished at the end of this year and then we continue with the PFS, a pre feasibility study, we'll we'll see the project, I mean, more and more closer to to to production. In Francisco Basin, we're gonna be announcing in a couple of weeks.

6:03 In October, we're gonna be announcing another mating resource. Our broker, Fox Davis, their and their analyst have projected 600,000 tons per lithium. The number we're gonna be producing will be public, like I said, in in October. But if you add their projections and what we announced today, we're close to 2,000,000 tons of lithium, and that's a very important number. We're gonna be upgrading Laguna Verde some more. Once we're reconditioning the holes, we we drill in the past the drilling season, and then we're gonna do more drilling there in Francisco Basin. We're gonna talk about Yamara, a very large significant project in the northern section of the Grecian Triangle.

6:50 A little bit, not too much Northeast Northwest, sorry, of the the Salar De Takama. And and that will leave us oops. Sorry. The presentation just changed here. Where is it? That will leave us with a with a very greenfield project that we'd like to develop, and we'll be drilling at the beginning of the of the past the winter. Yamada can be accessed year round. We have an experienced board and management team with experience that includes developing of major new mines in Chile. Steve went developed the largest two copper mines of the world,

7:38 Escondida first, and then as a CEO of Coahuasi. And, I said, myself too with the renewable energy projects. And the main thing on on these basins, the Buena Verde and Francisco Basin, there's no compete competing lithium projects. We control the complete basin. There's no indigenous communities. Just the fact that we have the complete basin that's that makes our company very rare allow us for the the full cycle of the direct lithium extraction process that we'll see further on on the presentation as we can reinject without having a competing or a or a neighbor that is trying to do the same thing, and we just don't control all the variables on the on the base. We're a registered company in Jersey. We have offices in London, Santiago, and Jersey.

8:26 We raised in the pre IPO on the IPO process that the IPO happened right on the on the beginning of the Russian and Ukrainian I'm I'm sorry.

8:37 And and we got listed, and and we're well funded for continued growth. A board, I already mentioned some of the board, People with a lot of experience on on publicly listed companies and also a lot of important people on the field and our senior management. Marcelo Gravel and Pedro Torres are two of the top five world's experts on lithium. They're working at various stages with the company, and we're very happy of of the team we have set up in Chile. Various professionals that are addressing environmental, community, operations, direct lease extraction, human resources, etcetera. A full a full company has been developed and a team being developed since we got listed back in in March of this year.

9:29 Steve, you wanna talk a little bit about the low emissions and and then, European market? I I think everybody knows the the the anticipated growth rate for for lithium in in the world over the next, you know, ten, twenty years. It's particularly the case in in the EU. There's a whole slew of battery plants in in in production. The the EU have been stressing the need to decarbonize their economies, particularly in motor vehicles. They're pressing the motor manufacturers to switch to electric, and the EU will see the fastest growth in in in lithium ion battery demand in the world. They're projecting a 20 times increase over the course the next ten years.

10:16 Now not only does it want to to have those those lithium ion batteries, it wants the battery manufacturers and car manufacturers to ensure that they have low carbon supply chains to make those those batteries. So it wants to see low carbon lithium, nickel, cobalt into those supply chains. And clearly, when you look at the right hand side slide, if you look at the carbon dioxide emissions per ton of lithium from hard rock mining, from conventional brine production, from evaporation ponds, our our DLE using renewable with close to zero carbon dioxide emissions, we think that's gonna give us a tremendous marketing marketing advantage, particularly into the EU.

11:03 And we believe that in time, that will generate premium prices for clean tech lithiums, green lithium production. Alden? Thank you, Steve. Yes. Yes. I I mentioned at the beginning, like, the the it's the resources that our broker is is calculating and has put put publicly on the on a a report of half a million or 600,000 on on on the Francisco Basin, plus the the what we announced this morning, and, again, we're very happy of the announcement this morning with the upgraded resource, that will put us above China if you see the the just to give you a sheer size of our projects. This is the global lithium reserves. Our numbers are not included in the Chile number.

11:50 And, just to give you an idea of what we're we're talking. As Steve mentioned at the at the beginning, we we are a country who has been growing tremendously over the last thirty years. There's a mining has been key on this grow. There's an involvement of the Chilean engineering capacity on all projects, many projects of copper, the largest copper producer, and then, of course, gold, silver, and lithium. The government has been very open. Our projects have been portrayed by the government in in in gatherings and forums in Australia and Canada. A central left government has an an emphasis on reducing environmental impact and and reduce the c o two emissions as low as possible, and they're being very open and positive to what we we've been saying. We actually have regular meetings. We have one this afternoon to socialize our our process and our projects and receive the feedback from the government.

12:48 That always been positive. We'll we'll go to some more in the direct lithium extraction. But, again, this shows you at the bottom the impact of a large evaporation ponds in Salarra Takama and and what low footprint footprint of what we are working to do. So we'll get on to direct lithium extraction. This is a mechanical and chemical process. It means that you extract the brine from the subsurface aquifer. You do mainly with a an absorption with a resin that once it's stripped of the of the of the brine, means that the brine without any chemicals and without the lithium can be reinjected back back in the subsurface aquifers. Again, as we control the whole basin, we can control the hydrogeology variables, and we can reinject in a place where there's the brine is is very low in lithium and then permeates back to the the the point of extraction out of the subsurface aquifer.

