Cleantech Lithium (LSE:CTL) — ASX process and wider company developments

0:01 Good afternoon, and welcome to the CLEANTECH LITHIUM PLC Investor Presentation. Today's recorded meeting, investors will be in listen only mode. Questions are encouraged and can be submitted at any time by the Q and A tab situated in your right hand corner of your screen. Just click Q and A, scroll to the bottom, type your question and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question received during the meeting itself. Have the company review all questions submitted today and we'll publish responses where appropriate to do so. Before we begin, we'd like to submit the following poll. I'd now like to hand you over to Daniel Fox Davis, Managing Director at Fox Davis Capital. Good afternoon, sir.

0:32 Afternoon, Mark, and thank you as always. Steve, it's been a while. How are you?

0:38 I'm very well. We had a very interesting few weeks in Australia, a long trip back. One day of recovery, but we're now very much back in action. I have to say, you're recovering slightly better than me. So, yes, it's been a while. We've been a bit quiet, but, obviously, we've been out, in Australia together.

0:57 We were out in Sydney and Melbourne and Perth. And, obviously, the purpose of today is to cut out the announcement that we've now lodged the prospectus for the ASX listing. I think probably, obviously, that's gonna be the the highlight of the interest of everybody today, and then we will flip through and get a little update on where things are operationally, and how we did on our our last r and s. And we've also had a couple of requests for an update about the current status of the search for,

1:28 the new CEO. But, we'd obviously we've been trailing for a while, Steve, that we'd go on to the ASX. And as I'll leave you to go through, we had a extremely strong reaction and support from a number of Australian institutions. And, obviously, this current ASX is being cornerstoned by our current largest and longest standing shareholder, Regal Funds, who will be participating for 15%. But, do you mind if just want to, go back over what the purpose of this coming back onto the ASX and why we think it's gonna be beneficial and the sort of reaction we've been having about the relative value and how we would fit into the universe of other lithium companies on the Australian market? Yeah. Sure. Sure. I I think, you know, we've been talking about the the ASX, you for for quite a time now.

2:17 You know, regal funds have been, you know, very, you know, strong in in their views that we really should be dual listed on on the ASX. And it's it's a market that has a great understanding for natural resource stocks. There's a deep pool of of finance available, now, for good stories in the natural resource space. Now that's why there are 31 lithium companies now listed on the on the ASX, and they've been, you know, very successful in the last couple of years. Obviously, the price has come down in in the past year, but there's a great understanding of of the lithium business there. And there's many funds, you which which want to invest in in in good projects, but they're only able to invest on the ASX and and not outside.

3:10 So we we determined to start the process. You last year, we had a a a few delays, but we have got there now. Obviously, the paperwork in the whole process was quite daunting, But but we are there. The prospectus is is lodged. It goes into its review period, and and we are engaging with with potential investors there. But we had many, many meetings with with brokers and funds and and analysts,

3:42 you to talk about the, you know, the CLEANTECH LITHIUM story. And we had a very, very positive reception. There's a good understanding that we're very different to the the general lithium projects in in Australia. No. Virtually, of them are sort of hard rock mining, make a 5% concentrate, ship it with 95% waste to to China for conversion to lithium hydroxide and then to enter the the the battery supply chain. So high carbon intensity and going has to go through through China to to enter the the market. And there's clearly geopolitical concerns in US and The EU with the dominance of of China in that supply chain. And here we are with our lithium brine projects in Chile, a portfolio of projects, in a country that's a mining country with a very, very strong lithium industry already with a lot of expertise in the area.

4:42 We're gonna be producing green sustainable lithium, low

4:45 carbon footprint because we use renewable energy, at the bottom of the cost curve in in the lowest quartile with good access into The United States, you know, with the FTA agreement where The The US will have to get IRA compliant materials going into the batteries, and Chile is an FTA country. And similarly, in the in the EU, there's a preferential trade agreement between Chile and, and EU countries, and the EU really wants to get, better security in its in its supply chain.

