The Resource Angle

[JRP3]

• Hastings to acquire a 22.1% strategic shareholding in Neo Performance Materials Inc., a leading global rare earth processing and advanced permanent magnets producer listed on the TSX.
• The acquisition is intended to be funded by a A$150 million cornerstone investment in Hastings by Wyloo Metals, through the issuance of secured, redeemable, exchangeable notes.

Agreement to acquire strategic shareholding in Neo Performance Materials and cornerstone investment in Hastings by Wyloo Metals

Agreement to acquire strategic shareholding in Neo Performance Materials and cornerstone investment in Hastings by Wyloo Metals

finance.yahoo.com

 

[JRP3]

Lake Resources taking big hits again the last few days, seems to be a dispute with partner Lilac as well as some questionable history of the new management.

Lake Resources in dispute with Lilac Solutions over stake in Argentina lithium project

Australian lithium developer Lake Resources NL said a dispute had arisen with Lilac Solutions Inc over the deadline of the U.S. partner achieving some milestones to get a 25% stake in Kachi lithium project in Argentina, sending its shares down 20%.

www.reuters.com

Also Lake's website is currently down saying "Account Suspended"

Account Suspended

I haven't looked into it yet myself but this post from yahoo message boards is concerning:

In case you might have missed out on the new guy's resume I find it rather interesting that his resignation from McDermott was after he led them into a multi-billion dollar BANKRUPTCY after a horrible merger with CB&I that ended with massive fraud charges. Don't take my word for, look it up, but in addressing corporate transparency kind of odd that this fact has been left out of the feel good announcements made by Crow and limp board of LAKE...

*Edit: The above is accurate:

McDermott CEO steps down after overseeing disastrous acquisition

www.andrewjowett.net

 

[golfcart]

Lake Resources taking big hits again the last few days, seems to be a dispute with partner Lilac as well as some questionable history of the new management.

Lake Resources in dispute with Lilac Solutions over stake in Argentina lithium project

Australian lithium developer Lake Resources NL said a dispute had arisen with Lilac Solutions Inc over the deadline of the U.S. partner achieving some milestones to get a 25% stake in Kachi lithium project in Argentina, sending its shares down 20%.

www.reuters.com

Also Lake's website is currently down saying "Account Suspended"

Account Suspended

I haven't looked into it yet myself but this post from yahoo message boards is concerning:

*Edit: The above is accurate:

McDermott CEO steps down after overseeing disastrous acquisition

www.andrewjowett.net

Yeah it is down about 1/3 over the last couple of days. Not good.

 

[ggies07]

I bought some shares of Talon this past Spring...seems like it will be a good long-term investment:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1572917829179183106

 

[Cosmacelf]

Stellantis secures lithium supply from California for EV batteries

Stellantis NV has secured lithium essential for its electric vehicle production in North America from a project in California, as carmakers worldwide scramble to secure supply of the battery metal key to the electric vehicle revolution.

www.reuters.com

Hmmm, private company. Controlled Thermal Resources has been working at extracting energy and lithium from the Salton Sea for 11 years now. Anyone know anything more about the project? Obviously they initially were targeting just a geothermal power plant - lithium extraction has now become the hot investment buzzword, so they've added that. According to this article (A Lithium Rush Is On at California's Salton Sea: Who Are the Players? | The Motley Fool), the other existing geothermal plants there are just now starting to trial lithium extraction.

 

[Cosmacelf]

I bought some shares of Talon this past Spring...seems like it will be a good long-term investment:

https://twitter.com/x/status/1572917829179183106

So Talon still seems to be in late stage exploration to create a development plan to submit to regulators. Any idea when they'll submit a plan and when production can start? I mean, it's nice that they have an off-take agreement with Tesla, but when will that start?

 

[Cosmacelf]

I saw this yesterday and ventured over here to see what the smart kids thought about it. My preliminary deep dive (actually 1st couple Google results searching "direct lithium extraction") indicated that there are a lot of horses in this race. The EnergyX plan sounds good to my ears, but I am unsure how their technology and business plan differentiates them from the other DLE (Direct Lithium Extraction) startups. Looking through the corporate deck on the EnergyX website, I did notice that a member of the advisory board was Ari Emmanuel, who is buddies with Elon. Not sure if that means diddly.