13:51 The the recovery rate of the extraction, it's it's very high, 95. The overall recovery of the whole process, it's it's less than 95, but it's normally double from that of the of the traditional evaporation ponds. Then the the point of moving the project from an idea into development, and we see a developing in Argentina that is happening quite fast, is about just five months from the from the order from the supplier of the plant, EPC, hence, key zone delivery of the plant, and then only nine months to twelve months into production. That's a lot less than a year of setting up the evaporation ponds and then another year of the whole process. And the actual process of producing lithium, carbonate lithium or lithium hydroxide, is just a few hours with the direct lithium extraction plant.

14:47 The the part of the chemical to mechanical process has a nano filtering, has the absorption part of resin, has reverse osmosis, forced evaporation, and and then comes ionic exchange to reduce boron and other very complicated chemicals out of the brine to be able to create a battery grade brine after the continuing processing. What we have done, we've completed the one kilo battery grade earlier this year, and and we sampled and and sent to international labs to confirm this sample of one kilo, and we met all the standards of of battery grade lithium. We actually went farther than the the than that. The requirement is 99.5 purity of the of the lithium, and we went to 99.9.

15:43 Just recently, we signed an MOU with Sun Resin. This is the world leader in commercial scale b direct lithium extraction plants. I have nine plants. The total capacity of those plants, 73,000 tons of lithium per year. We're working with an pilot's kit a test work, both bringing a plant from their subsidiary in Belgium. They acquired two two valve producer producing companies in 2019 in Belgium, and at the same time running another pilot test test work in in their facilities in China with the latest brine samples from Francisco Basin and from Laguna Verde. An important part of Sandres in development, they paired with Hatch and working in in North America and in South America,

16:29 is that they deployed, like I said, in only five months from from the purchase order and and the MOU they signed with a lithium producer, future producer company in Argentina. In five months, they produced a 134 containers, and all the parts you can see at the bottom right that meant the what is now being installed at 25,000 tons per year plant in Argentina. They're also setting up a lab in in in Salta in Argentina, and I'm talking of setting up a pilot plant in in Northern Chile. This is a photo on the on the left side of the electricity extraction in China. DLE is a proven technology. We received from the market a lot of times the idea of of of conversations that this jet is jet improving.

17:21 Since 1998, Livent and formerly FCM in Argentina is producing 20,000 tons per year of lithium. They don't have evaporation ponds. They just have a forced evaporation ponds part of the process, and and and they've been producing with it a resin and absorption lithium. Sun resin, has been since 2017 doing the same in three plants in China and now installing a large producing plant in Argentina and in other places as well. You can see, and Steve mentioned, the the low evaluation that we have. This is numbers of yesterday, $57,000,000 is the is the evaluation of the the closing of the stock market yesterday. And you can see other companies that are also involved in direct lease extraction space and how their value and how they're perceived.

18:11 We we tickle all the boxes with the with the resin we developed and and some resin now working on on the piloting and the and the all the design of the of the of the plant itself. Our resource was being upgraded this morning, and, we have geothermal activity in Laguna Verde that we're gonna see a little, in a in a few minutes.

18:35 The projects. This is that's a footprint of a three to four months drilling campaign in Laguna Verde. We drilled four holes. You can see that tiny little yellow cased top of the of the subsurface bore as as the footprint of our project, and you can see the the landscape. This is Laguna Verde, the the farther more developed projects of the of the three. Even though Francisco Basin is catching up, you can see the four wells, L B 01, L B 02, L B 03, L B 04 surrounding the basin. It's it's surrounded by volcanoes. We have the mining licenses at the center. It's an option agreement that where you act as an owner as long as you comply with all the option agreement requirements, and we've been doing that, and and we don't have no doubt. And that's one of the reasons Chile has been successful on mining development is is that it's similar to Australia and to The US and other top mining jurisdiction, Canada, on how we we operate everything from mining licenses, option agreements, etcetera. The current York compliant resource that we released this morning, again, is 1.1 it's one one point five one million tons of lithium.

19:52 The important part is that 53% of that is measured and indicated. Again, this we expect to have a base case production of 20,000 tons per annum of this for more than thirty years. And we're gonna be keep on expanding the resource as we go back and reconditioning the holes and added more land that we've been acquiring as with mining licenses. And, also, we drill when the seas drilling season starts, and we'll have those results, some at the end of this year and some on the next year. I've mentioned the geothermal activity. Every single brine we extracted from the subsurface aquifer, was between twenty and thirty degrees Celsius. This is very important as a a ideal range of temperature for direct lithium extraction, and it also allow us to save energy and reduce the the OpEx.

20:47 The scoping study is underway and environmental studies underway. The PFS, pre feasibility study will commence next year. And and, again, is to produce 20,000 tons per year. Why? We we had some extended drilling season and why we went almost into winter because we had the the happy news that when we drilled, we went deeper than when originally expected with the geophysics. The geophysics was right about the and the the concentration of the brine underground, but it it it can only mirror to a certain point when when there's so much brine and so much readings of low resistivity or high conductivity

21:32 that that we ended up going in much deeper as you can see on the various holes listed at the bottom. The happy news of Francisco Basin, our second largest project, if not the first one has been we're gonna be competing with with Laguna Verde. Our broker has projected two to 3,000,000 tons of resources. Fox Davis is our broker. We also have have board brought on board Canaccord, a well respected broker as well, to help us, get to new investors. Francie Fox Davis has projected almost 2 to £3,000,000 on of future resource, on Laguna Verde and, in Francisco Basin up to two. And 600,000, like I said, on the on this just one hole that we did f b o one. We were expecting a brine aquifer thickness of a 100 meters. We went to 204.