5:18 But they want sustainable minerals going into their supply chain, and here we are in a in a stable mining country producing green lithium. So I think it's it's a very good story which sold very, very well to the people that we met in Australia. And they see us a good opportunity to diversify their investments away from the the standard hard rock going to to China into a company that's got low cost sustainable production producing direct, battery grade lithium carbonate, into The United States and EU without the necessity of going through China. So people understand that geopolitics are also very favorable for us. So if I can, Alastair, just just to add to that, if I may, Steve.

6:06 Obviously, we'd we'd started this process a while ago, and it was really, in part driven by the relative valuations that we saw. It was in part driven by our largest institutional shareholder, Regal Funds, had us in a side pocket fund. They're now about something in the region of about $15,000,000,000 Australian, so about £7,500,000,000. And they'd expressed their interest in continuing to help the company fund its development and its growth all the way through to potentially, participating in a significant way in the, CapEx development when we go into production. But they'd they'd actually pointed out that in order to do so, we needed to be on the ASX so that we could be eligible for the larger sort of main core funds.

6:52 So what we've announced today is that we're looking to raise between 10 to 20,000,000. Regal will be pro saying maintaining it pro rata of their current shareholding at 15%. And then we have a number of other leading Australian institutional funds who have expressed their interest to come into this raise, and then we're working with a number of retail brokers. But we're principally working with, CLSA. For those that don't know CLSA, it's now the world's third largest investment bank. It's based in Hong Kong. It is,

7:24 significantly highly owned now by CITIC, the large Chinese group. Steve, do you just want us to comment as why why we ended up with CLSA and and their relationships in Asia and their retail distribution out of Hong Kong? Yeah. CITIC, I say, is is is the third largest investment bank in the world, and CLSA is the is the broker in Australia. Now we we were looking at a number of brokers, some some very good firms in Australia. But we chose CITIC because we can see going into into the future,

8:00 the the access into many of the the companies in the battery supply chain, not just in China, but in in Japan, Korea. CITIC has reached into all of them. So we have the the the potential, to work on strategic partnerships into the future. Now since signing on with CLEANTECH LITHIUM we already have one party that they've introduced who are interested in the company. They're in the data room actually actually now.

8:33 And the other area, you know, for for them is they've got good access to wealth funds and, you know, high net wealth individuals in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia. So they'll be tapping into into those markets during this fundraise as well. And down the road, as we're looking for debt financing, no fall for the project, CTL is one of the biggest banks in the area providing the the construction finance. And we believe that, working with CLSA on on this particular deal, will give us good entry into good relationship with, with CTLIC, into the future. So just to clarify for the audience today, we've launched the prospectus today.

9:19 One of the idiosyncrasies between London and and Australia is we we can't halt trade in London. So when you lodge your prospectus on the ASX, you have to launch it. You go through what's called an ASIC review, which is securities commission, and then we have to go through the Australian Stock Exchange review period, which can only happen after you lodge. And as part of the conditions precedence to get the deal away, we have to call an EGM and get shareholder approval for the deal. So the current graphic there outlines the timing. So we're expecting to actually be on the exchange towards the end of September.

9:53 We appreciate it's gonna be slightly disappointing for everybody that we're doing a slight down round. When we started, we were sort of back up at '24, '25, but then with the the recent issues in Japan, the market moved away and lithium still stays suppressed, which has got a bit of a drag on all of the lithium companies out there. But fundamentally, the the benefit to all shareholders will be to continue the current pace of development of the assets and to push forward with both the current works that we're doing on the downstream in terms of getting the lithium and progressing forward to getting the PFS away and then onto the DFS. So I think it's gonna be highly beneficial for the company in terms of broadening to a much wider institutional, but also retail based in Australia. Just as a a a quick side for the audience, Steve, I mean, you and I have discussed it many times, but there's what? Four four or five lithium companies on the LSE.

10:50 There's about 36 on the ASX.