EnergyX isn't publicly traded yet but the CEO said there are plans for an IPO and there will be an upcoming private funding round in 3Q according to the website. Not sure what the minimum investment is but figured I would get some opinions over here. Thanks!

So, no one here invested in them? I looked over their investment deck and listened to the YouTube interview. Very impressive management and advisory board. Sounds like a great investment actually. I just hate the fact they are soliciting $500 minimum retail investments. That is a giant red flag normally. I sent them an email saying I wanted to invest $200K, and why the heck are they doing $500 retail investment solicitations. We'll see what comes back.

 

[ggies07]

So Talon still seems to be in late stage exploration to create a development plan to submit to regulators. Any idea when they'll submit a plan and when production can start? I mean, it's nice that they have an off-take agreement with Tesla, but when will that start?

I really bought in as a 10 year investment for these reasons:

• we all know Nickel is needed for this time period
• the fact that they have a cleaner way to produce the Nickel as a mining company (link)
• It's locally produced (now a benefit from the IRA)
• Elon and Drew think this miner has efficient and new ways to get the Nickel (confidents from Tesla is reassuring)

So I really haven't paid attention to the timeline...I assume in the next 2-5 years. I found this though looking through their presentations:

https://talonmetals.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/09/Talon-Moving-Forward_September_2022.pdf

Page. 9

Talon and Tesla will work together as partners to achieve commercial production by 2026

Page. 11

“The Talon team has taken an innovative approach to the discovery, development and production of battery materials, including to permanently store carbon as part of mine operations and the investigation of the novel extraction of battery materials. Responsible sourcing of battery materials has long been a focus for Tesla, and this project has the promise to accelerate the production of sustainable energy products in North America,” Drew Baglino, SVP of Powertrain and Energy Engineering at Tesla (see Talon press release dated January 10, 2022)

Page. 24

Drilling Success at Pace

• Due to improved borehole electromagnetic surveys (geophysics), continual drill plan optimization and significant improvements in drill productivity, our team is 12 months ahead of schedule:

• Drilling for feasibility studies is expected to be substantially complete by June 2022

From Strength to Strength

• Talon drill rigs will move to targets outside of the current resource area in June 2022 to explore for high-grade nickel deposits using an improved and expanded tool kit of geophysics that we developed over the last 18 months:

• Improved BHEM modelling capability

• Improved Surface EM

• Cross-hole Seismic Tomography

Growing the Drill Fleet

• Additionally, we are expanding our drill capability from 3 Talon operated rigs to 6 Talon operated rigs: • This doubles the drill capacity we had available in 2021

 

[ggies07]

Has anyone bought into E3 Lithium? I think I'm going to, but they have two stock names and not sure which one to pick....

E3 Lithium

E3 Metals is a lithium company with the goal of producing lithium products to power the growing electrical revolution. Based in Alberta, E3 Metals is developing the Clearwater Project on the backbone of the mature and sophisticated oil industry that will allow the Company to catapult its...

t.co

(TSXV: $ETL | OTC: $EEMMF)

 

[Cosmacelf]

Has anyone bought into E3 Lithium? I think I'm going to, but they have two stock names and not sure which one to pick....

E3 Lithium

E3 Metals is a lithium company with the goal of producing lithium products to power the growing electrical revolution. Based in Alberta, E3 Metals is developing the Clearwater Project on the backbone of the mature and sophisticated oil industry that will allow the Company to catapult its...

t.co

(TSXV: $ETL | OTC: $EEMMF)

Those two stock names reflect where they trade. TSXV means the Vancouver stock exchange in Canada, quoted in Canadian dollars, while OTC means the pink sheets exchange in the US quote in US dollars. US investors will normally buy the OTC version, Canadian, the other.