22:26 It was a very well done well with eight inches cased all the way down with a and a slotted casing. We we, at the top of the hole, prevent the inflow of fresh water coming down with a with a seal. And and the thirty fourth brine samples that we collected all through the column of 204 meters of the brine gave us a very stable average, very stable readings all about most of them about 300 and the average being 305.

22:57 We're gonna be updating this the market with this resource, your estimate, in October. And and then, again, just as Laguna Verde, we're gonna further drill the tree holes plant, from October 2. And the the idea again is to move just from from Laguna Verde, infer resource into measured and indicated.

23:21 It's also a scoping study to start and previsibility to start and also the environmental impact statements are underway. Yamara is our new acquisition. It's a big, big, light my license mining license area, 344 square kilometers. It sits at a lower elevation, of the other two projects. Again, Francisco Basin and Laguna Verde sit at 4,300 meters. There's no indigenous communities nearby. They the indigenous communities are are are fairly small. They are two hours away, 2,000 meters below. In in Yamarad, it's the same. There's no indigenous communities even though this is a place that is at 1,000 meters of elevation.

24:10 The three projects are major highways, have close to electricity, sub stations to be connected, and and water in in all the basins to be able to the water needed for the part of the d l e DLE processing. At the Marai is a greenfield project. We just visit the area. We acquired this geophysics that you can see at the bottom from an an oil and gas work done some years ago by a governmental agency. The low, the clear magenta colors that you have there are good indications of brine as, again, it has low resistivity and high conductivity, plus the evidence of lithium on the surface.

24:58 Again, it's it's a very interesting project for us. So we're gonna be drilling, doing a quick initial drilling, and and from there on, if we as expected fine fine lithium in that subsurface brine, and we're gonna do a a more detailed and more, comprehensive, drilling on the area.

25:21 I mentioned briefly my experience with clean energy, and and I just mentioned how it how they're close to our projects in major electricity lines and and access. In Francisco Basin, it's only five kilometers away from the from the from, the corner of our existing mining licenses to a substation. There's actually cell phone coverage in Francisco Basin as well as there there's infrastructure in place. And Buena Verde is crossed by international paved highway. The substations are 52 kilometers away.

26:00 There is no reason, and and I've been working already and talking to the industry leaders, that we could sign a PPA or power purchase agreement that will allow us twenty four seven, a 100% renewable energy. The same for for Yamara. Actually, there's a solar solar station very, very close to where we are and major other energy producing power lines of high tension, low tension. It's it's a very well developed area, Yamara. And Chile itself has become a world leading or renewable energy. I I'm I have been a little bit part of that, with my work in the past, and, and we are already past 50% of our energy is from renewables. Something that is always important, I briefly mentioned it before, La Buenavir and Francisco Basin, and it's the same for Yamara.

26:51 There's a process water supply within the borders of our mining licenses. There's some existing existing boards, and we're working on everything that will assure us the water. As long as the water is born within your property, you you have a 100 right to use it. You just have to drill and get all the all the data from it and then register in the national registry of of water. Steve, can you tell our audience about the next twelve months, the catalyst events, please? Yeah. Sure. I I think we're we're gonna have a tremendous flow of of very interesting news coming in in in steady bites over the next twelve months. Clearly, we had our our first news today of the 1,500,000 ton LCE resource at at Laguna Verde. This will be increased during the course of the last quarter by additional work.

27:49 Francisco Basin will have our first maiden resource coming in in in a few weeks' time. We 'll have the scoping study, which will be the first economic evaluation of the the Laguna Verde project towards the the end of the year. That'll be followed by by Francisco Basin. And, clearly, all this work is is geared up to demonstrating the size of the resource at both Laguna, Verde, Francisco Basin, and indicating we've got a third exciting potential at at at Yamara.

28:23 The scoping studies at both Laguna Verde and Francisco Basin will outline the technology to be produced, the capital cost, the operating cost, the NPV of of both of of those projects. And it's at that time that we will expect to see a number of industry players taking very serious look at our project. We have deliberately not sought out

28:56 offtake contracts for our production at this stage. We're probably the only lithium project not to have done so we believe that the important thing is to look for the right strategic partner who can come in. Obviously, they want to secure lithium supply, but a partner who could also mobilize the capital for the for the construction finance now off its own balance sheet, but also mobilizing the banks from where they come from. We'll expect to see could there be interest from China. There'll be interest from the trading houses. I'm used to working with Japanese companies in the copper industry of Chile where they not only provide finance but mobilize, you finance from Jackson Bank and the commercial banks in Japan.