10:53 When I do my searches, I could find about five or six analysts in London covering the sector. When you look at all the analysts covering the range of ASX companies, there's actually something like 86 different analysts between Australia, Asia, Canada, and The US covering the Australian lithium sector. So one of our hopes is that we will start to get a lot more institutional analyst coverage because they'll have to as part of the the peer group analysis, and that will help further enhance the company's investor reach and hopefully add to a share price appreciation. So one of the other questions we've been seeing is, this is an Australian focused, placing onto the Australian Stock Exchange. So what we actually issue is what's called CDIs, which are certificates of depository interest. So shares will be lodged with Computershare in Australia.

11:43 And the way it works in Australia is you get a a digital certificate, which is represents your interest. Now it it has been through the various verifications and clearances to go internationally to qualified institutions in Asia, Europe, into North America, and into The UK. And we in order, there are some comments on some of the chat rooms about disenfranchising existing shareholders, and the company has really gone out of its way to try and and to avoid that. So while a private individual is not able to subscribe, a broker in The UK is able to subscribe. So if there are any shareholders that wanted to participate, they can contact, their broker and take independent advice from their broker.

12:31 This, by the way, I want to be clear is is not a a solicitation or an offer to market the securities, but qualified institutional investors, which does include, UK brokers, can put a bid into the book, as we're building it over the next sort of week or so. And there is an ability for those institutions to settle via Crest. But, again, that is something that investors should talk to their financial advisers about and take advice directly. But that is something if anyone wants any clarity on that, they're more than welcome to to give me an email. So, hopefully, we'll be in a position to give a very positive update about that, in the very near future. Steve, is there anything else you think we should comment on on that, on today's major announcement?

13:17 No. No. I I I think, no, people have been, expecting it. It's been delayed, but it's very good that we are on the way. And it'll be good for, everybody, including our UK, you know, shareholders that we will be ASX listed, and, we hope that, we'll see our share price, rerating closer to that of our peers on the ASX, which will have beneficial, impact on our London shareholders.

13:44 Steve, we do have we started to get some questions coming in on the q and a, and and we'd welcome everybody to put any other questions that they'd like to be addressed at the end coming up. But there's one just come up from Rajar about why shareholders being constantly diluted with Sheraton anymore. And if I may, Steve, I'll I'll just address that if I can now. Obviously, with all junior mining companies, as they develop, they need to raise capital. The company is not revenue producing until it goes into production. So it's always been anticipated that as the company goes through its drilling campaigns and then goes through the pilot plant, that there will be a requirement for further capital. Now this funding, will take the company all the way through the PFS and with some of the warrants outstanding. It is anticipated that this will be the last equity raise.

14:31 After this, we will then be in a position to start negotiating with strategic offtake partners in terms of doing construction and development financing. And as we just alluded to earlier, part of the reason for working with CLSA and their relationship with their parent CITIC is to

14:46 then be in a position to start having conversations about debt financing. So the anticipation is, that this will be the last equity raise that we will need to do. Obviously, markets can change. The lithium price can change. And, obviously, at this point in the company's development, we are very much dependent on the overall commodity price and the market sentiment. So it is a disappointment to all of us that we're not able to do this at a higher price. However, the overriding priority is to make sure that the company is fully funded to take us through the next key milestones in getting us into bidding a producing company with revenue rather than a development company. Steve, is there anything else you want to add? Otherwise, we can just jump on to the analysis.

15:32 Yeah. Sure. So since we last spoke, we did do an operational update. We didn't have a chance because we were traveling to go on, but, obviously, we've had further great results coming out from the pilot plant. Maybe if you want to just have a a chat about that and and the lithium market. Yeah. Let let let's stay with with the lithium market first because, obviously, you know, people have been seeing the price, no no dropping to where it is today, the $11,000 a a ton. We keep saying that that that is not important for us now. What we need to see is the price when we're coming into into production. And and every analyst out there is saying, look, for for projects to to get financed and coming into production, it needs an incentive price more, like 20 to $25,000 a ton, to make those those projects have a reasonable return for those investors.

16:33 And what we're seeing today at this this price is production beginning to come out of the market and projects being being delayed? You know, we've just seen in the in the last week, you know, discussions on on projects in in Australia, the spodumene projects, mines like Mount Cattlin considering stopping production because they are uneconomic. We've seen lithium hydroxide plants being being suspended, no from from development. In in Australia, Even in in Argentina, we've seen Arcadian, you know, slow down the development of some of these brine projects and canceling the spodumene project in in in Canada.