 

[ggies07]

Those two stock names reflect where they trade. TSXV means the Vancouver stock exchange in Canada, quoted in Canadian dollars, while OTC means the pink sheets exchange in the US quote in US dollars. US investors will normally buy the OTC version, Canadian, the other.

thanks!

 

[Cosmacelf]

EnergyX is having a conference call/webinar for investors this Wednesday. Here's the email I got about it. I might not be able to attend since I have a meeting that might spill over:

Our investment round is closing this Friday at 11:59 pm ET, and we're offering potential investors one last chance to chat with our Founder & CEO Teague Egan. The private webinar will be held on Wednesday, September 28th at 1:30 PM ET. This is a one-of-a-kind opportunity to sit down with our company leadership and other interested investors to learn more about EnergyX. Teague will tell you all about how we’re offering an unmatched lithium extraction solution to an industry set to grow 500% by 2035. He’ll also go into more detail about what we’ve accomplished since our previous raise, our revenue projections and expansion opportunities, and how your investment will impact our future plans. We’re looking forward to meeting you! Get your ticket here, and we’ll see you Thursday.

And yeah, it says Thursday at the end, but they meant Wednesday I believe.

 

[Cosmacelf]

So, wow, I just had a 15 minute conversation with the CEO of EnergyX. As I said, I am always cautious about any private company that does direct retail fund raising. In this case, it appears legit in that they did a $10M series A placement last year and are in the process of doing a series B offering with strategic investors. The retail offering is almost more of a marketing thing than anything else - they don't rely on that for fund raising, but as a way of getting the word out about their company. They don't actively advertise their retail fund raising except for having it on their website and occasional invited YouTube segments.

Also, they have filed with the SEC about all of this, and indeed here is their latest offering circular (which I just found and haven't read yet): https://energyx.com/app/uploads/2022/07/EnergyX-Offering-Circular.pdf

They are effectively pre-revenue, but that won't last long as they have six paid for pilot programs in the works now, including a few in the Salton Sea area (the so-called "Lithium Valley" in California). Assuming these pilots work as well as the free pilot they did under the auspices of the Bolivian government, commercial revenue will be done on a licensing basis, so they'll receive some percentage of lithium revenue going forward.

These guys have a play both in the existing lithium extraction industry in Bolivia and other brine evaporation areas, and in the newer areas like in the Salton Sea. Existing brine evaporation only extracts 50% of available lithium, their process moves that up to 94%. And given how expensive lithium is now due to EV demand, existing producers love that. And of course for new lithium deposits like the Salton Sea, traditional huge evaporation ponds is a non-starter so they have to use technology like what EnergyX has.

 

[JRP3]

What was your assessment of the CEO?

 

[Cosmacelf]

What was your assessment of the CEO?

Honest. I mean, if you listen to that Youtube interview (

) you get a pretty good sense of him. He isn't the tech guy, but he has hired a bunch of good technologists. His instincts to avoid VCs are spot on, and so far he's been navigating the fund raising side of things fine for the company (it is a bit rich for investors at their current stage, but I haven't had time to read the circular yet). It sounds like when they announce the six pilot projects, they will wow people. I mean, there aren't many players yet in the Salton Sea, and one of the bigger ones is a subsidiary of Berkshire, so that's pretty big.

 

[wdolson]

So, wow, I just had a 15 minute conversation with the CEO of EnergyX. As I said, I am always cautious about any private company that does direct retail fund raising. In this case, it appears legit in that they did a $10M series A placement last year and are in the process of doing a series B offering with strategic investors. The retail offering is almost more of a marketing thing than anything else - they don't rely on that for fund raising, but as a way of getting the word out about their company. They don't actively advertise their retail fund raising except for having it on their website and occasional invited YouTube segments.

Also, they have filed with the SEC about all of this, and indeed here is their latest offering circular (which I just found and haven't read yet): https://energyx.com/app/uploads/2022/07/EnergyX-Offering-Circular.pdf

They are effectively pre-revenue, but that won't last long as they have six paid for pilot programs in the works now, including a few in the Salton Sea area (the so-called "Lithium Valley" in California). Assuming these pilots work as well as the free pilot they did under the auspices of the Bolivian government, commercial revenue will be done on a licensing basis, so they'll receive some percentage of lithium revenue going forward.

