Cleantech Lithium (LSE:CTL) — Scoping Study Results - Laguna Verde

0:00 Good afternoon, 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 anytime by the Q and A tab situated in the right hand corner of your screen. Just simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received in the meeting itself. However, the company will review all questions submitted today and publish responses where it is appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to doctor, CEO. Good afternoon, sir.

0:32 Hi. Good afternoon. Very enthusiastic, and I wish you, everyone, a very successful 2023. I'm joined by our chairman, doctor Steve Kessler, and our distinguished CFO, Gordon Stein. And let's start. This is a CLEANTECH LITHIUM snapshot of what we're doing. We have three projects. We have more than 500 square kilometers of license areas. The two more developed projects are the ones who sit in the southern tip of the Lithium Triangle, Laguna Verde and Francisco Basin. They both add up for resources in exceed in excess of 2,000,000 tons of of lithium carbonate. We're drilling in both basins. We control this whole basin, and and we expect to upgrade the the resource by by the first quarter of this year. Again, I just mentioned that they're wholly owned licensed basins. We don't have additional projects in the area, and there's no indigenous communities.

1:30 We sit at 4,300 meters in the case of the Buenavirta and Francisco Basin. Yamara project is much farther north and sits at a 1,000 meter above sea level elevation. And that's one of the reason the 4,300 meters is one of the reasons there's no major also flora or fauna. We have a very experienced board and management who have developed new major production projects, not only in Chile, but around the world. I'll let Steve introduce himself that is time, our Chairman and his experience and also our CFO, Gordon. We listed on AIM on 03/17/2022. We raised between the pre IPO and the IPO funds at GBP 9,600,000. We actually won an award for being the most successful IPO of last year.

2:17 And we raised then in November additional a little bit above the £12,000,000 in November. The breakup of the 2,000,000 tons, 800,000 of them are indicated and measured, and that's they're all in Laguna Verde, and the remaining are a combination of inferred resources in Francisco Basin and the remaining inferred resources in Laguna Verde. We just released last Thursday a scoping study of Laguna Verde who give us a first indication of the of the project this project value. Laguna Verde is a it's a it's a Hyper saline lake. We control again the the whole basin of this, and that's very important for the eardlysium extraction or for because you by then, you can control the the hydrological variables of the basin, and you can quickly free inject the spent brine, 100 a percent of the spent brine back into the reservoir without depleting it.

3:13 Already mentioned the resource estimate and the and the grade we have. And, again, most more than 50%, 53% is measured and indicated of that 1,500,000 tons of of resource. There's a big geothermal influence. All the drilling we've done so far in the in the basin has come with temperatures from 20 degrees Celsius and above. And again, as we're drilling both in those red marks in the map, LBO 5 and LBO 6, Lagoona 5, Lagoona Verde 6, we're drilling both places. That will come up with an an upgraded resource, and we'll be releasing to the market the news of the drilling results and then an updated resource as we go. The scoping study supports this, the WABA to be a major supplier of battery grade lithium in the whole world. Our aim at CLEANTECH is to be the greenest lithium producer of the world in a combination of renewable energy and the technology the acquisition instruction that I'll mention as we go on the presentation.

4:11 The accumulated calculations of net cash flows past taxes and royalties is USD 63,000,000,000. US dollars. It will generate over the life of these assets. And and there's very attractive economics of a net present value of $1,830,000,000. The discount is 8%, and the pox the post tax IRR is forty five one. The payback is very short as the prices of lithium are high, and the the the margins are also high. The prefeasibility already started as as we speak with Worley, and we're targeting the competition of this in second quarter of two thousand twenty three with further derisking and more information about this our flagship project.

4:56 Who worked in our scoping study? This is some of the background. This study was undertaken by that Infinitum, who's run by Marcelo Bravo, one of the most experienced person in the whole world, O'Brien and worked around in various projects all over the world, and he's a brilliant team. It's an engineering service companies based in Antofagasta, the top mining town of Chile with a lot of, like I said, a lot of experience. Some of their clients are in the lithium space are SQM, Aldebarley, Ganfeng, Gallant Lithium, all the major players. They're specialized not only in lithium but in other types of minerals that are in brine, like potassium sulfate and other elements. They provide all the technical solutions that allow us the project to be developed at this stage. They'll be part of the consulting as we go forward with engineering pre feasibility and then feasibility.

5:49 In LITHIUM, in particular, they work in Chile, Argentina, China and Korea and elsewhere. In the scoping study, going again with the background of the participants, direct extraction capital costs were estimated by Sunreason Sunreason, a Chinese world class provider of of all the DMV plants that they are being have been built or are in process of being built. The lithium price was estimated by Canaccord Genuity, one of our two brokers, and it's a market leading broker, as we all know. The mineral resources were were signed by independent competent person with all the requirements. Yeah. His name is Christian Fabesen, very respected, a lot of experience.

6:34 This is all the companies who work. It's a big engineering and and teamwork effort between the people who work very experienced at CLEANTECH and the people who we contacted for doing this job in all the various fronts. The the risk the effective volume of of of of all the mineral resource estimates, it's it's seventy three seventy three one million cubic meters. The the average grade is two zero six of lithium, milligrams per liter. The the mass, it's 150. All this all this information here allow us for a thirty year operational life of 20,000 ton per annum production as a study, as a base study. It could raise as we improve the resource, as we drill drill more, and and it could be a different number. But this is the the base of all the of all the numbers.

7:32 Again, new new resource will will come up as as we drill and we expand the projects, and then the the present value of the project and everything, economics will change. We we con we consider 23 extraction wells. And here, you can see some of the drawings where the plant facilities are. The the the red is shows the the the well field. The plant facility, it's not seen from the major highway that goes through the to the property into a pay highway that goes into Argentina. We're doing everything to minimize the not only the the overall emissions components, but also the visual visual affecting the the this beautiful place. So we're doing the all that was part of the of the work we did in the scoping study.

8:20 Destructed brine is is mixed in the tank before going into the direct lithium extraction plant and and the columns where the resin is. And then we have 17 spent brine reinjection wells. 100% of that is is reinjected back into reinjection fields, and that will require some some pumping. And and we're undergoing the full further hydrological work ongoing, not only studies, but billing to really develop this this model, the structure and reinjection model as as one as much as we can. We need 66 letters liters per second of freshwater to to to work on the on on all the plant.

9:07 Again, 100% of the spent brine is reinjected, and those 66 liters per second, a portion of it, it's reinjected also back and is recirculated. That's why it's so low. We're working on the assumption that we'll need two of those wells for further going into the project. I don't know. You want to go here, Steve? Do you want to No, no. You just No, I'll keep going. Okay. Continue. Yes. Yeah. And on the process recovery, it's very efficient. The overall number, it's 85% of lithium recovery at the end of the process of lithium fine region in The Rhine and 95% of the level of the resin work. It's a combination of the whole DLE part. It's mainly mechanical and organic process with resins and reverse osmosis and mechanical evaporation.