29:45 It's the same in in Europe. We're seeing the battery manufacturers, the car manufacturers wanting to secure lithium supply. They're now considering going upstream into participation in in in in mining ventures. We've seen Elon Musk of Tesla wondering whether he should buy a lithium mine. We've seen BMW invest in the lilac technology and take a participation in lake resources in in Argentina. We can only see that increasing in the future. So we're gonna take our time, make sure we can maximize the resource, demonstrate the NPV of the project, and then we'll be starting to talk to strategic investors that can assist us into the next stage going into construction and and production.

30:36 We will be, as Aldo said, buying pilot plant facilities from from sun resin and doing on-site no testing in Chile of our brines, no from initially Laguna Verde, Francisco Basin, and hopefully, Yamuna. And we'll see at what size that we'll move into a demonstration plant before we move into the full construction. So, certainly, over the course of the next six months, as we go through scoping studies, prefeasibility studies, lots and lots of interesting news will be coming out on CLEANTECH LITHIUM. Aldo? Yeah. Thank you, Steve. We're we're summarizing, with these last two slides and and closing the presentation, and then we'll open up for questions.

31:26 The current market gap, we've seen an increase over the last ninety days. We've have a shares an issue of a little bit above 79,000,000 shares. The broker, Fox Davis, and now Canaccord in in in in a few weeks will also produce a report on us. They have carried above £1 since we did the IPO in March. So before March of next year, six months from now, they say we could target a little bit above £1. Myself and Jason, the two cofounders, hold 24% of the stock, and all the board has invested and bought bought stock at the at the IPO level and pre IPO level. And and we also have a very, very big funds that the the amount of of shares being traded per day have been growing, adding some liquidity to the stock, and we're very pleased what is happening in in the market and and what the news that just Steve mentioned and the inflow of news will impact the future of the company.

32:41 Again, we're working this is the last slide to working to derisk this project, adding updated resources, extended work on the field with environmental studies, copy studies, PFS studies, and, we're targeting to be producing at the end 2004, 2024, 2025. We've talked about, our low or lowest, environmental impact, the reinjection of spin brine, the use of renewable energy.

33:13 We've been, ahead of the curve as we started earlier than others other companies with 2017, 2018, first testing and and sending starting the DLEA work. We produced a battery grade lithium supply. Again, all the infrastructure, water security, the the supportive government of mining in Chile, and that has been reinforced with the recent vote to reject the proposed constitution that was proposed in Chile. And and and there's a center left all the way to the center right alliance to to write a constitution that fits all the country, and and part of that is protecting

33:58 the business that we have and and has kept the country of being everyday more developed, and that's mining industry. Again, there's no indigenous communities or unique flora and fauna to disturb. These places are more like MARF, and NASA has attest to that sending some of the robots that we have been sending into space, to be tested in this place. With this, I'll turn the the the

34:26 the presentation off and be ready for questions. Aldo, Steve, if I may just jump back in there, thank you very much indeed for your presentation this afternoon. Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions just by using the q and a tab that's situated on the top right hand corner of your screen. But just while the company takes a few moments to review those questions that were submitted already, I would like to remind you that a recording of this presentation along with a copy of the slides and the published q and a can be accessed via your investor dashboard. Aldo, Steve, as usual, you have received a significant number of questions that were both pre submitted as well as those that were submitted throughout today's presentation itself. So firstly, thank you to all of those on the call for taking the time to submit their questions. And, Aldo, if I could please just hand back to you to, go through that q and a tab and where appropriate to do so.

35:17 If you could please just read out the questions and give your response, and then I'll pick up from you at the end. Yeah.

35:21 Thank you. I'll start from the bottom. When do you expect Canaccord to initiate its research report?

35:27 They're gonna be publishing they said next month. They already been working, and we we we have been working with them with their various office, in particularly the office in Beijing, their office in Perth, and, in Sydney, and, of course, in London where we have met with them and and and have shared information, of course, Canada. They have a a global reach. And like I said, they will initiate their published their research report in October. They somebody's asking thanks for the questions. Production is estimated at 20,000 tons per year. What are the restrictions to expand this apart from capital? Taking into account the resource should be able to support at least double this output. Yeah. We projected 20,000 tons per year initial, started giving the resources, we have and and and and the the initial engineering work we've done for both properties, 20,000 for Laguna Verde per year and 20,000 tons per year on Francisco Basin.

36:31 We'll see once the scope is established where can we expand that, how much we can expand that. There's no restriction other than

36:38 capital as as the person here is rightly saying. And and as as because the the the construction plants, we're we're planning to install our modular. So we just add more components to it, and there's no restriction on electricity or water.

36:55 When can we expect a result from the first drill hole at Gemara? We'll be drilling somewhere in November. We can inform the market with the initial initial information, but, normally, with all the lab testing and all the QA quality assessment and quality control processes, it will take more than that to have really more comprehensive reports. It will be into next year, but initial information will happen this year. What's our views on today's share price down in 99% given the news from resource upgrade? I don't know if, Steve, you wanna touch on this. We've I've seen this. This is kind of common. We have to produce information. This is is is is very, very,

37:39 you usual. We we've seen a a a run up in our share price over the course of the last week week or two. You know, we we listed at at thirty p. We went rapidly until yesterday over 60 p. Clearly, people have been anticipating a resource update.

38:02 We've given it today. There has been a significant increase. Maybe some people expected it to be very much greater than that. Now, clearly, we still have lots of room to increase it into the future, but it's also very common for people to take some profit off the table after a very fast run up. Yes. Well, thank you, Steve. Another question is how does the climate weather affect the operations of the company? Again, Chile has a long tradition of mining. We sit in two of the properties at 4,300. That's no problem for that elevation other than the usual protocols for dealing with with higher altitude. Actually, the mine that from an from an idea went into development that that at a higher elevation.

38:50 Of course,

38:52 the direct Houston extraction is a closed loop from the extraction and into the plant and then back into the subsurface aquifer, and and we have a lot less climate weather

39:06 influence. That's not the case for evaporation ponds who are sit on the open. And and and when there's unseasonal rain, they cause trouble. And you've seen sometimes fluctuate, actually, the the the production and the stock of SQM and Aldermarli sit in the Salar De Takama with open to the air evaporation ponds when that happens. We already answered the question when do you anticipate Canaccord to initiate their coverage. They're already working, and we're working with some of their investors and connections and offices. And, again, that will happen in,

39:40 in in later in October. They'll release a note, and we'll continue to work with them. Are the Chilean government supportive of the work the company is doing is another question, and how the licenses work? When do, like, for example, when do the licenses run out, and do you have the license to conduct direct business instruction? That's all the questions of this question are very good. The with the mine the exploration mining licenses that we originally acquired. They have an ex expiration of of two to four years, and you can renew them. And and we've used them, and we've explored, and we're moving all of our license into indefinite licenses who are exploitation licenses. As long as you pay the patents, you you can have them as for for the rest of of the of the of the mine and the mining of the of the of the land.

40:35 We have one of the best, if not the best, land management team of the country with a with a contract with an office that runs the mining licenses of Codelco, BHP, Anglo American, s two m, etcetera, and also in house capacities to be able to do that. We don't need a special license to conduct mitigation extraction. Actually, you inform the government that you're gonna be drilling. By by law, you're allowed to drill. And if you meet all the requirements, and we certainly do, and part of of those initial processing other than drilling is the metallurgical process, and that's you don't need a special permit. You inform the authority.

41:22 We've been doing that in the case of DLE. Another question is, does the company have any obvious risk? And if time and the time and score the plan go well, what's the ambition is there for value companies, say, twenty four months? So we are in September 2022. In September 2024, we've have finished the prefeasibility study. We'll be on way to start constructing of the company of, I mean, of the of the of the two plants in in Francisco Basin and and Buena Verde. And, of course, all the things have to fall in place, like all the permitting, all the environmental study have to be finished and approved.

42:12 And and those are the things. We'll invest time and efforts to be able to reach that plan in twenty four months. Somebody's asking, will we get an upgrade on Francisco Basin in the next two weeks? In the next month, hopefully, we'll do it in two weeks, but I'd like to underpromise and over deliver. In October, we'll have the upgrade on Francisco Basin. What does the company believe is the best option regarding offtake? Joint ventures to maximize shareholder value? I think, Steve, you already answered that question. I don't know if you wanna reiterate what you said. No. I I I think no. We it it's our job over the next six months to to demonstrate the value of the project, and then we'll be talking to a wide range of potential strategic partners and taking a decision on which we believe is is the best to offer good value to our shareholders into the future.

43:08 Yep. There's another question. What is the current cash position of the company? We're gonna be releasing our interims. We're just finishing them in the next few days, but our last public cash position was £4,600,000 a couple of months ago. Yeah. Another question is any institutional investor coming aboard, and how do you anticipate a dual listing, like, in Australia where they have a great appetite for leasing place? Yeah. We have institutional investors both in Australia in in The UK and abroad. Regal funds from Australia is actually the largest institutional investor. We're planning a trip to Australia in the next upcoming weeks, and and we talked and we'll have to analyze at the board level when and how, we could bring a dual listing with Australia.

43:59 And and we we see we see also see, as the person who's asking the question, that that it's it's a market with a great appetite for lithium plays. When will we commissioning two pilot plants, one for Laguna Verde and one from Francisco Basin? We're doing that work right now. We expect to have a small unit of a pilot plant in the next six weeks arriving to Chile. Another question. Following the test results out of Canada that indicate the magnesium extraction wasn't efficient on a wider scale, how do you think this will affect the technical aspects of things like lithium? I don't see a connection. We've been we've been all the way from producing our own resin, from producing one kilo battery to signing up with the with the largest plant manufacturer and the largest resin manufacturer of the world. Sun resin has grown up from being a 2,200,000,000 company to a 4,200,000,000 company publicly listed, and and we're just very sure of what we're doing and and the steps to to be able to produce direct business extraction. Again, LITHIUM PLC in Argentina has been producing with direct business extraction with a resin lithium for since 1998 and has a production of 2,023.

45:21 I mean, since 02/1998, they've been producing lithium. Yeah. Are you anticipating pilot production in 2023? Yes. Yes. We'll be anticipating production. We'll yet have to inform the market will be the the quantities on both places. And, again, that will be more than production. It will be more for, working with potential buyers and, and off takers and JV, as as we produce battery grade lithium. How many serious approaches have you had over the last the past twelve months, and where do you anticipate doing a deal with JV and offtake? Do you wanna answer that again, Steve? These questions keep coming up. Yeah.

46:07 Yeah. No. No. Clearly, we we've been a project that was not really known until we we we listed it in March. But even until that time, there have been a couple of of companies that have recognized the potential of the project and have engaged in in early stage discussions. We have decided not to advance those until such time as we have a well understood and established measure indicated resource on both our Laguna Verde, Francisco Basin projects, completed the scoping studies, and have the first estimate of NPV of the projects. And it's only at that stage do we consider it worthwhile to seriously engage with potential strategic partners.

47:00 Okay. As I started answering the questions from the bottom up, I hope I am not loose on the on the on the window that I see the question, so I'll stand out from the top. It will scale up to 40 k to beyond 600 six k be they complete through a single or several DLE plans. I don't know how up will scale. Again, the feasibility will answer that more clearly. The scoping study will give an indication. But, again, it's it's a modular way. It's it's not several DLE plants. It's a modular way. This is a very good question, the next one. I like it. Does the reinjection of the water back into the aquifer dilute the lithium concentration over time? As we live in semi immature cellars with clay banks and with with not not just one big subsurface aquifer, we we have all the geological and hydrological emission information that we need to further expand that we extract in one point. It's Point Francisco Basin.

47:59 We're gonna be reinjecting six to eight kilometres away, and we know that eventually, let's say, we extract that 20 liters per second. Over time, that means that that inflow of of of brine without lithium will go all the way back to the place where we are extracting, and we'll be able to set up a higher liters per second extraction. But at the same time, we'll have we'll see the effects of the extracting the lithium. And if if we're all the way from the trip of this the the voyage of this spent brine over to the extraction point had had collected, the lithium enough to not dilute the the where we're extracting.

48:45 All our indication is, yes, there's a very interesting theoretical papers, produced by, Alex Grant from j Jade Cove, analysis. You can find it on the web. So the the real answer is it would it should dilute, but it should, over time, make a more speedy or faster way of extracting lithium. What is the minimum grade of lithium that you expect the process to work effectively? Sunrise is working with very low lithium rates, eighty eighty parts per million or 80 milligrams per liter. We would like we're we're now above 200 in in Laguna Verde, and and we know that we have the effects of some freshwater diluting some of the samples we collected, again, with the reconditioning of the holes and the and the and the creating some seals on the subsurface on the initial part of the subsurface aquifers that has fresh water, we'll be able to raise that. But we're confident on that grade, and you actually compare with the addition extraction in in plants in Argentina.

49:57 Projects in Argentina, they're lower than us, a 180, a 160. And Francisco Basin is 300 o five. But, again, we could go with sun resin, and our technology is lowest as a it's just a matter of the economics of all that. How does your brand another question. Composition compared to that being currently processed by Sandrising? Okay. That's a good question. Again, it's they go from 80 parts per million. The project, they they they released an MOU in in in North America, in in Utah, has higher grade. We're not completely don't know the higher grade. But the Argentinian seller where they're starting is is a little bit above 200 parts per million, so it compares similar to us.

50:46 And and the and they're and the resting, we just need more stages to come to that 90 to 95 recovery rate at at at the at the DLE resting part. You just need to keep at it. They just actually, some resting process are even farther on the on the processing, even more lithium recovery of the of the brine that is being processed and before being reinjected. Another question is the only thing that kept me out of investing since the IPO is the government in Chile. How do you see the political stability of the country proceeding? That's a very good question. The majority of the country without a mandatory vote, that was the case from the latest referendum, majority of the country said that we wanted a new constitution close to 80%.

51:41 But that same big number and now with a mandatory vote just last week said over 61% that we don't want the constitution that was drafted by this group of independents and people who didn't have many of the qualifications of a constitutional and and law studies. We did it it was set up with the best intentions, but now, again, there's a center left all the way to the center right who represents all this 61%, and and the and the remaining political parties are also adhering to this. And we've come to the conclusion that we have to set up ground rules, of the major constitutional work we've done over over the years. Like, again, Chile is a very respected country. There's also an agreement that the the people elected to draft the constitution should have experts supporting them, and the whole sentiment is to come to a more center, a more reasonable constitution that will last for many years instead of being just to to one political or political group. So we're gonna be avoiding extremes, the central left and the I mean, extreme left and the extreme right, and and come together as we we've always done.

53:01 And, we're gonna keep the voluntary vote, from all elections from now. 85% of the people voted. Be we're very proud of our, voting system, and and nobody disputes anything. And in just a few hours, the results are known. What protection does the company have in case of an attempted takeover? Well, the main protection is is that we have a priority of of the stock with with institutional funds and and ourselves, myself and Jason and and a close group of investors control the company. What build the the construction cost being?

53:49 We have who deployed this 25,000 tons facility from Chile to Argentina. It it's it's talking of of some $700,000,000 plant once they they go to the 73,000 tons per year. We have quotes from them from various types of plants that we have in the emission documents back in March. We we 10,000 tons per year will mean $200,000,000. So and and then to go to 20,000 tons per year, it will mean $400,000,000.

54:36 If if we write a number, it's one of the questions present to us, a number per ton. It's it's 40 it's what's it here is you have to divide. No. It's not it's not the answer here. Per ton, the the the cost is $400,000,000 divided by by 20,000 tons per year. We'll come to a number of the of the cost of producing a plant per ton. What other questions do we have? Do we are exploring other metals also as part of reducing the global dependence on lithium. Global companies are doing research and development on a variety of metals. No. We haven't. We don't we don't, we don't foresee this in the near future, but, we have very solid establishment here in Chile, and and we might, but, you know, not not again.

55:36 Will we need to raise again? When will we running out of cash without another raise? I don't know, Steve, if you wanna mention this, the need to raise or not. We we we we have the finance already in place, which we raised at the IPO and pre IPO to execute our current work programs. Now, clearly, we've had a number of of institutions that that are that are saying, you why don't you go faster? When we when we did the the IPO, we initially went for 6,000,006 million pounds. We were getting interest levels of $1,011,000,000 pounds until Russia invaded the the Ukraine, but we still got away with with 5,600,000.

56:23 Now, clearly, if we want to accelerate our drilling programs in in Laguna Verde, Francisco Basin, If we find we have lithium at Yamara and want to execute a rapid drilling program there, we will need additional funds. So we have an we have the funds to complete the work We'd planned at the basin and complete the the pre phase pre feasibility study. If we want to accelerate that work, then, yes, we will consider at an appropriate time additional funds. But we'd we'll we'll take a look at that in the course of the next few few few months. Okay. Here's one other question that I remembered have come earlier, and I was posed again.

57:12 Thank you. What and and it's one question with, like, three questions. What are the financial terms of the sundressing relationship? How long will it continue for, and do they have any longer lasting terms which could be triggered to renew or expand the relationship? One of the things that made us decide for for SunResting is that they they don't have a black box technology or a request for equity in exchange or royalties or anything. They they're just like a normal mining provider. They sell you the rest, and they'll sell you sell you the pilot plant. They'll sell you the plant itself. We I gotta remind the the people listening that we turned down an equity offer or or an equity request by LITHIUM before they signed their agreement with with the Lake Resources to take 10% of our equity in exchange of their financing, the title plan, and the PFS.

58:07 And we didn't go with them regardless of all their respect for their technology, and and we've been we worked with them since 2018 with with samples and engineering work because we were not we were locked in with that percentage, and we couldn't do the IPO as they were needed to test all this technology for a longer period for a long period of twenty four months. So we choose to go with somebody who didn't take equity that we could work over time and but we will not be locked. So we're very, very happy with that. Part of the same question is when can we expect revenues to emerge? Again, late two thousand twenty four, twenty five. And, again, to Steve, what financial demands will be there before then accepting that there's cash in the balance sheet?

58:57 Well, clearly, there there is no funding taking us through this stage of exploration and feasibility. The big financial demands will be for the construction. Aldo's already talked about $20,000 a ton, so maybe you're looking at $400,000,000 now for a plant at Laguna Verde, similar at at Francisco Basin, which is quite a lot. That's why we are open to taking in a strategic partner that can provide a great deal of assistance now with that funding, not only on its own balance sheet, but to assist in in mobilizing the the debt financing package, which we we would need to put in place. And that's where the the main financing is gonna be at the construction financing stage.

59:49 Okay. Thank you, Steve. Questions that were submitted before and now and now are being resubmitted. Individuals or institution have privilege on company revenues? Have solution partners such as Alpha Lithium, KMX, Sunrise been giving a share of the revenue? And the quest the answer is no. It's it's not actually Alpha Lithium. It's it's the only thing. No. No. We don't have any any agreements, and there's not individuals or institutions that have privilege or company readiness. Again, that that will come in time with the if we set up with off takers and and joint ventures, but not right now, and that's we're very proud of that. We we're one of the few public listed companies without those things, without those privilege or off take agreement.

1:00:34 It's too early to ask these questions. It's somewhat set it's one of the questions here on the on the q and a's. But have you set a policy on how the profit will be used? I don't we don't have that. Steve, that's an early question, but I don't know if you can answer it. No. No. It it it's far too too too early. No. Clearly, when when we become a profitable company, the board will take decisions at that time, how much of that will get reinvested into into other, you know, productive assets and investments? How much will be returned as dividends to to shareholders? Far too early to answer that. Another question is, does the resolve of the constitutional referendum affect the legal structure and workflow process of the mining side?

1:01:23 Nope. No. There's no nothing that that before the referendum, both the the the current government and and also the the people on both sides approved or reject the referendum agreed on keeping mining and mining structure and mining law to do not affect investments. So and and now and and the the part the remaining part of the question, what are the positive and negative effects? It's only positive effects. We know the need for environmental, more sustainable way of mining, and we are there. And but all the positive is that we will see if we see new legislation. It will be, again, more pro business and and and pro more conservative, more to the center legislation.

1:02:12 Question about licenses. Could the company please clarify the ownership of the exploration licenses for Francisco Basin and La Buena Verde? Are these licenses wholly owned by the company, and what extent do they allow the company to operate to a production capacity with expected tie up with an offtaker? Yeah. We wholly own the licenses in both Francisco Bay City and La Verde and Yamara. In La Buena Verde, part of the licenses, we we maintain and and and and we explore and everything because they're part of an option agreement. Again, if we click year per year, all the agreements of the option agreement, we will wholly own them.

1:02:57 Option agreements are are are much better than a like, if you compare it to a to a to a house or an apartment, at least to own. From the day you sign the option agreement, the people who you sign with, they cannot access the property. It's it's it's it's yours. You can they you can you can explore. You You can exploit. You can do everything without asking any permit or anything. And, again, as you comply with all the the things you you agreed on the option agreement, you register them in the mining registry, and then it becomes your 100%. Are there other sellers another question. Are there other sellers in Chile that will be looking in the future beyond the current three? Yes.

1:03:44 Of course, we will. And we were we just because of our credentials, our work, we've been always, from day one, being a company that does initial sampling, does geophysics, does initial drilling setups setups all these studies, to to move the projects into production. We don't like, to just make announcements of news or data collected by someone else. We'd like to do everything from our own work. Steve, why do you believe the company is so undervalued compared to its peers at this stage? What do you think I I I think if you compare us to, probably the most similar node company is Lake Resources in in Argentina.

1:04:34 Lake have got a resource of 4,000,000 tons of lithium carbonate equivalent. We've declared 1.5. We'll have Francisco Basin, and we've got exploration programs. You know, our our our brokers and and and analysts expect us to get into a similar size of resource as as Lake Resources. We own our resources a 100%. Lake only own 80% of their resource. They've given 20% of the company away to to to LITHIUM that provide their their technology. And if you compare the market capitalization, we are only at $50,000,000 today for potentially a 4,000,000 ton project.

1:05:24 Lake resources are over a billion dollars market capitalization for an equivalent sum of 4,000,000 tons of resources. So that gives you an idea of the tremendous scope for value change over the course of the next period as we, you issue more and more results on the resources and the technology into the market. Thank you, Steve. The last question, we'll see if it's a more come. The CLEANTECH LITHIUM PLC from a 2,000 liter sample. This equates to a minimum grade of 500 milligrams per liter. How was such a high grade achieved? We tested, just the resin absorption, and and and we we we we had a good result. The resin worked better than any other resin we've tested before.

1:06:19 And and from there on, it was forced evaporation. It was it didn't all the other components of the flow, like reverse osmosis and every other things that we could have lost some of the lithium was not used. So that's that's how we we produce a high grade. We we constantly produce again with a very high recovery of the of the initial lithium in the in the brine. And from there on, we went with force evaporation and the traditional way of enriching lithium with sodium carbonate to produce battery grade lithium carbonate. Do we have all the questions? And I don't know if anything else. We're very pleased by the response by the the questions. We're all important.

1:07:05 And I don't know if you have, Steve, any closing remarks. I'll I'll do, Steve, if I may just jump back in there. Go on, sir. After you. We we listed we listed on on AIM to to get our initial financing of our our our program. Since then, we have been listed on Frankfurt, and we are getting requests from institutions in Australia that there would be far more interest in the company if we were dual listed in Australia.

1:07:55 We've had a number of discussions with investment funds in The United States who are also interested in the company, but they would only invest if we are listed in the in The US on the OTC market as well. So we are working with our brokers to look at what is the best coverage globally we should have in terms of our our alternative listings to give maximum opportunity for shareholders to invest in the company. Steve, that's great. And Aldo as well. Thank you very much indeed for taking the time to address all those questions that came in from investors today. And, of course, immediately after the presentation has ended, we'll give you back all of the questions submitted today for your review, then add any additional responses where it's appropriate to do so. Aldo, perhaps before redirecting those on the call to provide you their feedback, which I know is particularly important to yourself and the company, if I could please just ask you for a few closing comments to wrap up with, that'd be great.

1:08:55 Yeah. Today is a very important day for us. Our our updated York numbers and figure were released. We're very pleased with the upgraded more than 22% global resource, but even more happy about the more than 800,000 tons that are are inferred and and in the I mean, measured and indicated, and that that gives us a glimpse of a of of a production of 2,000 tons per per per year, ratified how many years we'll go with that with the with the scoping study and then the feasibility study. Along with with everything else we've been doing and the and the rise of the stock over the last month, month and a half or so.

1:09:44 And the the fundamentals of the business are there. Chile is a good jurisdiction in serious country and and has been always a a great mining place. Steve can attest to that and myself and my whole family, and and there's the headquarters of of of mining in the world of of the likes of and and and other companies are are here. The the renewable energy, it it's plenty and more more more and more is being developed there, and and and we have a great infrastructure in place. The team in Chile and in in The UK and Jersey is an exceptional team, and and it's it's growing with people and capacities on a day per day basis. And people from other parts of the world, from Canada, are also coming and and and helping us on a on a regular basis.

1:10:42 The resources and other fundamentals of the businesses are are are there, and it will only grow as as we invest the investors' money into into the the the projects. And then direct use in extraction with our own work and the work of our partners, It's and and the work that the LITHIUM did for us before, it it it will advance us to to a proven technology and and and a proven work and with all the green credentials. So we'll we'll expect the the the at this undervalued stock to to keep on on rising. We're we're doing a lot of PR and marketing efforts and with extensive travel and and work just as today.

1:11:33 So presenting the company to people, current investors and new people, so new investors. So very thankful, and wish everyone a good day. Aldo, that's great. And, Steve, as well, thank you once again for taking the time to update investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected for the opportunity to provide your feedback in order that the management team can best understand your views and expectations? This will only take a few moments to complete, but I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of CLEANTECH LITHIUM PLC, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That now concludes today's session, so good afternoon to you all.