17:25 So so this is this is happening. All these companies are hurting now with with today's pricing, and projects are being delayed and will continue to be delayed. And what's happening is is on the demand side, there's very, strong demand for for electric vehicles in China. But it's been slower than expected in The United States and The EU because the man in the street is still saying, you know, the cars are too expensive. And every motor manufacturer is now, you know, working out, how they can get, you know, cheaper vehicles into the mass market. And one of the ways is is to use what's known as the LFP batteries, need what we make is is is lithium carbonate.

18:12 And so there is going to be, you know, a sort of switch round, to put these cheaper vehicles into Europe and The United States to make them affordable, and that is going to to lead to an acceleration in demand growth into the future. So we're in this process of equilibration between supply and demand. But the prices today cannot be sustained into the future. They they they must go up. I was just looking at one broker, Wilson's, this morning in in Australia that was now talking about, you know, the, you know, the the sense in in Australia that the market is weak. But the conclusion is, you know, sunny times are coming. They must come into the future if the world is gonna get the lithium to drive the the electrification of of vehicles.

19:07 So today is today. We're looking at what is the price in two thousand and twenty seven, twenty eight when we're into into production.

19:17 Steve, on on that note, that that analyst actually is a gentleman called let me spell it properly for everybody. Sam I saw it as well, funny enough, and I read it this morning. Sam Catalano, who used to be with Canaccord in London. He's now the head of mining research for Wilson's in, I think, the Gold Coast. But he's available on LinkedIn, and his article

19:41 about the state of the market and where they see pricing is also available on LinkedIn for anybody. So once again, that's Sam Catalano, c a t a l a n o. But, again, it was a very, very interesting piece. And, we had we had a really good response in the press today from a pickup from a VSA and from people such as Investors Chronicle and VOXX and a whole bunch of others really reported quite positively on today's ASX announcing. Right. So that's where we were on the I've I've got a a question actually. I think we'll we'll we'll deal with from Greg Jay now just about where we see the company's valuation we get to production. But on that note, Steve, one one of the things that everybody remarked about and one of the things that everybody thought was very positive is that we're right at the bottom of the cost curve. So even though prices are currently around between sort of 11 and 12,000 over the last sort of few weeks,

20:39 Our all in cash costs are estimated to be something around about 7. So even today's prices, we'd make a lot of money. But Greg's question was where do we see the current share price when it gets to production? And, Greg, that will be very much a function of where the lithium price is. If in two years time, we're back at where most analysts are forecasting the long run pricing to be at around about 22, 2.5, we should be something in around about a couple of pounds. If it's something where we are today, you'd be realistically something between sort of a pound 25 and a pound 50. But it it's all gonna depend on, obviously, where the lithium price is when we start to actually generate cash flow and revenue. Right. Steve, shall we move on? Yeah. One thing we we, you know, talk quite a lot to, you know, analysts and and institutions in in Australia was the the direct lithium extraction technology which we are applying in Chile. There's there's still a little bit of reservation about that, but we've been able to go out and say, look. We have a pilot plant. We've demonstrated that it's working very, very well on on on our our brine. So we've been putting results out in into the market.

21:52 As you know, in the in previous discussions, we said we split the pilot plant in two. We have the front end, the direct lithium extraction, and concentration of that Eliwood by reverse osmosis to about 2,200 p ppm. And this is the newer part of the process. It's demonstrating that the DLE can efficiently absorb lithium and leave the impurities behind.

22:21 And then the downstream is much more well known in in the industry. It's how to go from a lithium chloride solution and precipitate lithium carbonate battery grade. Many people do that. SQM, Alba Mali, Olaroz, and there are existing plants up and running in the world. There's a number in The United States, Saltworks, Conductive Energy. We ended up signing an agreement with Conductive Energy to use their plant in in Chicago to treat our material. And I'll talk a little bit about that just now. But the results we've got is is are actually very, very good. When you consider the evaporation ponds have a recovery a lithium recovery of about 40 to 45.

23:06 Now we've demonstrated with our DLE, plant that the, recovery of lithium from the brine onto the absorbent is about 95%, and, the recovery into the the eluate, is very stable at about 88%. And this is, the typical graphs that that we're getting after multiple multiple, cycles. So 88% recovery compared to 40 to 45%, much, much more efficient, as well as all the other benefits of using DLE rather than the, evaporation ponds. But what we've also demonstrated, which just advanced, is that the the absorbent which we're using, which is won by Chinese company named Lan Shen, we found it's the best of all the absorbents we've tested from all around the world. That apart from the the high recovery of lithium, there's more than 99% rejection of the major impurities, the calcium, magnesium, sodium,

24:14 potassium, which form the bulk, of the of the brine. There's tiny traces of calcium and magnesium and a bit of boron that gets through because the boron is similar in size to the lithium. And so what we're demonstrating is is that the the absorbent is performing its task as a purification step, in the process. Very efficient at absorbing lithium and very efficient at rejecting impurities. So the lithium chloride, eluate, they're pretty clean that we we make in Chile. We then ship, to to Chicago. I just had an update with our team meeting this this afternoon. We now have two containers.

25:00 Each of these got a big flexi tank. They're 22 cubic meters inside the container. Two have now arrived in Chicago, and two are on ships at the moment on on the way. And the process now from from here is that the the our Eliot is then concentrated further by forward osmosis to about 20,000 parts per million lithium, then the use of ion exchange to remove the final traces of, of calcium, magnesium, and the and the boron, And then it's the use of sodium carbonate to precipitate lithium carbonate, which is battery grade. And we we we sent a sample, a large sample of our Eliot to Chicago by air freight, you some time ago so that they could set up their pilot plant ready for the big shipments to to arrive.

26:01 And and these are the results which we have got. I'm not sure we've got it here. Yeah. So so we we we've demonstrated that conductive energy, are getting 99.75% purity of lithium carbonate in their in their setup procedure. These are the four containers that we've sent with about a ton of lithium contained as lithium chloride. We'll be starting to process this during the course of September and into October, and we'll be producing these larger quantities of battery grade material, which we make available to potential off takers and and strategic investors.

26:49 And and just to to remind everybody, you know, this is very, very important because there's no standard specification for, for lithium carbonate. Every, bat every cell manufacturer and battery manufacturer has its own slight, you know, requirements, you know, in in impurity levels, And they need to test the material which they're buying in their in their process. And they do it in a number of stages. They want, you know, kilos, know, first of all, which we can deliver from this first production. So they want to analyze the chemicals and the impurities. Then they want tens of kilos to look at the physical characteristics of the precipitate.

27:38 And finally, they want hundreds of kilos to put through into their test cells, you know, to demonstrate that the material is suitable for for their process. So certainly, we're gonna have a lot of material even from this first stage, to go through the first stages of chemical and physical characterization. And then as and when, the, the offtakers want larger quantities, then we can run as much as they as as they need. But at least we'll have this process now underway during September and and October. And on on that note, Steve, Toby m had asked about the offtakers. So I I think, Toby, that there's there's there's many parties. So we're starting to engage with the first ones, and then there'll be an ongoing process over a number of months as they go through the processes that Steve just outlined. So it's not like there's a one in one to go to there.

28:35 I got a follow-up question from Raj, but Raj, I'll I'll come actually, Steve on that side. I don't know if you can also just see Steve on the q and a, but we'll we'll just do with it in term. Raj's coming back and asking when we foresee production, Steve, so we can give a lot of data of of what we outline for the next maybe sort of twenty four months. And, Raja, I mentioned the breakeven is $7,000, not £7,000. Current pricing is around about 11, 11.5, which the entire industry now believes is the bottom. Your question about what if it falls below the breakeven point, we are in the the middle towards the bottom of the lowest quartile. If prices were to maintain below at 7,000, everybody who's in the other three quarters of the world's production would be forced to shut down. You would then have a decline in the amount of lithium production globally and prices would recover.

29:31 It would be implausible that lithium would get below $7,000 a ton. It you just have no supply. There'll be no economic incentive for most of the market. And even at today's prices, you've seen the higher cost producers. Well, actually, I'll I'll defer to Steve because Steve has a more active following. But at today's current prices, we have seen a a number of the world's current producers either delaying scaling back or bringing back in some of the production. Steve, do just wanna touch on that for me, please? Yeah. I I I I did that a bit earlier. There there's quite an a lot of press coverage in Australia saying that these prices are gonna hurt the Australian producers because they're already starting to to look at projects which are losing money at this at this price.

30:20 Now with the the price of for them, it's the spodumene concentrate, which they were selling some time ago at $34,000 a ton. Is now down to less than $900 a ton, which makes quite a few of those mining operations uneconomic. So there will be production coming out of of of the market. And at some time in the next year or so, there should be a balancing note taking place, getting to a price which is going to be able to deliver cheap batteries for the vehicles, but still make it profitable for the mining companies to operate. Now where that's gonna be, you know, we think it's gonna be the 20 to $25,000 a a ton range.

31:08 There's quite a number of of industry, you know, analysts are looking at, getting back to that. No. Overshooting that, getting back to the $30,000 a ton in the sort of 2026, '27 time frame. But long term, we're using $22,500 a ton. Now on on your current expectations, when when realistically do you hope the company to be into production? Well, we a lot of this depends on on on the permitting, but we're looking at completing our prefeasibility study at the end of this year, rolling that into the DFS next year. And with the results of of the PFS, with the demonstration that we're making good quality battery grade lithium carbonate, you from the pilot plant and able to deliver, to to off takers.

32:04 We'll be looking at developing off take agreements and bringing in a strategic partner to invest at the project level during the course of of next next year. We'll be looking at filing the EIA based on the configuration of the the prefeasibility study early next year, And then working with the government now on the on the permitting, which we believe we can get the environmental permits to proceed to construction middle of two thousand and twenty six. And and this is the thing which is a bit of a variable. It's been taking longer than that for a number of mining projects in in Chile. In my early days in Chile, we were doing the environmental impact assessments and getting permits in six months.

32:57 It's been taking longer. But the government has recognized that. They've been having a discussion with the other mining companies in Chile, you know, last year when the government increased the royalty rates on on on mine production. And the reaction of the industry was saying, look. We don't like it, but we'll do it. But you must do something about streamlining the the the permitting process. The president came back and issued a paper and said, here are the 21 areas that the government government's gonna look to streamline the the permitting process. The governor said they wanna have new lithium projects in production 2026. They can only do that if they if they work on on the permitting and accelerating that. So we're looking at, middle of two thousand and twenty six, to start construction, and we can be into production at the end of two thousand and twenty seven.

33:51 Now the government wanted earlier than that. We're saying, look. We can try and do that, but you must, you know, come good with your promise, to speed up the permitting process. So we are the most advanced projects in in Chile. There's nobody else can work as fast as we can. Nobody else has really done any exploration, let alone feasibility studies or put a pilot plant in in place. We are by far the most advanced at potentially meeting the government's objectives. And the first part of that is is this. It is the operating contract. Every new project in Chile requires the operating contract. We started the the administrative process in in in April, where the government asked for expressions of interest from companies that wanted to develop any of these 26, Salars, which are open to to to the private sector.

34:49 They received, 80 odd, expressions of of interest. They put the results out of that in July. And by the end of this month, end of August, they will announce the the mechanism for award of the of the operating contracts and the criterion they're gonna be using using toward those those contracts. And they're gonna be very careful because many many of of these lithium deposits already have mining licenses on on top of them. And and the mining licenses give rights in terms of easements and the right of using water. And the government wants to make sure that there's no potential for litigation between the owners of the mining rights and those who are going to be granted the the operating contract.

35:42 And we're in a very good position is that we've obtained the mining licenses over the complete basins of both Laguna Verde and the Viento Andino, no no projects, and we have all the knowledge. And the last thing which the government is concerned about is, before awarding the contract, is can the company demonstrate community support, for the project? Because if they don't have community support, the projects won't, won't proceed. And as we've seen, there's been friction, you in the Salada Atacama with, Codelco negotiating with SQM and getting into community dialogue, and there are concerns there. But as we've shown, we engage with our communities right from the start of the the the project. We've taken them with us, shown them, what we're doing in terms of the DLE technology.

36:34 They've seen our our work in in in drilling and pumping. They've been in the laboratories. They've been in the pilot plant, and they stand up and and they tell government that from what they've seen, they know every every project does have an environmental impact, but the technology that CLEANTECH LITHIUM is bringing into the country has a minimum impact, and they commend the government, you to work with CLEANTECH LITHIUM to advance lithium production as as soon as possible. So they're on our side. They bang on the door of the ministry of mines and saying, look. You know, Region 3, it wants jobs. It wants investment. The the indigenous communities recognize they will get benefits from a trust fund from the royalties we're gonna put into our our operating contract.

37:25 Everybody in the in the region is wanting to move forward fast with this with this project. So my expectation is that at the end of August, the the government will announce their their mechanism, whether there are multiple bids on on a particular lithium deposit, and it will go into a solicitation process. We believe because we're advanced, because we have the mining licenses, because we have community support, there's potential expectation to just go into direct negotiation with with government on the terms of that contract. But we'll have to wait and see what comes up at the end of August. Steve, I'm cognizant we were to try and keep this down to forty minutes. So thank you for that. So we're hoping for an update on the sales by the end of August.

38:13 We'll get further developments on the downstream and the lithium, hopefully, in September. And then we have the PFS to drive us at the end of the year in terms of being a major milestone, and then, obviously, onto the ASX by the middle to the end of September depending on the ASX review period. It's usually two weeks, but it can be three weeks, so that's why I'm I'm I'm hedging it slightly there. It's out of our hands. But that, we hope, will bring then a lot broader group of of retail investors and analyst coverage. Very lastly, just to address this, two questions. Lance from our Telegram group had asked us for a very quick update on where we are in the search for a new CEO. Yeah. No. We we engaged a search firm, Heidrick and Struggles, out of out of Australia some some time ago. They have extensive database and resources in terms of identifying their people who meet our our criteria for developing our lithium projects in Chile and also being able to be the front of the company, in front of the investor community, both in in in in London and increasingly in in Australia. So they've got a candidate profile.

39:29 We've been through all the all the list of people. We identified a short list of four excellent excellent candidates. We've had team meetings with all four of them. Whilst in Australia in the last two weeks, I've met all four of them with Tommy McKeith, our resident Australian director as well. And we are in the process of shortlisting our two favored candidates to meet the rest of the of the board so that we would like to be in a position to make an offer in the next in the next few weeks. So I think they're all very excited. They they see the future of of CLEANTECH LITHIUM and the space we're we're in in terms of having these projects in Chile and being listed on the ASX and being able to see the sort of rerating share price and getting some excitement going in the Australian community now for what we are doing in in in Chile.

40:34 So I'm sure that they will be on board very, very quickly. And when they are, they'll say, will step back to rather than doing two jobs as executive chairman and interim CEO, I'll go back to executive chairman for for a while until the new CEO's got his feet on the floor and hands on the tiller, and then I will eventually step back as the ASX and AIM would like into a nonexecutive chairman role. Excellent. So very much hoping to have an announcement, say, within the next sort of four to five weeks about that that role subject to acceptance. Yep. Perfect. Yeah. Okay. Great. And then very last question. So we do have one last question from Andy, and where possible, we try and address all of them. So, Steve, if you and jump in if you want to, but otherwise, I I can address this one. So what are the costing of floating on the Australian exchange?

41:28 Andy, usually, it's a lot less than going into London. The costs are in the prospectus. I don't want to give you an exact figure right now. The the ASX part actually is is relatively cheap converter other exchanges. It it has been a a slight cost to the company because, obviously, we have to abide by UK rules and regulations in terms of our London listing. And then being a Jersey company, we have to abide by certain elements of the Jersey financial services requirements. So it's been a lot of back and forth between different jurisdictions, which is one of the reasons why things took a little bit longer than had been anticipated. But the main point of your question there is how this extra volume shares dilute the value of the shares on the LSE. An increase of the number of shares, obviously, will dilute the potential value to shares of the overall income coming in the future. However, in terms of the immediate value to the shares, I think it will be positive and enhancing to the valuation because the biggest risk in any exploration and development company is financing risk.

42:35 And so the ability to go into the ASX and to have a broader and deeper pool of capital allows the company to move forward with its current objectives. And secondly, the valuations on the ASX are significantly higher. A back of the envelope sort of number is we're trading at approximately one third of the average of the peer groups on the ASX. So we are hoping for a significant increase in the valuation. Not immediately. It will take some time. But also by being on the ASX, we're expecting to get a lot more analyst coverage. There's something like a six seven or eight analysts that cover a company called Lake Resources, which is a a similar DLE focused company in Argentina. But if you're going to write about Lake, you're gonna have to write about some CLEANTECH LITHIUM.

43:23 So in terms of the the the valuation, we're doing this because we think it's going to be positive to all the shareholders going forward, but particularly to our current shareholder base in The UK by doing this financing. Otherwise, we wouldn't have proceeded down this route. Steve, last question here. So how many how many car manufacturers have shown interest in getting sample quantities of lithium? And then we really must wrap it up. But very quickly, Steve. Yeah. We've got I think we've we've had the the the eighth eighth company has expressed interest, signed NDAs, and are in the in the day data room. The the reality is that we have not gone out to approach all the the potential you know, car manufacturers and battery manufacturers until we have all the the information be in a very good good position. I've always said that we're in the strongest position to engage substantially now with potential off takers is is when we have the the pilot plant demonstrating that the DLE works on our brine, and we have battery grade material to to provide to them.

44:39 We have the PFS, which is complete demonstrating the the value because then we start to talk to strategic investors about coming into the project at a price which is related to the NPV of the project, not to where it is today, which is to the depressed market capitalization of the company. We wanna be in that that stronger position. And third is having the the operating contracts from from the government. With all those three in in place, we're in a very strong position, which is to provide material as as we will be doing to Asian companies, but also to The EU and and and The US companies.

45:28 I I've had discussions in the past, you know, with with with BMW who are, you know, very keen on on securing some supply. But they've always, you know, come to him back. Look. I can't go back to my board and really have serious discussions until you can come along with a PFS, and then we can analyze your project and see whether you're you're worthwhile investing in. So that's usually, with these large companies, the minimum requirement you need to get in the door is is having a a robust PFS and your operating contracts in place. And we're gonna be at the end of this year, I believe, in that in that position, which is a very strong one. And particularly now with being, you know, ASX ASX listed, I think there's gonna be good opportunity for investors to to see the value of the company increase very dramatically over the course of the next, you know, six months or so.

46:31 Thank you very much. So just in summary there, so there's eight currently, but there are are dozens of other companies that we're aware of that we're going out to. And already by working with CLSA, I know, that they are starting to have early conversations with a number of other potential parties that, once we get this ASX listing away, we'll also start having initial conversations with. So, Steve, as always, thank you very much for your time. I I know a lot of, effort has gone into marketing and getting this away, but I think it's really gonna be very, very, positive and shareholder accretive in terms of valuation of the company. And now that we're back and now that we don't have a problem of being asked awkward conversations or, sorry, awkward questions, we'll get back to doing regularly sort of biweekly or triweekly updates to our shareholders.

47:21 Thank you very much. With that, back to you, Mark. Fantastic. Thank you very much indeed for taking those questions throughout today's meeting. Of course, any further questions that do come through, have the ability to review those and we publish responses where appropriate to do so. Thank you both for updating investors today. Could I please ask investors not to close the session? You'll now be redirected to provide your feedback in order the management team can better understand your views and expectations. This will only take a few moments to complete. I'm sure it'll be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team, CLEANTECH LITHIUM PLC, we'd like to thank you for attending today's presentation. That concludes today's session, and good evening to you all.