10:08 And then once we have this liquid or eluate in excess of 10,000 parts per million, we go the traditional way of enrichment lithium via all the way into lithium carbonate or lithium hydroxide. Again, remind the market that we produce one kilo sample of high purity lithium carbonate that we tested and we certified in Germany and in in excess of the requirement of the of the industry for being making a battery grade.

10:40 We we are working right now on a on a small unit pilot plant, and we are doing the engineering and already make the purchase order over one ton per month producing plant to further be producing lithium on a continuous basis to be provided to the to the producers of batteries and people who who will make the product in the future.

11:02 This is what I already said, the the recovery of the of the of the BLE stage, 85, the whole process. This compares to anything between 4045% of the evaporation ponds that we don't have. And and the overall recovery, it's it's it's anywhere between thirty five and forty, and hour is 85. So very pleased with this. It's we're working again on the piloting stage at the lab scale with a small unit that we have that we bought from a subsidiary of Sun Resin in Belgium in Europe, and we're doing all the modeling work. And we expand that into a large unit that will produce one ton per month sometime this year. Again, the base case is 20,000 tons per day. So we can get all the details if you want, and this presentation will be shared with you.

11:55 To validate and adjust all this process, we're going to continue working with Ad Infinitum and Worley Parson, a specialist in the field to really have the best technology and and and achieve all our goals of recovery and impurities and a sustainable production of lithium.

12:17 Like I said, we already ordered this one ton per per month, a DLE plant that we're combining with our own technical chemical plant that will be providing the lithium to the to the market on a continuous basis or either or lithium hydroxide or or lithium carbonate. I already mentioned some of the water and and and power. The requirements are a capacity of 23.2 megawatts. There's enough nearby substations with ample capacity to to provide this, and we've talked to providers. We're already engaged in initial conversations to have a PPA. That's the power purchase agreement to have a hundred percent twenty four seven renewable energy on at the project. The the line and as part of the scoping study, it's an underground line of electricity line from the substation all the way to the to the property so we don't affect the the environment.

13:18 That's total energy consumption. All the data is there. And and what I already mentioned is it's a small supply of 66 liters per second. Both both basins have, in particular, La Buena Verde, but also Francisco Basin, in excess of wells of 300 to 500 liters per second that have been built in the past for other other studies and and and and other work, and we need a portion of that. And and even that number, 66.6 liters, is not fully fully used because we have recirculation, and then we are reinjecting some of that spent fresh water back. A 100 again of the spent brine is reinjected back. Going to the numbers, the I don't know. You wanna take here, Gordon?

14:07 I'll take this one. Yeah. Thanks. It's probably worth mentioning there's there's a a real in-depth study done on on the numbers, both from data from database. They're actually operating in Argentina at the moment and other places. So they had a massive data looking at the various breakup of what would be the operating costs. We we were actually modeling for four and a half thousand tonnes per, sorry, dollars per tonne. And we were very pleasantly surprised at the numbers that came up with just short of $4,000 at $3,800 a tonne. Two really main elements energy that Aldo's already talked about. Again capacity available and that that in it is based on current current energy prices as mapped by ad infinitum. And then on the reagents as well as part of the the processing process.

14:54 And actually the transportation costs, all of those all of those costs are a really detailed breakdown. They had a pretty extensive model which we audited independently. We had an independently audited to make sure that we were comfortable with what we're putting what they were coming out from what they put in. And actually, you see that the the this manpower costs are are an element of that. We're looking at really about 220 people once we're actually up and running. This is on in the operational phase. We're probably looking at potentially potentially up to double that in the construction phase, particularly with shift patterns and so on, but you're looking at, you know, a pretty extensive construction phase and then moving into the operational phase. And this is about employing local people, training local people, using universities, doing the right thing in country.

15:39 And for example, when we construct a plant on-site, we're looking at five five, maybe eight people from Sun Resin being there. The rest are all gonna be local people working under their guidance. So pleasantly surprised that the operating costs are just short of $4,000 a tonne. That compares very favorably with other of our peers in Argentina and elsewhere, and I think it's in the right place. If you remember, we're modeling the numbers at 22,000 sales price per tonne, so you can see that the actual margin on OpEx versus the actual sales price is pretty impressive. The next slide please.

16:18 CapEx, I mean, it would appear it sounds like a chunky number, just short of 400,000,383. This is we went through an extensive exercise with ad infinitum and then providing data really on on the indirect costs and the services based on their their database. Four basic elements, the the the the well field CapEx and the calculation of 23 extraction wells was based on various different modeling done on output per well, how much you need to use, what capacity you have for for maintenance and so on and so forth. So 23 brine wells was what was calculated at an average flow rate that you see of 30 liter per sec 30 liters per second. And that will that will eventually provide the the the 20,000 tonnes per annum. As as Aldo mentioned, the 20,000 tonnes is the starting point. That's what we're basing the study on, and the potential of the field could be much much greater than that. That'll obviously depend on a number of factors as we move through the different stages of the project. But all all of the work we're doing now is based on a on a base case of 20,000 tonnes per annum of production facility.

17:26 And that basically would come on in in in a couple of stages. I'll show you later in a in a cash flow chart. As mentioned, there'll be brine reinjection wells going back into the reservoir, underground pipelines, and also the two wells for processing supply. That's what two wells are pretty that's a low level of cost in terms of the capacity, so less less than a million dollars for the two water wells. Plant CapEx, these are numbers, hard numbers that we've got from Sun Resin. So the the plant and plant CapEx numbers made up the daily plant, the chemical plant, which will do the downstream element beyond the daily process, and then the packaging story, get handling, moving it to site, so on out to to sales point. So all of that has been pretty well extensively determined and modeled.

18:12 And, actually, you know, we've we've we've challenged them and cut some of those costs, and then they they added on a 10% continuous at the end. You just just normal industry standard. We think that is is is is pretty reasonable. And you see the services and the CapEx there. Services is part of the young the ongoing process getting the electricity supply up and running. That that that means full tie in to all the substations the substation Aldo mentioned and all the basically all all the all the systems and processes. You see firefighting systems in there, was a surprise to me. This is this is Chilean regulation there, you know, mining industry, they do things right. So there's a process we have to go through which we have to have to budget for. Indirect cost is really the all the cost of the construction phase in the camps and the and also you see polyclinical.

18:58 So when you've got three, four hundred people on-site, you have to make sure you've you're feeding them well and so forth. So that those that number there is comparable. You can do some

19:07 cross checks against other companies that are building plants at the moment. It's a 50,000 ton plant being built in Argentina, 700,000,000. So this is in the right ballpark. We're at 20,000 tons. So we're reasonably comfortable. This is a reasonable number, and I'll take you through later on in terms of how we're gonna fund this, what the plan is in terms of funding.

19:27 You want to do the next slide, please? This is the summary. It's what you've seen in the in the press release. 20,000 ton per annum. Operational life, thirty years. We think that is is is conservative. We think this could go on for for longer. It really depends on the additional resource that we're gonna unlock into our current drilling campaign. But it's all based on measured and indicated. Although, obviously, we have the inferred, which we're gonna hopefully turn into measured indicated through this current drilling campaign. That's the plan. Construction period of a year and a half. Some people have said that sounds long, actually. This is this is 400 people, you know, putting together a a a a facility. You know? And it one and a half years, we think, is a reasonable time scale. It's you could argue it's conservative, but, you know, we think that that in terms of getting up and running, commissioning, and getting the field on on on up and running is is not unreasonable.

20:22 Certainly, in our industry, where it takes normally five to seven years for mining projects to get up and running. And think we'll we'll we'll recover over that again later. Aldo's mentioned the recovery rate's pretty high, 90% recovery rates through the DLE process, which is why DLE is likely to be the future of the whole way the lithium industry works because of the recovery factors that you receive on on the brine. You've seen the capital cost and the operating cost. Probably worth mentioning the lithium price. We used numbers that came from our independent numbers came from Canaccord, which they use across all their portfolio. I think it was August or September numbers. The number we used as a base case in the model was $22,500 a ton. That's what they were recommending in September.

21:09 Probably worth mentioning that the current price is three times that. It's the average price weighted average price in the benchmark mineral intelligence report we received yesterday for December was $68,000.400. Now the market expects that to come down as supply and demand curve starts to narrow. But our expectation and other expectation is that, you know, 22,000 a ton is conservative, if anything. There's a lot of upside there, and that's where the market's seeing it. You know, that we think that that was a reasonable base case number, and you'll see we run sensitivities around that as well. Cumulative net cash flow is 6,300,000,000. That's not to be sniffed at. That's net cash flow after royalties and tax. That's take. And then the payback one year eight months.

21:55 Now that one year eight months is based on $22,000 a ton. If the price is higher at the time we're coming on stream, then that will obviously reduce assuming all the other assumptions remain the same. We were very pleased with the IRR. Forty five percent's in the right place for a project of this type. In fact, it's in a very good place for a project of this type. And this will result in very good economics for for for funding purposes, which I'll take you through a little later on. And you see we run some discounts. 8%, people wonder why it's 8%. Pretty standard in the industry because of the nature of the business and the long term nature.

22:31 Two or three of our peers, which won't won't mention their names, abused 8% in their BFSs within the last year. We run 10% as well. You still see, your numbers getting towards $1,500,000,000 of NPV value at those prices.

22:48 The next chart is on the by the way, somebody asked for a larger copy of this. You will get you'll see that on our website later on. This this presentation will be on the website this afternoon. I'll just run you through some of the highlights. I looked at this morning again. You see production comes on stream in year one. That's probably '20 they're assuming '26. They've taken a prudent view given the one and a half years to bring the field under production and commission the field. And then they bring it on, but they're assuming in the first year, there'll be a little off spec production. We're not necessarily as conservative as that, but that's this is their model, which we audited, and and these these are reasonably prudent numbers. Operational costs is actually see, the operational costs are significantly lower than than than the revenues.

23:36 And then with some other costs, basically, operational costs only represent about 20% of the or 15 to 20% of the overall revenue stream. The margins are interesting. Gross margin there above 80%, you know, in any in any industry, that's pretty good as a as a starting point. And then from there, obviously, we we would take away royalties. Royalties are assumed based on what we presented to when we submitted the CLEAN March last year, that was before the presidential change. The numbers you you see in here are what we put in our admission document and what we're assuming at least for modeling purposes, what we what we go back within a CL, which we're likely to submit again in the very near future. We've got a a good dialogue going on with government about the the the process going forward on that.

24:24 And you'll have another slide on that later on. The three payments you see there, royalties, those are those are assumed they are effectively CL payments. One is a straight 3% royalty that comes off the top. That's pretty standard. And also there's an r and d payment, one and a half percent, which goes into the local community, and it's another tax effectively. And the remaining annual specific payment is basically it's a ratchet mechanism as as as the price goes up in the margin. It's based on the operating margin. You see there, we've got an operating margin in excess of 70%. It's pretty, pretty good. And that drives the the royalty rate associated with that. The table goes up as the as the margin goes up. And that margin itself there would have a rate of about 13% in terms of what's being flowed through the model. Obviously, as as the lithium price goes up, you're gonna get to beyond 80% and anything around a bit beyond 85%, you're paying 16% maximum, which in any any worldwide industries is is not unreasonable.

25:26 Bottom line is that this tax is 27% tax, which we're we're budgeting for. We'll get offsets during the the the recovery of CapEx. But oh, net net, I did some numbers this morning. You're looking really at at the net take is you know, just just purely royalties and taxes is about 30%. On on on obviously, top of that, government gets a lot more on top of that through payroll taxes, VAT, and other a lot of other taxes. They just come from your whole business business process.

25:59 So just looking at the bottom line, the profit after taxes, you're seeing basic basically, that those prices, $200,000,000 a year. You know? If you do some math, that's a pretty chunky number. And these are very, very strong numbers for for conversations we're gonna have on the funding going forward. I'll come to that. Those are the cash flow numbers. I'll have you answer questions later on on those.

26:22 Aldo?

26:23 Yep. I'll move to the the next one. Gordon? Yeah. This is some sensitivities. It it what's interesting there, if you look at the CapEx sensitivities on the top there, if we increase that CapEx by 25%, the the the impact on the the NPV is not huge. You know? It's effectively $70,000,000 $70,000,000, but, you know, CapEx is not the main cost driver of this this project given the extent of the the timeline. And likewise with OpEx, even even if the OpEx went up 25%,

26:58 the OpEx is not dissimilar to the the CapEx. Price is a funny one. They only really modeled 25% increase in price. As I mentioned earlier, you could you could triple the price as a potential upside, but you can see the price is the main variable, which is not unsurprising in terms of modeling. And it's yep. So and then, obviously, you look at the the the way the IRR moves on on on sensitivities. I think that's probably enough said in that.

27:27 Yep. Aldo? Yep. So we'll go back to the Is this Steve? Project itself. Steve? Yep. Yep. And I'll pass it to Steve. I I like a small introduction of yourself, Steve, before Sure. I I mean, in in the mining industry my entire life for major companies like Rio Tinto, BHP, Billiton, I was previously CEO of ASX listed European lithium. I worked thirty years in in Chile doing major projects initially with with Escondida, largest copper mining company in the world, and then as the first CEO,

28:08 bringing Kaiawasi from early exploration into into construction through all of the feasibility studies, permitting, and financing of that. That was a $1,750,000,000 project, which is the second largest copper project in the world. I spent most of the last twenty, thirty years of my life in project development in various parts of the world. If we go to and my background is

28:35 in hydrometallurgy. I have a PhD in in hydrometallurgy, so, this technology is right on the street, as well. Where we are at the moment, we have the resource results have been declared at Laguna Verde and Francisco Basin. We have current drilling campaigns going on in both.

28:57 We'll we'll be extending the the the resource, especially the measure indicated at both projects in the first quarter, second quarter of next year. That'll give us a good idea about not just this one, Laguna Verde, and its potential into the future, but also Francisco Basin.

29:17 As Aldo mentioned, we're proceeding on with the the pre feasibility study, and this is an essential part of the of the process of project development. It's at this stage that we're looking at all the alternatives which are available to us to design the optimum project. What capacity should it be? What is the optimum processing technology?

29:42 Where should the plants be be

29:46 be be cited? What is the best product? Is it going to be all carbonate? Should we be doing a mixture of carbonate and hydroxide? Should it be all high all all hydroxide? All this comes up in the central stage of the prefeasibility.

30:00 And it's when we finish the prefeasibility, that's where we take the fix as what is the project we're gonna bring into production, and then we go into the the DFS, and we'd start doing the, you know, the serious engineering on the project and developing the capital cost for the financing of of the project. So that's the flow on the technical studies. So the pilot plant work is is essential to provide the process data feeding into the PFS. Now in parallel to that, we have an aquifer, which we started drilling earlier in earlier in 2022. We have to have a very full understanding of the hydrogeology of the aquifer and what happens when we extract brine and when we reinject brine to make sure it's designed in in a way

30:57 that we can maintain that extraction rate from the aquifer and to reinject the brine in areas where we don't lead to dilution of the lithium content of the brine that we are are extracting. This study is ongoing at at at at the moment. The other main study, which is absolutely essential, is the environmental work. We're already engaged on the on the baseline work, And in doing that, it is a requirement to conduct that baseline work over four seasons. This means over twelve months of collecting baseline data on fauna, flora, meteorology, liminology,

31:40 rainfall, precipitation, everything. We must collect that data. Then when we have finalized the process in the prefeasibility study, we then look at the impact of our process on the, on on the environment. Once we've completed that, that's the environmental impact assessment. We then have to provide that to the,

32:04 to the government, and it's reviewed as a there's bits of backwards and forwards on that to get the environmental permit and then all the other sectoral permits that will allow us to go into in into production. So so the key thing, there's two three parallel streams here. There's there's the technical process to identify what is optimum. There's a hydrogeology to understand the aquifer, and it's the environmental work all going on in in in parallel. So we expect to get to a position later this year, probably third quarter, when we actually have the the prefeasibility study complete. So when people say, look, aren't you going slow? There's a lot of work. My experience is that normally, a mining project takes a minimum of seven years from start of exploration to first production.

32:57 Often, is much, much longer. We're talking from the start of of exploration and drilling in 2022 and being into production late two thousand and

33:08 twenty five, early two thousand and twenty six, which is four years, which is incredibly fast for a mining project. So I I know a number of people say, well, why don't you go faster? We are going very fast for a mining project.

33:29 Gob, do you wanna take over? This one's mine. Yes. Obviously, we're a company of a certain market cap at the moment, and we would obviously hope to be a bigger market cap as we go through this year, as we bring new information into the market, resource upgrades and various other information that we're bringing through, including the pilot plant results. But Steve and myself and actually Aldo through different we've all been involved in major funding projects. So between the the three four of us and then there's Jason as well, we've raised in excess of $24,000,000,000 sorry, 4,000,000,000 through different projects. I've raised $750,000,000 on one project to bid for something in the North Sea.

34:09 So what would what's likely to happen is there's going to be a real mix of funding. Since this scoping study was announced, I've had contact from three different groups who want to talk to us about different things, including financing institutions in different different jurisdictions around the world. So we we were always expecting that once we start putting data out like the scoping study that was you know, people are gonna start noticing what we're doing.

34:33 And over the course of the year, as we we move through the PFS, we'll have a far better dataset available to share with parties. We already have a data room with some people in, but that's early days. And if you actually look at the mix of where the the funding is likely to come from, I'll just walk you through some of the scenarios because some of them are unique to to ourselves. On the left there, you've got the banks. I mean, 400,000,000 is a a nice number, but the banks this sort of project will will will secure, you know, two thirds funding, potentially more. Steve said to me yesterday, probably up to 75% based on his information. Probably worth mentioning that that Steve put together a $1,750,000,000 package to fund

35:10 one of the projects he's involved in, which included 60% debt. And then there was various other funds coming from partners and various other institutions. So we we we pulled together these sort of structures before. But the banks, there's different facilities you can look at putting in place. And and actually, because we're a green company, we're doing things we believe in a sustainable manner. That ticks a lot of boxes. You notice it's HSBC now refuses to to lend money into fossil fuels. We're not in that category. We we we're we're in that perfect mix. So we'll be talking to banks and financial institutions and also banks that will strategic partners will bring us. Strategic partners is is is is where we're gonna be focusing a lot of our resources.

35:56 You've seen the Teslas of this world talking about buying mines. You've seen Solantis getting into Vulcan Energy. You've seen other companies, Ford and GM Motors. There's international traders who have approached this. There's battery manufacturers we've been talking to in early stage conversations. These are big companies where this sort of money is just a a pinprick on their balance sheet. And the way they tend to structure things is they may take a a small equity stake in the project, not in the company, but the project, or they may not. The the driver is off take. The driver is security supply of a product which they hopefully believe in, and we'll be sending examples of the product to the various parties. As the pilot plant gets up and running, there'll be literally lithium on the move to to potential buyers to test in their own processes. And, hopefully, coming from that, we'll have some really detailed live conversations.

36:52 But you the the the structure could involve an element of an emptying the project, bringing banks to banks to pay. When Steve did that project in in in in Chile, that was Mitsubishi bringing Japanese banks into play through their contacts to effectively facilitating those processes. That's gonna that's gonna be a really interesting conversation as this year goes by. And our hope is that we're getting close to some sort of transaction or deal in the latter part of this year. We'll have the PFS data there, the environmental impact, the the pilot plant results, and hopefully more significant resource, including measured and indicated at a much higher level. So there'll be some really interesting conversations in the latter part of this year. The next one is the US government. This is an interesting one.

37:37 The Biden administration passed the inflation reduction act about two, three months ago and then promptly gave a $150,000,000 to LILAC to to to develop that product and develop the r and d. They're looking for clean product for for their electric car batteries, and 80% of the of the the product they get has to come from from clean sources. Chile we're in the forged position. Chile's got a free trade agreement with the US government. That means it it it complies with the requirements. So we've already had an approach from the US embassy. We'll be talking to them in the near future, both in The UK and and and in in Chile and potentially in The US as well. So we see there's real potential there for either direct grants or loans or different funding structures as we move through that because obviously US market is a is a is gonna be a key market for us potentially.

38:31 Infrastructure funds, it's really an offshoot really of of of banking, But, you know, there are various funds that focus on on on on green green energy, so we'll be looking at that as well. ESG funds is another interesting one. There's trillions of dollars sitting in funds that that companies are only allowed to invest in ESG projects. They usually require certain certifications, so we've already had a study done, which they've reported on, and an independent consultant did a study which we our board's discussed looking at what do we need to do to become certified as an ESG compliant company. And we've got an active program. We're setting up an ESG committee. We're internal within the company, which will have internal and external people involved in that to to to guide us through a process to see if we can unlock ESG funds. This is cheap money in the sense of of funding projects because it's sitting there looking for a home.

39:22 And then the balance is gonna be equity. It's always something that where we would look to bring equity on at the right time and hopefully at the right share price. We see this as being a a oh, we seem to have lost the thing. We see this as being a smaller part of the whole funding mix. And Steve's been through projects of that nature. I've been through projects. So the the the funding of 400,000,000 doesn't phase us. It's part of a a process to to move through your development phase, and we're looking forward to actually having some really interesting conversations as the year goes by. Yeah. We've we've been we've been mentioned to the presentation the the how supportive the government is of sustainable extraction. The ministry of the treasury ministry not only quoted in September 2022 the importance of of of investments and so on, but he specifically on lithium just a couple of weeks ago mentioned the fact that there'll there'll be an announcement soon from the government on the on creating space for Chile, recovering the number one position as the world producer of of lithium that's been taken by Australia a couple of years ago. Before that, it was Chile.

40:34 And and and it'll be it'll be a space for for public company in the in the sense that Codelco is one of them right now. It's a state owned company that is drilling and and developing in Mariconga and Salar in north of us. But at the same time for private, like us, and we've been talking and and Invest Chile has been working with us on the treasury department and supporting this, especially because of our sustainable approach with no aquifer depletion, with a small footprint, with no harm to the environment, and and we're doing all the right work engaging with the local community, not only the the indigenous communities who live a couple of hours from the side and and throughout and and 2,000 meters below, but also Copiapole mining town where we're working with university as it was mentioned by by Gordon.

41:25 Steve, I don't know if you wanna summarize the whole presentation. Yeah. Yeah. I I I I think that, no, this this gives, you know, the, you know, the bullet points about why this is such a good project. I've already mentioned we are in a very short lead time into production. We're using a DLE technology, is gonna be the the future. We're using SunRisin as the provider of that technology who is the leading supplier in the world. We don't have a lot of infrastructure, no, to build. We have excellent physical infrastructure in Chile. Not only that, but we have excellent human infrastructure in Chile. Chile is a mining country. It's a very technically proficient country. It understands the the the the the mining industry. And in Kopiopo, it is in Region 3 that is a mining district. So no problems in getting skilled people.

42:20 We are up at 4,300 meters, very little in in, you flora and fauna. There's no local people within a 100 kilometers. We don't expect to have any problems in getting our environmental permits in place. The government clearly wants to expand the the lithium production in Chile, and it needs the private sector to help it do do do that. We've got current financing to complete our technical studies to to PFS. We're starting to look at where we'll get the, you know, the finance for construction. We believe we're gonna be such a robustly cash strong project that there'll be no problems in in in getting that finance in in place. One of the keys, you know, we know we're gonna have a number of of people wanting to come into the project.

43:10 The quid pro quo is if you want offtake, we want to see your contribution to the construction costs and how much capital can be mobilized to come into this project. We talked about this as our aim to be the greenest lithium producer in the world. We're putting our ESG credentials now right up front, renewable energy, minimum impact on the visual in environment, training and mobilization of of people locally. So these are all the factors that we believe should lead to a very successful project. Mhmm. Yep. I think that's us. Yeah. Yep. That's us. Aldo, Steve, Gordon, thank you very much for your presentation.

43:58 Ladies and gentlemen, please do continue to submit your questions. Just use the q and a tab, which is situated on the top right hand corner of your screen. Just for the company to take a few moments to view those questions submitted today, I'd 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. Received a number of questions, both presubmitted as well as throughout today's presentation. And, Aldo, Steve Gordon, if I could just hand out over to you to read out the questions and give response to it as appropriate to do so, I'll pick up from you all at the end. The first of the presubmitted question is the recent announcement were not reflected in the share They're asking us what do you think are the reasons for this. Steve? Steve? I think Yeah. I I think no. What what we've done with with the scoping study is really confirmed, you know, what the brokers have had in their reports over the course of the last few months. You know, they expected this to be a very robust project we've demonstrated.

44:53 Yes. It is. Now now, clearly, the share price hasn't gone up because there hasn't been a great deal of people buying into the project. Project. And I think there's still a few concerns out there, which we are addressing, we hope to address as we move further. You know, the one people said, well, how are you gonna finance 400,000,000? Gordon's just told everybody how we intend to to do that. There's still chilly risk. Now talk of the the national lithium company. Does that mean there's space for private sector or not? Are you gonna get your operating permit, your your your CL? We're saying we are in discussion with government. They've said they're very supportive of of private sector.

45:40 When we get that CL in place, that will demonstrate to our investors and new investors that that part has been de derisked. People say cash flow is so far away. It's only less than three years away. You know, again, that is very, very fast. There has been concern in the lithium market in general. There's been some of the banks, Goldman Sachs, that was out there fairly recently projecting great softening of the of the lithium price. Lots of other industry specialists say say no. They believe there will be some softening from the sort of 65 to $70,000 a year, not in this next year, but they expect to see the price stay stronger for longer. We've been very conservative using a $22,500 a ton price in our study. So we believe that there's gonna be lots and lots of scope, you know, for share price appreciation as we put the news out over the course of the next six months of our increase in resources, results from the pilot plant, what's gonna happen with the, you know, the terms and conditions of of the sale, how we go with with potential strategic in in investors.

47:00 So I think, yeah, that people are, you know, waiting to see what's gonna happen over the next six months. But it's best my belief is to get in early. You the price is is abnormally low for a project which is as robust as this, and tremendous upgrading potential during the course of this coming year. Okay. Thanks, Steve. The next question is what levels do you want the share price to be at before you start investing in direct lithium extraction? Basically, it's totally independent. We are investing in direct lithium extraction. That's the technology we're using. We've done the studies on DLE. To date, we're buying the pilot plant, which is DLE. We're doing our engineering for DLE. We're investing in DLE.

47:46 That is the technology for us, and that's the technology for lithium brines into the future. Yeah. The question is how often the excellent tanks will will be received and use an information from us in 2023 with our workflow workflow program. We already went when we went to to Laguna Verde. We're currently drilling. We are gonna release those results, the initial drilling results, then the updated resource. We're working with the installing the irrigation instruction and the initial results of that. And and all the engineering work on the environmental front on the PFS of the the scoping study of of Negro Francisco. And so and much more. All those will be the news will be will be an announcement.

48:32 It's it's in our website and in this presentation in more detail. I'll do I'll do if I can just add to that. That that's Lugueneverdi, and and that that's one of our programs. We've got Francisco Basin in Yamara as well. Francisco Basin Yeah. We've got an active drilling we're we're drilling now, drilling going well, and we're we're we will announce the results of that. It's a three well campaign. Second well, we've reentered recently just after Christmas, and we're up and running. So the the plan there is in the early part of quarter two is to announce hopefully a significant upgrade in resource. We've got improving from one well to three wells, so we would expect to see, you know, measured and indicated as well as a significant increase in inferred there. And then Yemara, we we are hopefully weeks from getting being granted the licenses. That's going through a final court process, a fairly mechanical process, but it's court process.

49:27 And then once we've got those licenses, we'll be looking to put down an exploration well. That'll be a really interesting reflection point for the company because if there's brine there if there's brine there of of quality, we think we can do it daily. And that that that is dwarfs the other two projects in terms of potential size. So Yamara is another interesting factor, and and then Yep. We'll have to re relook at how we move forward if we if we get positive results in Yamara. Yep. Yep. Thanks. Will be the strategic partner be determined this year is another question. You touched that already, Steve. I don't know if you wanna reiterate that. Yeah. Yeah. I I think people must understand. I I know a lot of people have been talking about offtake agreements and and strategic And sorry. Sorry, Steve, to interrupt you. The next question is about offtakes, and You can answer both in one. Sorry. In terms of timing, we're talking about bringing major companies as a strategic partner.

50:24 Now most will only start talking when the scoping study PEA results on on the table. We have a number already talking to us who are interested. There will be a number of others that will emerge during the course of the next six months. The reality is is that most major companies will not take an investment decision until the prefeasibility study is complete and shown to be positive. That's when the business development technical people are prepared to take an investment decision to their boards for approval. So during the next period of six to nine months, we'll be having lots of discussions with parties, trying to narrow down who is the best party for us. The reality, it'll only be post PFS that we will get an an agreement in place with one of those strategic partners.

51:25 And even then, it will be subject to completion of satisfactory feasibility study and environmental permitting in place before financing will be released for capital expenditure. So there is a process which has to be gone through during the course of this next year. But believe it, we will be in discussion with many parties in the next six to nine months. Yeah. This combines the three questions about about rough Just just on that, it it may be we say strategic partner. It could be partners. There there could be a number that come together. It could be one, two, three. It just depends on the nature of the mix and and and demand and so forth. Yeah. This is a question about the the asking about the the price down the share price being down. Sales and sellers are driving the share price down as far as long as they can by creating fear that the company needs to raise $600,000,000 and won't be in production until a year later than previous guidance.

52:23 What can the company tell us, its long term investors, about the expected financial structure, no guarantees, of course, timing, offtake, memorandums of understanding, financing, and why it now takes two years to complete, to pilot process, drill 23 wells and start a modular plant when speed to market is of the essence. We've answered more or less the question, but I don't know if you wanna take it again. I I I think just to wrap it up, we have many financing options. We want to develop what is the right and best financing package for this project. I don't believe it's to the advantage of the company to give out MOUs on offtake nonbinding MOUs on offtaking on offtake.

53:11 It's an advantage for us not to have limited ourselves by giving offtake agreements. That needs to be part of the package of discussions on strategic investment into the company. It's not just doing the piloting, doing the, you know, the prefeasibility study. One of the the lengthy time periods is the environmental studies, environmental permitting, getting those permits from from government, and doing the hydrogeological model. So that is going on in in parallel to the piloting and the prefeasibility study. The reality is to bring this project into production within four years is incredibly fast for the industry.

54:00 Yep. So to do it less than that and take shortcuts and risk the the robustness of the project, we will not do. We need to make this a robust project. What does help what does help us is is in allowing us to to have that speed and and and realistic speed is is the fact that Sunrise and they're doing that already. It's modular facilities. So the one and a half year sounds along to people, but that's actually very short. It's effectively bringing from China, you know, within six months, kit will be on the move, and then it's a question of putting a LEGO kit together. It's a LEGO piece, you know, and it's a but, you know, it's a pretty big bit of LEGO kit, but it's it's absolutely doable within the time scheme. But it is it's the sun resin that allows us that potential because of what they're doing before. Yeah.

54:46 Next question is what is the latest timing for initial drill results from Agua Verde, Francisco Basin, assay results and granting of the leasing license and drilling there? There's an I'll answer this question. It's a it's a mix of questions. The drilling results, as we said, we'll expect to be finishing drilling within the third quarter. If we have the assay results, those initial results will be published to the market. It might be the beginning of the second quarter. And then we'll have updated resource, all the work that will go into York, York resource work on whenever the San Francisco Basin. Again, we're moving as much as the results allow into indicated and measured resources compared to inferred. The the lithium license, again, we've been working with the government. All the permits to to drill, to work, everything, all of them would bring all the all the time being assigned and and being in good terms.

55:42 But we're talking to the government on on that front, and, again, the expectations are that everything is is positive. There's a question here. It's kind of self response itself, but we don't know the answer. But I don't expect this answer in the open forum, but I'm interested to know who the large persistent seller is and whatever they are interested in block sale of their shares. We don't know. We would not know ourselves until the end of the month as we have the report weakest report on this. Yeah. But it's something that has been populating the forums and and the on the company. Will it be possible to publish table 12 somewhere cash flow? Yes. Yes. It's difficult to read to. Yeah. Yep. They said it's a specific question to log to Gordon. So, Gordon, CLEANTECH is listed at is listed on the aim. Will you not think London main listing will benefit the company and bring in more investment?

56:39 That's an interesting question. I mean, I've I've I've done quite a few AIM companies, and I've done a couple of main listed companies. And, actually, one main listed company I was on, we moved from primary to to to standard because it was it was hard work. I mean, it is a different beast moving on the market. It's it's it's not particularly cheap to get on there. It's you have time to get on there. You tend to be a lot more bigger than than we are in terms of scale. You're you're using hundreds of millions. Comes with different regulatory requirements, quarterly reporting, that sort of thing. Would it bring in additional investment from different yes. It would, but it's I think our preference we we've announced the market where we're looking to do a list again on on OTC. We said hopefully by middle of February, we hopefully believe that that that's still deliverable.

57:25 OTC will open up a real opportunity for US investors. Some US investors simply can't invest through London, want to invest in US dollars. So I'm hopeful that by being on OTC and as we we'll be we'll be talking to US investors again about the company in in the relatively near future once we're on. We've got some conferences we're attending in in The US to to to to tell a story. And we've also mentioned the market that we think actually another way of potentially increasing our potential growth potential, at least from a share point of view, is is through potential dual listing on ASX. Not decision taken yet, but we've been Aldo's been out there twice. We've had been with both of our brokers. We've had some proposals. The board is looking at that. And if if it was gonna if it was gonna take that move, it would probably do it later on this year, and that would open up a new investor base.

58:18 Quite a significant proportion of our shareholders already are in in are Australian. I think 35, 40% when you look at the the numbers. So I think, you know, main list maybe something we'll look at in in in a year or two's time if we believe we've got the scale to do it. But at the moment, we think spreading the wings through different exchanges is we're on Germany. We're on four exchanges in Germany now, I believe, as well as Berlin and Frankfurt, Munich. And and and so I think, you know, we're we're we've got a a PR company now and an IR company working with us really well in Germany, and their footprint is starting to grow. We've seen increased trading slow but steady. It it that's the the nature of the German investor is slow but steady. So I'm in regular dialogue with the IR company on a daily basis as they're starting to increase our footprint. We just released another publication again today. So I think we're we're very conscious of of of spreading the message and opening up our our shareholder base.

59:16 I don't know if anything else you wanna add on that, Steve. No. No. No. I I I think for for for this company, it's got all the, you know, the potential to have a global reach. Know, Australians are interested in lithium. North America is interested in battery metals lithium from from South America. EU and and Chile have signed an agreement to get better ability for for Germany to to get lithium from from from Chile. So to be listed in Germany, United States, Australia, that gives us a very broad reach. Yeah. There's a technical question here or economic technical question. What is the power purchase price assumption behind the energy cost? Although you missed on thousand. You you missed Yeah. Yeah. I'm just no. I know. And I missed it.

1:00:06 I'm just gonna get to that one. The unit cost for energy is US 0.1437 kilowatts per hour. This is consistent with the pricing of similar supply contracts in the Chilean market. The energy prices, again, as the question is, is considered to be a PPA, and this both include the variable cost and the capital funding by a third party. Yeah. The previous question is what do we think on the innovations like sodium batteries if they pose a threat or not to our business model within the next few years? Every once and then, news come of different alternatives to lithium, different batteries and everything. But the whole market and all the plants being built and and everything and and everything has been proven, and it's already been deployed and and work.

1:00:55 It's it's around lithium based batteries. So, yeah, it's not doesn't pose a threat for us. Then the next question is, will you wait for all the 23 brine extraction wells to be drilled before connecting commencing production or phase them to start generating income sooner. We'll work as we get the permits. We'll do a combination of the two things. We'll be drilling. We need to drill before commencing production. Need we need we we and we can't without having the plans, we can't have the income any sooner. It will be planned of the PFS and a detailed work at the PFS. All these questions will be answered in detail. This is, think, for you, Gordon. How sensitive is the net present value to the first production?

1:01:41 Not not not as much as you would expect. Actually, the the biggest sensitivity is is price is sales price. You could delay production by a year. I'm not suggesting anyway we do, but if the price is is only 25% higher, you've you've you're back to the same NPV. So the the the there is an an impact as you as you delay production, but there's a number of other sensitivities come into play with offset that. So, I mean, our plan is n '25, early twenty six as mentioned. The sensitivities the sensitivities in the model, but not not hugely. I mean, there's still pretty pretty chunky numbers come out of this. And if the price is anything above 22,500, then it's it's very chunky numbers. Yeah. Is if there's no funding next question. If there's no funding expected before end of the year, how far do the current cash balances get you?

1:02:35 We we as Steve mentioned, we're funded through PFS, and we raised the money for that. Our our budgets for this year have been signed off, and we're we're working on all of the different activities you've seen. We have the money to do that. Inevitably, we'll be looking once we we're getting towards the end of the PFS to look to to scale up the project, and that that's where we're bringing the the larger financing in in lots of different ways. And and there's different ways we can fund the business going forward. You know, we we get approaches all the time. So we're very conscious. I mean, all three of us here are shareholders more often, the Aldo is one of the most shareholders. We're very conscious about doing the right things at the right time. Shareholder dilutions is obviously something we will have to manage, and we're very conscious of doing it in the right way. Yeah. How many drill rigs? Thanks, Gordon. How many drill rigs at both sites? We started in Laguna Verde. There are two types of drilling rigs. One, it's to do the first reconditioning of the hole and the beginning of the bore, and the others are for deeper drilling. Currently, we have one in Laguna Verde, and then the second one is coming up and being prepared to to do in parallel LBO 5 and LBO 6. And the other one who originally started in Laguna Verde is now at Francisco Basin. As we finish Laguna Verde, we'll we'll have moved them to to Francisco Basin. Both sites, again, are within 60 miles of them.

1:03:58 By road, it's a little bit more the distance. And and we'll have this combination of these three rigs helping us to finish the drilling season way before winter, and we're very pleased how things are going up. You can see very good video in our website that that tells a lot of a lot of these things, and and and visually, you can see how how we're working. Next question is, can you elaborate of this positive angle for funding the project? This person, Miguel, asked that he was under the impression that the IRA was negative for projects located in The USA because it made USA based project more profitable. I'm not sure I understand the question completely. I I can I can answer that one? I think Yeah. Yeah. The inflation reduction act is is is is driving the the clean agenda by making funds available to companies and and and subsidies and and incentives for companies to do to to do things in a greener fashion.

1:04:53 And and that, you know, yes, it does make companies tend to be more profitable in The US, but they they they want they want product and they want clean product. So there's an incentive for The US to ask companies like ourselves to provide finance for companies like ourselves because we can provide clean product into The States because of the free trade agreement. So there's a lot of funds available through that route. And because it's it's it's Biden's big big big driver. It's his big big story. So and, you know, there's monies are being made available now. I mean, we have mentioned Laila before that. You can just find out on the in the Internet. So I don't see it as a threat. I see it as an opportunity. And I'm not saying we'll get funds through that route, but it's definitely possible. And we've already you see, we've had the approach from the US embassy in in Santiago, we'll be following that up through various different routes both in London, Santiago, and in in The US.

1:05:47 Steve, any other thing to add to that? No. I think the the the first disbursement from IRA for for for projects delivering, you know, clean metals into The US battery chain was some somewhere like $3,000,000,000, all to projects located in The United States. There's more recently been indication that The United States is prepared to release some of those funds to projects outside The United States, provided the product is going into The United States. Now clearly, as we have our discussions with the Chilean government, there's gonna be interesting discussions with the with The US authorities as to whether projects in Chile would be able to access those funds.

1:06:40 Now we have a long question here on funding again. New funding appears to be a main focus in 2023, some from the bank and strategic partners and other sources. Will there be more funding demands from existing shareholders, or there Or is there a period of no capital raising permitted after the last capital raise at €0.46 €0.47 What happens if the banks become constrained in their lending ability as interest rates have raised rising? Is there a potential funding problem in that event? Work when will be the first cash flow start and the project becomes self financing? A lot of questions within that. I'll I'll I'll have a go. No. I'll have a go. I mean, yeah, I mean, the whole funding strategy involves a a real mix of of of buttons to press. And where we'll be coming back to shareholders?

1:07:26 That's not the plan a. I mean, we've got I'd say we've got the funding to do the technical studies and ongoing work we're doing, so we're moving forward on that basis. But we we'll engage. I mean, there's other banks likely to limit funding. There's trillions of dollars sitting in ESG funds looking for homes. That's a simple fact. But you have to you have to tick boxes in terms of certifications and so on. So we'll be going down that avenue. So I I'm not particularly concerned about the banks. Interest rates have risen, but the the they're they're already actually looking potentially to come back down again at some point. I think that there's banks around the world who are have got doors open, and also the strategic companies we talk to have all got their natural banks they go to. They'll bring banks with them. And so there's a mix of conversations, and I'm not concerned about the process. It's just a process we're gonna have to go through, and and it's gonna be fundamentally supported by the data we've got.

1:08:21 And so that's the you know, the first six months is gather the data, gives us a huge firepower to secure the funds. And and in terms of cash flows and project becoming self funding, that means it's eighteen you know, one year eight eight months is when it becomes self funding. You know, the the the the payback is when you go into profit. So this is relatively short term. Mean, we go to a bank and tell them that you that you're gonna have a project to fund, which is a thirty year project payback in one year, eight months. You're gonna have a very good conversation with the banks that we're likely to be talking to. It's probably worth mentioning as well. We're not just the three guys doing this on our own. We've got various different advisers through Fox Davis Capital and through Canaccord with an extensive reach. We've got conversations on tomorrow in in other jurisdictions, and we've got an ongoing conversation. I talked to Canaccord regularly about the the next stage, and they're standing by to open the door. They can pick the phone up and talk to, you know, a 100 different entities with with access to large sums of money. So we gather the data first. We put the story together, then we we have some interesting conversations.

1:09:29 So it's it's not something that phases us. It's just a process we have to go through. And I think we'll I I'm really confident about how we're how we're moving forward on this. Yeah. There's a question here about Chile that I'll take. You you mentioned risk in is Chilean government signing off and commitment to the project with national Chilean minor being a risk. Political decisions in this cast countries is often uncertain. When will government signature be achieved? This will give certainty to project investment. First of all, I would like to say we're not I'm in Chile, and they live here and abroad. I live here all my most of my life, but eleven years abroad. We're not often uncertain. Bechtel Mining is based in Chile of of doing projects all around the world. We're in premier mining jurisdiction.

1:10:19 Mitsubishi, 40% of the revenue is created by their their mining company, and it's based in Chile and and so on. The the quality of the engineers and the quality of the of the policies and and the laws are are are way and beyond and can only be compared to those ones in Australia and The US and Canada. We we we're we're talking to the government. We've submitted everything. Everything has to be aligned, environmental work, the the the engineering study. But we we hope that engage again in conversations with the with the local authorities to have that as as soon as possible. We just can't say a date, but they're they're moving forward the agenda, again, to to bring more projects into advancing, and that's we're waiting in in the next couple of months of of a strong signal towards that.

1:11:11 And there's a there's not a national Chilean mining company. There's already one, Codelco. But Codelco on the copper side hasn't hasn't given any trouble to the development of many, many, many copper mines producing much more than than them. The same now in lithium, Codelco has a national company in lithium, is the same idea. One doesn't take over over the other. Next question is about sun resin and their technology and then and in which way are we cooperating with them to advance towards commercial production. We started in 2017 with direct lithium extraction with a with a clear view on on environmental and efficiency. And of all the vendors, Sun Resin by far is the most developed ones with already producing lithium out of out of brine in a direct lithium extraction way and having subsidiaries in in Europe for for some of the of the parts. But not only that, they are the only provider who sells you the technology, sells you the resin, sells you a plant, supports you, of course. All the other providers are providers who have improved themselves.

1:12:19 We know ourselves more more we think we know more than those providers that we talked early on and over the years. And and and but but they also but they want equity in exchange of their technology of something they'll have in that group. Sun resin is the is the largest resin producer of the world. It's a $4,500,000,000 company, and we've been working with them. They can visit us with some samples. We're exchanging information, lots of information in the scoping study, mass balance, water balance, energy consumption, recovery rates, all the flow, everything. We briefly touched on the on this presentation, and and you can read further what's referred on the website. It's it's provided by them, and we're very pleased. We'll be doing that on our end. We have world top world experts on brine and in particular, people who we've hired on a permanent way, who have worked in and people, like we mentioned, like, to being consultants.

1:13:16 Now the question, it's already been kind of respond. Are you talking to major companies to partner with in as in the tell Teslas, the the Volkswagen, Daimler, etcetera, of this world, if we have a preferred reference in terms of an automaker or battery manufacturer? Steve, I think this is this is just No. No. I I I think the potential types of companies and the numbers of companies, therefore, for us is very wide. Clearly, we do want to associate with one of the major companies or more than one of them for major companies. We already have discussions ongoing with a number of major worldwide known names, both as trading houses, cathode manufacturers.

1:14:06 We will start talking to motor manufacturers in the future. We are, at the moment, neutral as to what type of company as long as they need our lithium, and we can structure a transaction which is favorable to to our shareholders, in fact, favorable to to both parties as a long term strong relationship. And we will continue those talks in the next six to nine months. Yeah. What what will be a potential output expansion at Laguna Verde be on a multiple of two ten 2,000 20,000 tons per year? We don't know the number exactly, but it's not a it's not a multiple by 10 or 20. It's the projects have been built anywhere from ten, twenty, thirty, forty, 50. We'll we'll know more as we expand the resource and we go forward.

1:14:59 Is there any potential increase in out the modular? Yes. Yes. Yeah. The the the way DLE and the plant itself and the work with sun resin, it it can be modular, and and it be can can be funded from cash flow. That's something we've we've evaluated. Again, this will be addressed at the PFS level. They suggest the question of sun resin. Let me sun resin uses evaporate process in other implement implementation of their tech in China. How does sun resin have assurance they can't forego that step? There's two things very important. When we talk about operation ponds, it's not not just one ponds. It's a series of ponds, seven, eight, nine, that take a year, year and a half to build, that take it's a batch process. Then to go through it, the the the the the brine and concentrate and precipitates and everything, it takes three hundred fifteen, three hundred and twenty five days to to to concentrate to to over 10,000 parts per million, so you can go all the way into lithium carbonate and and and hydroxide with a in a in a chemical way.

1:16:02 But when we're talking of sun resin in in very, very low grade lakes in China that had five parts per 80 parts per million, what they're doing, they're concentrating the lithium in just one pond. There's one pond concentrating the lithium before going into the release stage. It's not the same comparison. We don't need that concentration because we have much higher grade. The plant being built in Argentina in a in a chemistry similar to us, it hasn't doesn't have that. So it's just it's not the same thing. We if if if we ourselves have some word of evaporation, forced evaporation via sun or via gas or via electricity, something that the PFS will answer, It's not the same comparison of a of a series of evaporation points and the old process was very lengthy time, big footprint. This is it's it's different. And we have that assurance with with with Sunrise. And, actually, we've had a long conversation about that internally, and I think we'll put something in in the website fairly soon to to have it so you guys can can see it.

1:17:08 Alda, Steve, Gordon, thank you very much. You've been very generous with your time, and I think you've managed to address all the questions from investors. And, of course, the company will review all the questions submitted today, and we'll publish those responses on the investment company platform. But just before redirecting investors, provide you with their feedback, which I know is particularly important to the company. Aldo, could I just ask you for a few closing comments? Yeah. We are we are the the the the cheapest available stock out there for for the amount of resources or the more undervalued company, and and we've consistently used the money we've received to put it in the ground, to put it in the development of the project, to put it on on the engineering. We have a we sit again on a very prestige part of the world with a lot of infrastructure, a lot of professionals who can deliver projects from from from start to being developed, only from Chile, but also our board as as Gordons and Steve here present symbolize that that experience.

1:18:10 And we're just very, very, very interested in in in you guys coming on board on all the existing shareholders expanding our world around. Aldo, Steve, Gordon, thanks once again for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close this session as you'll now be automatically redirected to provide your feedback in order that the management team can better understand your views and expectations? This will only take a few minutes to complete, and I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of CLEANTECH LITHIUM PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all. Thank you. Thank you.