John Worth is the CEO and MD of geo40 a technology company based in New Zealand engaged in low carbon recovery of minerals from geothermal fluids. They currently produce colloidal silica at commercial scale from geothermal streams in New Zealand and are leveraging that technology to provide direct lithium extraction (DLE) to a variety of asset types containing low levels of lithium (50 ppm & up). After successfully piloting DLE technology they now plan to move to the demo level with a target of commercialization in North America by 2025 and later in other jurisdictions.

Topics:

I speak with three podcast listeners who are also keen lithium investors - Nathan Wolyniec from Brisbane Australia; John McElroy, a Green Beret with more than 1,000 parachute jumps originally from Syracuse, NY and David Cebalo a retired investor from Indiana. We discuss what drew them to investing in lithium stocks, how they research companies and make decisions. I end the episode with some thoughts on the Livent - Allkem merger announced earlier this week.

There are two guests on this episode: Daniel Jimenez & David Guerrero. Both have been on the podcast multiple times.

You will get perspective on Chile's new lithium strategy/policy from both sides of the Andes. We also discuss the lithium price and lithium development in Argentina. We probe the possibility of changes to Argentina's royalty structure and ponder Argentina's ultimate lithium production potential with and without DLE. We also briefly discuss lithium activity in Bolivia.

If you want to hear more of my thoughts on the new policy in Chile, here is a link to an interview I did with a group in Chile is below:

https://twitter.com/i/broadcasts/1eaKbrOoQDYKX

I presented "The Lithium Decade" in Singapore last week at the Future Facing Commodities conference. Select slides from the presentation will be available on the Global Lithium website.

Peter Hannah (@PHmetals on Twitter) is a senior manager at Fastmarkets. This is Peter's second appearance. His first appearance in June, 2022 was in the top ten of all episodes to date.

We discuss the current pricing situation: the volatility in China with spot price dropping vs rising contract prices elsewhere, supply and demand, the future of lepidolite, the perceived threat of sodium ion batteries and much more.

Daniel Jimenez is the MD of iLi Markets and a director of Galan Lithium. He has deep experience in lithium after spending almost three decades at SQM before starting his own firm. This is Daniel's fourth appearance on the podcast.

In this episode we have a detailed discussion on current and future supply by region in the face of unprecedented demand growth. 

We discuss the currently volatile price situation in China, examine the reasons for it and try to put it in context with pricing in the markets outside of China.

Daniel can be found on twitter at @D_Jimenez_Sch

The iLi Markets website is ilimarkets.com

Jigar Shah (@JigarShahDC on Twitter) is the director of the Loan Programs Office at the Department of Energy. Mr. Shah was formerly the co-founder and President at Generate Capital, where he focused on helping entrepreneurs accelerate decarbonization solutions through the use of low-cost infrastructure-as-a service financing. Jigar also has the best laugh of any prior guest on the podcast and celebrated his two year anniversary at the DOE on March 3rd – the day we recorded.

Topics:

The mandate of the Loan Programs Office

The calculus of leaving the private sector for the DOE

The “alphabet soup” of government programs focused on the Energy Transition

The laziness of big companies

LPO loans – by invitation only

Inspiring action where action wouldn’t otherwise happen

Why Jigar can’t comment on a loan application to LAC for Thacker Pass

Downstream battery investment vs upstream

The contribution of recyclers

Jigar Shah – the “long term lithium bull”

“Friend-shoring” challenges

Tesla

What defines a “friend” of the US

Supply chain risk management

Rapid fire

Closing comments on the BMO conference and lithium price

Emilie Bodoin is the CEO of Pure Lithium. 

Pure Lithium is on a mission to change the way batteries are made.

Topics:

The current state of lithium metal technology

Brine direct to lithium metal - the ultimate DLE?

Lithium ion batteries: a successful compromise

Making lithium metal batteries a reality

Mentors: Dr Donald Sadoway & Robert Friedland

The first big win

Building a team

Learning from mistakes

Scale and cost

Reality check

A "not so loaded' question

The DOE "disconnect"

Lithium Metal Iron Phosphate

Rapid Fire

My thoughts on recent happenings in the industry

This is a solo episode where I discuss:

The recent General Motors investment in Lithium Americas 

The Thacker Pass decision

Rumors regarding Mineral Resources interest in Patriot Battery Metals

Another round of bad lithium analysis from a large bank.

And a shout out to Seth Goldstein at Morningstar

My guest is Ana Cabral the Co-CEO of  Sigma Lithium 

Sigma is in the process of starting up the most significant hard rock project in South America

Topics:

Commissioning and start-up

Sigma’s value proposition for the battery industry

Spodumene to lithium chemicals conversion ratios

Sustainability

The market for tailings

The team

Becoming a 100K MT LCE producer

Upstream disruption

Boarder adjustments

The “next guardian” of Sigma

Ana’s view on the past failures of miners

ESG

The upward moving cost curve

Price

The Inflation Reduction Act

Ana's respect for Pilbara & WA spodumene producers

My comments on the upcoming Thacker Pass decision

Thoughts (not advice) on lithium investments

Rapid fire