These guys have a play both in the existing lithium extraction industry in Bolivia and other brine evaporation areas, and in the newer areas like in the Salton Sea. Existing brine evaporation only extracts 50% of available lithium, their process moves that up to 94%. And given how expensive lithium is now due to EV demand, existing producers love that. And of course for new lithium deposits like the Salton Sea, traditional huge evaporation ponds is a non-starter so they have to use technology like what EnergyX has.

My partner has some land a little north of the Salton Sea she inherited from her mother that has been essentially worthless, but somebody sent her a letter offering several times what it was worth so she did some research. Lithium extraction in the area is driving up land value, though her land is outside the area mostly affected. The offer was by a speculator and they weren't interested by the time she called, but she found that the dust created by the evaporation ponds has become an environmental problem and the state will likely shut down all the evaporation operations as soon as a better solution is proven commercially viable.

The Salton Sea is a soup of various chemicals, not just lithium. The dust from the evaporation operations is full of all sorts of toxic stuff.

When my sister was in grad school (Geology) she made quite a few trips to the Salton Sea with her then husband to collect dry lake crystals that form at the edge of the lake. She said there were quite a few crystals that are unique to the Salton Sea. I remember she had a massive slab of some sort of orange crystal under her guest room bed. I stubbed toes on it a number of times.

 

[ggies07]

but she found that the dust created by the evaporation ponds has become an environmental problem and the state will likely shut down all the evaporation operations as soon as a better solution is proven commercially viable.

And that's where DLE comes in. There are lots of different DLE approaches depending on the location, but its way better than evaporation ponds.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Looking through the corporate deck on the EnergyX website, I did notice that a member of the advisory board was Ari Emmanuel, who is buddies with Elon. Not sure if that means diddly.

Their most recent press release ”explains” this tie up. But frankly I’m still confused as to why.

EnergyX Taps Endeavor For Advisory Services As it Expands Its Global Footprint - EnergyX | Energy Exploration Technologies, Inc.

Download Full Press Release September 12, 2022: Energy Exploration Technologies Inc.’s (EnergyX) announced it has added global sports and entertainment company Endeavor to its advisory roster, as the company looks to throw its support behind the global transition to a clean energy future. Keen...

energyx.com

 

[Cosmacelf]

Has anyone bought into E3 Lithium? I think I'm going to, but they have two stock names and not sure which one to pick....

E3 Lithium

E3 Metals is a lithium company with the goal of producing lithium products to power the growing electrical revolution. Based in Alberta, E3 Metals is developing the Clearwater Project on the backbone of the mature and sophisticated oil industry that will allow the Company to catapult its...

t.co

(TSXV: $ETL | OTC: $EEMMF)

Did you read their latest report?

https://e3lithium.ca/_resources/reports/technical/09232022-NI-43-101-Bashaw-District-Lithium-Resource-Estimate.pdf?v=0.453

A quick scan shows they have significant lithium at reasonable concentrations such that it could be economic to pump up and use DLE technology (which they say they are developing themselves) to extract. But they are very early stage. They need to put together a full economic analysis because they have no money to actually build a plant and extract the lithium. They'll have to somehow raise a bunch more money.

 

[ggies07]

Did you read their latest report?

https://e3lithium.ca/_resources/reports/technical/09232022-NI-43-101-Bashaw-District-Lithium-Resource-Estimate.pdf?v=0.453

A quick scan shows they have significant lithium at reasonable concentrations such that it could be economic to pump up and use DLE technology (which they say they are developing themselves) to extract. But they are very early stage. They need to put together a full economic analysis because they have no money to actually build a plant and extract the lithium. They'll have to somehow raise a bunch more money.

You are right, I thought that's what this thread was about - to inform and discuss new/developing companies that we could invest in earlier than others, knowing it's a risk. These are not "make a quick buck", but long-term investments that we think will materialize.

Here is the timeline from their corporate presentation: