Cleantech Lithium (LSE:CTL) — Company Update and Francisco Basin - Scoping Study

0:02 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 at any time using the q and a tab situated on the right hand corner of your screen. Simply type in your questions and press send. The company may not be in a position to answer every question it receives during the meeting itself. However, the company will review all questions submitted today and publish responses where appropriate to do so. Before we begin, I would like to submit the following poll.

0:32 I would now like to hand you over to doctor Aldo Boitano, CEO. Good afternoon. Hi. Good afternoon, everyone. Always a pleasure, to have a webinar. It'd be presented by me and the, again, the CEO of CLEANTECH LITHIUM and our executive chairman, Steve Kessler. Again, very excited to tell you all the news, I'll pass it to Steve who will start the presentation.

1:00 Okay. First of all, we are CLEANTECH LITHIUM. Now CLEANTECH LITHIUM means that, what we intend to do is produce green sustainable lithium into the European and US markets. Now that's because as the the major economies want to decarbonize their total economy, they also want to see the supply chain of the materials going to those batteries also sustainable. And in contrast to the hard rock mining and evaporation ponds, we intend to produce lithium in a green and sustainable way. We have a number of projects in Chile. Two of them are advanced, Laguna Verde and Francisco Basin.

1:45 We have scoping studies out on both. There's a combined NPV of $3,000,000,000 combined resource of 2,700,000 tons, projected 40,000 tons a year lithium carbonate production capacity. So two significant projects. And then we have two exploration projects, which Aldo will also cover in in greater detail. When I talk sustainable, I mean, we're applying technology direct lithium extraction, which means that we will extract lithium from the brine, return the brine back underground so we will have no depletion of water from the from the aquifer. We intend to use renewable energy, so we'll have next to no or very low carbon dioxide emissions.

2:35 And because we're not a hard rock mine, we have no evaporation ponds, our geographical footprint, our environmental footprint is is is very, very small. We're making good progress. We have a DLE pilot plant coming to site. It's being erected at the moment and will be commissioned during the quarter of of this year. As I said, we intend to produce a premium lithium product, which we hope to eventually get premiums in in the future for the markets in in Europe and The United States. We are a junior company, but we've had a number of of major potential partners already engaging with us, getting very interested in the project.

3:22 It's been our strategy as a board not to give away off take agreements or not to give away shareholding in the company too early in the in the process. We've always said we intend to complete the pre feasibility study of of Laguna Verde, demonstrate the the the the technical proficiency of the process with the pilot plant, and get permitting underway. So we can maximize the the value before we engage with with strategic partners. As you all know, Chile is is a favored place for for lithium. That's the largest reserves in the world. Chile used to be the first producer in the world. They've been overtaken by Argentina by Australia.

4:14 Argentina is growing very, very rapidly. But the present government now wants to regain its position as the world's leading producer of of of lithium. It's announced a national lithium strategy. And as part of that, they've been very, very strong in the saying that they approve of mining development. They approve of lithium expansion, but it must be done in a sustainable way. And they wish to see direct lithium extraction being applied to the brine projects in in Chile in the future and not the not the evaporation ponds. The way that we've been talking about DLE in country two to government and local, community, we've seen very strong, local community, support. And it's not just that they see, jobs and, income coming from services, but they're seeing mining being done in a sustainable way in the in the future, which is very important.

5:11 We have a a very strong board that's been involved in the delivery of large scale projects. Looking at the company, we listed on AIM only in March last year. We've gone a long way since since then. We did the the initial raise and then a secondary raise in November last year for total of about $20,000,000 £20,000,000, which has gone into the project development. The board management hold about just under 20% of of the project. We had a natural resource fund in Australia. Regal came in on a pre IPO round at 10%. They stayed in there on the IPO at 10%, but they are so keen on the on the project and its potential that when we did the secondary

6:09 raise in November last year, they increased their participation close to 15%. So they are very, very supportive shareholders. We have a number of other institutions in the shareholder base. Currently, have a market cap just under £60,000,000. We have our two joint brokers, Canaccord Genuity and Fox Davis. They both had, you very extensive analyst reports on the company, and both have the company's very strong buy with Canaccord £2.95 target, Fox Davis £4.45 target. That Canaccord target is only based on our first project of of Laguna Verde.

6:56 When I say we have a a very strong board, I I came on board as as as chairman last year and stepped up to executive chairman earlier this year as we're starting to move much stronger in project development and going into strategic partner and offtake discussions. My background has been in the mining industry my entire life with all the majors, Rio Tinto, BHP, Billoton. In particular, I've had almost thirty years of experience in Chile leading the growth of of Escondida into becoming the the largest copper mine in the world, and then the first CEO of Kayawasi bringing that into production, the second largest copper mine in the world. I've also been a CEO of ASX listed lithium company, which is now in other hands.

7:49 Aldo's c CEO has got tremendous management experience, in particular, in the renewable energy sector where he's been responsible and participant in deploying 800 megawatts of of renewable energy in Chile. Gordon Stein, CFO. Many years of experience on the LSE, both main board and AIM in energy natural resources projects. We're very pleased to, bring on to the board Maha Dawoudi, a few months ago. Her expertise is in commodity marketing and trading. She held a senior management position at Trafigura where she was responsible for global marketing and trading of of copper and zinc. Lots of experience in China as well and putting in place off take agreements and strategic partner relationships.

8:45 With the aim of listing on the ASX, we need a a resident director in Australia, and Tommy McKeith has joined the board. His background is is geology. He led the internationalization of of gold fields worldwide and particularly into Australia. He stayed in in Australia. He's been a chairman and director of a number of of mining companies in Australia, and he's currently a director of of Evolution Mining. With me is going to executive chairman Jonathan Morley Clerk takes up the the position of senior independent nonexecutive director. He's Jersey based and has tremendous experience in in financing, financial controls, capital raisings.

9:38 So we have a a very, very strong board. There's not Not only strong not only strong board, but also a very strong team in in charge in all the operational delivery. You probably if you've seen previous presentations, there's a lot of new names and and more people, on on various fronts. I just wanna stress out, not detaining every one of them, stress out their their capacities. This stress line, of of of employees and and and management is second, that is is helped by local consultants, and on top of that, international consultants, worldwide class companies who who help develop the project. You can see also that we stepped up the corporate relations side, the community relations.

10:33 We'll touch base later on that. Steve mentioned at the beginning, all the work we've been doing with the government and at the local level and the and the national level in in the various permitting and advancing the projects, forward. Steve already mentioned that there's two flagship projects and the and the combined resource, the combined production that's the Buenavento Francisco Basin. Again, more than 2.72 lithium resource and more that supports each one of them at 20,000 ton per year production. We touch them in in in in detail as we go on the presentation. The two flagship projects, again, Haldemara and Salar Atacama, we'll touch the in with them as as we go forward. The combined of of the first two projects were the at the feasibility stage, scoping studies.

11:25 It's over $3,000,000,000 of net present value. The importance of being powered by clean energy and minimize some water loss, thought Steve touched on when my my bio on my work on the renewable energy sector. Chile is one of the countries who've gone most, than everyone growing on the on the renewables, and it's more than 50% now of the of the of the output of the of the of the system. We we we are are working and already again with our team and and local and international consultants on on agreeing on a 100% renewable energy power purchase agreement. That's what PPA stands for, twenty four seven. Direct leasing instruction, is is it's very important. Again, Steve will touch later on this. He mentioned it at the beginning of the the not affecting the subsurface aquifers and how that is done. But, also, we're working on minimizing the water loss in the basin.

12:25 Important is that we control those those basins where our two largest projects are or the more developed projects, the Buenavento San Francisco Basin. So it's been on the news, and it's been also with a a update on the market how we presented the sales, c e o l, that's a contract of lithium operation, or even an accurate translation is operating contracts. It's not a surprise that Chile has a it's an historic and stable mining production. Mining industry is one of the most pre prestigious jurisdictions along with Australia and Canada on mining. There's a lot of pre trade agreements and and specifically, on lithium space agreements, the government, the president himself, has going abroad, and work, on various fronts. But more importantly, it's The United States who has a pre trade agreement with The US and is requiring that over time, all the critical material have come from the especially lithium from The US and and those countries who have free trade agreements. And Chile is the only one, in that in that space.

13:36 The government is pro. DLE has been announced as the national lithium strategy. We were the ones who started the earliest in 2017 when I cofounded the company with idea of, being a sustainable

13:51 producer of lithium. Again, my background is on mountaineering. First achieved this and went to these places in a different role, but I see no conflict on doing it well, and the government it's it's aiming to preserve these places, these pristine places, and at the same time produce lithium to to help the the world moving into electromobility and decarbonization. So we presented the first two sales as a private company. It's been well received by the government, and that's why we have also consultants. And we have people employed in key roles in the company to to keep touching the government at a local and a and a at a national level. We've been there's been going conversations both at the senate level, parliament level, and the government on easing the the easing the investment in Chile by speeding up the parts of the of the permitting.

14:46 And, again, this is opportunity for CLEANTECH to to to go forward. We offered when we have ourselves to invite an army who is one of the two special vehicles the government created for the government to partner in a minority way with, with companies like us. Again, well received. We we presented the this this operating permit a 100% owned by by by us. There's no, participation of the state, and it's a small minority participation if if they come in and we keep the conversation. Again, tax benefits, active foreign investment program. So the most advanced projects are Francisco Baysing and Laguna Verde.

15:31 We we've been noticing the market, with with everything. A key thing that you'll see in the near term is the is the DLE pilot plant. We're already constructing that, and we'll be producing one kilo of, of lithium carbonate per month. We've we've done a lot of work with various vendors. Steve will touch that later on how we're progressing on that front. The PFS of Laguna Verde will be an advancement for the for the over the scoping study that, you have seen or you can download it, the RNS from our website or the or the end market. It's further derisking the project. And and we're also working on the and and past that, we'll work on the on on a more and final feasibility study to to be able to construct and produce in Lumina Verde in 2026.

16:23 Both projects have been going on on environmental impact studies, and we've been progressing and involving the communities, again, local and and national level, accredited companies who are gonna are going us with this with this trip on on being on production. We mentioned the power. And but then we have to go in Francisco Race Basin, who's, like, a year behind Laguna Verde, simultaneous drilling for two campaigns. I'll go in details on all those things. But what are the news that you should expect, again, the the updated resource from this upcoming campaign, the environmental impact assessment moving forward, all the permitting, the power purchase agreement, and then and, again, to be in production, have all the permitting 2026 or whenever in two thousand twenty seven Francisco Basin.

17:17 The sale timing, it's it's a six months process. We've in the past, we've been approved, to the various stages of that and the government change. And, again, we're inviting the government, to engage with us. Let's take take the project since you last saw it. We updated the resource on on Buena Verde based on the on the the Finnish drilling campaign that also bring brought us forward more information about the about the the project with an updated resource. We have a paved highway that goes all the way from the project into the Port Of Caldera. There's a renewable grid energy that's good access to water. That brings us a lower CapEx than a lot of companies who are also aiming for 20,000 ton per year production, all the infrastructure in place.

18:13 We're we're the only one of the only, if not the only company doing hydrological pump test in the in the basins. Again, it's key that you control the basin. You can see our license that we control the whole basins. By the way, the the application for COL, it's a it's a rectangle that encompass, everything in the in the basin under our mining rights. We're gonna start with a well known, company who's doing projects around the world, Celandis, on the first quarter on on brine reinjection test further over what we've been doing initially.

18:48 The numbers of the scoping study are out. It's 20,000 year production, more than thirty years. The net present value is 1.83. There's a big net cash flow. Steve will touch on finance, and that will help us finance the growth of the other projects on the company. It's a little less than 400 US dollars, the the capital cost, and it's all coming in now into the into the PFS, who we are working with, again, another prestigious firm that is Worley. The lower cost, the the the the OpEx is below 4,000 meters per ton of lift.

19:24 Francisco Basin, again, it's it's one year behind Laguna Verde. It's o point nine hundred nine hundred thousand tons of lithium, enough to sustain, again, twenty thousand year production, the grades and and everything. Remember, this was a new discovery that we added into the world of of lithium and and and resources and reserves of the world future reserves. In 2022, we had very good positive test. And, again, Francisco in Laguna Verde, the the energy especially is nearby. This is just within three kilometers away from the substation of Maricunga Mine. And what are two restaurants? It's Asla Buena Verde.

20:11 It's there, within our basin, and and the use of that is is very low.

20:16 The scoping study released, like I just mentioned and Steve mentioned in the beginning, it's a 20,000 ton per year production that sustains more than twelve years. Again, we're starting fairly soon as the winter allow us to go in there with the next breeding campaign.

20:35 Payback is similar. The capital cost is a little bit more. The OpEx is less. Similar numbers, and and this the combination is over $3,000,000,000 on the net present value. Why why a low operating cost? Again, I mentioned it due to the existing infrastructure. You can have a breakdown here. You can download this presentation from our website. But energy and reagents and, again, Steve will touch on the on the importance of on the details of direct lithium extraction. But the use of renewable energy instead of the sun, that means that you're stop you're depleting the subsurface aquifers in the likes of El De Marlin and SQM or Salarvitacam and other projects in Argentina in Salarno and Remuerto, who are evaporation ponds, means a higher energy, the reagents, the resins that we're using, but then we're competitive with the with the operating cost of those projects.

21:35 What, it's coming up, we we also informed the market on Gemara. We've been doing, on top of the historical information on the the what you see at the bottom, the the the low resistivity or high conductivity that we acquire over the over previous works, and we've done our own in this spacing and geophysics. We have hit the the some of this brine. We we're we're we're keeping on the exploration program, and and we aim to go deeper and find a higher grader of lithium and everything. Let's just remain that we find gas. Well, government, you know, for many, many years, we we found gas, and that had us moved to another location. So looking very good. It's a large, license area.

22:21 And then Salar at Takama, the richest Salar in the world, 45% of the reserves. We acquired a very important 337 license area. It's it's an important part of the of the production in the world. We have all these licenses registered. We have a preference. We have a very good prestigious land management system and and company that help us, and we're aiming to begin the technical work. And and and as to all our projects, we've been consulting with the local communities involving them from an early start staging an early engagement. Well, this is aligned again with the government priorities. We tickle all the all the boxes produce lithium in a sustainable way.

23:10 We're listed on AIM, especially to serve The US and European market with the with the more strict requirements. We're we're scaling up, DLE to produce this 40,000 tons per per per year in the combination with two more advanced projects.

23:28 Great rate that it's production for 2026. And and we have the resource, and and we're we're looking past the PFS stage on strategic partners. Steve, Johnny, the whole board, and myself are gonna be involved in that with with various companies who been approached by us. We have NDAs in place, can tell you more, but they've been talking to us, visiting site, doing initial due diligence, etcetera.

23:56 K. And and if we stay stay on that slide and and discuss Sorry. I moved it. There it is. And and and discuss funding. I I I know we we've had a number of questions in in previous web webinars when we've been asked, well, how are we gonna fund the the construction of these projects when we've got Laguna Verde Estimated CapEx from last year was 400,000,000. Francisco Basin, 450,000,000. That's now a billion dollars of of of CapEx. The the the reality is we we'll take these one project at a time, Laguna Verde, no CapEx of $400,000,000 or or or so. It's strongly cash generative. Now even though people have seen the lithium price come down, it's only come down to what we're forecasting our our long term lithium price, the $22,500 a ton. These projects are very strongly cash generative, and they will support a high degree of debt. So we're expecting probably 60 to 70% of of the CapEx can be funded by commercial banks and also multi multilaterals.

25:07 Certainly, in places like like Europe, There are the the banks like, KFW in in Germany. They are very keen to support local industry and having their supply of strategic minerals. I've had discussions with KFW. They've made proposals that they can provide 25% of the contract value, in debt, to to to the project. So if you take,

25:37 let's say, a sales contract, 8,000 tons a year of of lithium carbonate into Germany for eight years, that's $64,000,000,000 and 25%, you know, of of that. You're looking at being able to, you to to finance almost the entire amount of of the debt, you know, just from import credit finance. It's exactly the same in in The United States where the motor manufacturers, you know, require IRA compliant material going into their their batteries. Even though there's no direct support from, you from Ex I'm it's clear that the motor manufacturers will be keen to provide support to projects. We've seen General Motors providing $750,000,000 of finance for the Thacker Pass project in in The United States. So we expect to see strategic partners coming forward, with the the long term finance that's going to be needed.

26:43 And we have a choice. You know, we could do one project first, Laguna Verde, and from the cash flow, from that finance the next project, Francisco Basin. It may be there's such a strong demand for lithium and strong financing capability. Our potential strategic partners would like to do both projects

27:04 almost simultaneously. So we we have options there. Strategic partners, we have the modem manufacturers out there, the battery manufacturers, the commodity traders, industry partners, all getting into this space, all wanting to secure lithium supply. If they don't have secure lithium supply, they have no batteries, they have no cars. So it all stems back to all of these players want to secure supply of lithium,

27:31 and we're taking our time to get into discussion substantive discussions with who we think are gonna be good partners. And we'll time that when we have a good position for ourselves. That's completion of the pre feasibility study of Laguna Verde. We have results from our pilot plant to demonstrate we make good quality lithium carbonate and or lithium hydroxide, and we've gone well advanced into getting the the operating contracts from the government.

28:03 That is the time that we will enter in substantive discussions with the strategic partners to get maximum value for our our our shareholders. I I've given examples in the past of typical projects I've done in Chile. In in the past, Escondida and and Coyoacci, where a strategic partner comes into the project, not not into the corporate, comes into the project, 12% equity participation, which it pays very good value for that,

28:34 and then contributes to the debt financing on its own balance sheet, but also corrals its relationship banks in the country in which it it it operates, to support the debt financing package. Plus, there's, the off takers, is very conventional now. People who want off take are prepared to, make prepayments

28:58 on the on the off take agreement. So we have a whole variety of financing sources Yeah. For the long term. There's also the the the green funds, the ESG funds looking for home to put investment into projects that provide sustainable production to support this transition into into the green energy economy. So long term, I think we're gonna be in a very, very strong position. Now people do ask, you know, what about our current financial position? We've been very open. We raise money as and when we need to advance the projects. We did the secondary raise in in November to allow us to undertake the the drilling, which we've completed, get on with the scoping studies, environmental studies, and the board will continue to raise the necessary finance to keep the momentum going on our project

30:00 development as we go forward. Then if we get into direct lithium extraction, again, we've discussed this this this before. And and people say, but is this a new tech technology? It's not a new technology. Absorption of metal ions on on resins and ion exchange has been used for for decades. It's been used by LIVENT for lithium in Argentina for the last twenty years. I was using ion exchange for uranium forty years ago. So the the the technology is exactly the same. What's been happening is is being recently applied applied to lithium on a greater and greater scale.

30:46 And why is it that this being done is because most areas of the world are becoming very conscious that they need to have sustainable supply of of lithium. Now what DLE does is we pump the the brine from the underground aquifer. We then absorb the lithium on a specifically designed resin that absorbs the lithium and then reinject the brine back into the aquifer underground in a different position so we don't dilute where we are are extracting from. So there's no water loss from the the the aquifer. In contrast to the current production from evaporation ponds where you pump the, you know, the brine and evaporate all that water away, which is no longer, environmentally sustainable.

31:37 The lithium, when it's absorbed on the resin, is then washed off the resin, using using pure water, and that, that solution of of lithium is called eluate. It's then concentrated further using reverse osmosis, forward osmosis until it's high enough concentration to then precipitate as as lithium carbonate, and the water gets recycled back into the process. And the advantage of of direct lithium extraction is not just low water consumption. From pumping the brine, it takes a couple of days to produce lithium carbonate and get cash flow compared to the eighteen months to two years which is required for the evaporation ponds.

32:25 The recovery of lithium from DLE is in the range of 80% compared to the 40 to 45% from evaporation ponds. So it is it is technically very much more efficient. I can pass it, Steve. There it is. Yeah. I've got I've got I've been kicked out. Oh, but I passed it. You're looking at the at the DLE developers and producers worldwide where the Yeah. No. I I I I don't I don't have it. I've I've been kicked out here.

33:12 Okay. Well, this is this introduces what shows yeah. This shows what you just mentioned, how it's becoming mainstream with many projects in various places going into BLE and LIVENT and who has four places. You're back. I'm I'm I'm back. Yes. So this this is slide a that shows the the a large number of direct extraction projects around the world. United States, Argentina, Canada, Germany, UK. And there's a number of technology providers. The one name you'll see there is Sunrise as the block on the left producers apart from LITHIUM.

34:04 There's a few projects have all been brought into commercial production by Sunrise. So even though there's a lot of developers out there, we believe that it's in the best interest of the company and will lead us to production faster by working with SunRisin as the world's leading leading supplier of of technology and and resins. Yep. Nope. Oh. Steve just went out. I'll keep going. So that's what he was mentioning working with. He's the world leader, has four projects running. Not only that, he's unveiling other projects with Johnson Resources. I have completed the prefeasibility study in Utah, for 13,000 ton per year production.

34:57 That was done by Hutch, the PFS, another prestigious firm with one of the largest buses producers, a large Chinese firm for BYOD. They have a demonstration plant. They're more importantly developing a project. Everything has been shipped to Argentina waiting for the permits to construct up to a 100,000 per year production with BLE in a project in Argentina. Another project also in Australia with MIG Metals. It's the lithium comes out of there, but it's, operating in China. We met, we've done testing with them in their SALTA project. We've done, here. We have a small scale pilot plant. Now we we're having installing. We've commissioned the larger one. And, yeah, it's the largest resin manufacturing in the world.

35:44 It's listed in Beijing. Stock exchange has a big market cap. And, overall, the 12 projects were were installed. You can see at the bottom left part of our installation and plant assembly. We'll keep updating the news as we construct or install everything that we ship and and the things, as Steve mentioned, first, osmosis, reverse osmosis, ionic exchange, and the other parts of the DLE component. Steve, okay. So to wrap up, I'm now back again. Just to re reiterate the points we made at at at the front. You know, why why clean tech lithium? Now we're gonna be supplying green lithium into the European and and United States markets with very low environmental footprint in terms of energy and water.

36:32 Economics from the two scoping study, excellent. At the moment, $3,000,000,000. We expect Francisco Basin following the next drilling season to increase that resource, so we should be able to extend the life the projected life of of that project. We've got some very exciting exploration projects, which have been assigned no value by by the analysts yet in their in their forecast prices. So over the course of the next few years, apart from developing our two flagship projects, we'll look to see what that can bring to the company as as well. From next year, as to when the the prefeasibility study is complete, that's when you can expect us to be entering into engagement with potential strategic partners and off takers and those discussions to be substantive.

37:28 At the moment, we're meeting up. We've danced around with them, but we want to have solid information in our pocket before we start entering into serious negotiations with potential strategic partners. In in Chile, we've been very, very pleased to see the the response that we've had from the government and local community to us bringing DLE into the country. And in particular, the way we've gone about getting support from the local community, involving the local communities in our project at a very early stage, which is very important for the environmental permitting process. So that I think is is why CLEANTECH LITHIUM. We've got a proven board that's done this before on many large projects and have done it in Chile as well.

38:20 So I think we've covered the the the presentation. We're open for for questions. Perfect. Between between Aldo and myself, how we answer those. Yeah. We we, on purpose, left a lot of time to answer. We do always all the questions. Steve, you know, I don't know if you wanna jump up in the questions we receive over the the week and and and an investor asking us is probably present here, Leo Leo, to talk these points during our Okay. I I I've got the first one one here, which is many questions in one. I'm a long term holder with approximately 1% of the company from the information available. I see the following uncertainties and risks. Permitting, final terms and timeline, will the government deliver on their promises and within a reasonable time frame?

39:08 I think the the issue the the the government's only recently issued its national strategy. As part of the the development of what it wants to do with lithium, it's made significant changes in the the ministry of mines. There's a new minister of mines. There's a new secretary of mines. And NAMI has got a new management on board. They're all finding their their their feet. We do expect them to start their processing, our sale application. And the words from from the government is they've they've understood from the mining industry in general the concern that the permitting process has been too too extended.

39:54 And in the discussions the the the ministers had and the president around the around the world in in meetings with investors is they are really going to be looking at how they can make their permitting, their procedures much more efficient and shorten the time frame because the government needs to have these projects coming in and providing additional income and taxation for the the country. So we expect them to to be working hard at getting increasingly efficient. Let me add something to that point, Steve, again. We keep close contact with the with the government. The idea is to increase these in production to to expand the private sector just as in copper from a from a state owned company called Elko. All the new projects came into place, especially those that Steve mentioned.

40:47 And and and all the the the announced news and the work in the congress and everything to to speed up the permitting. The government is finished in 2026, and they have publicly announced, for example, in the Toronto, Chile Day, that means they participated with the ministry of treasury, have three projects running and, and producing in 2026, and we're the ones closer to to to to achieve that for the government. And that's why the government is speeding up processes, and we're keeping this close contact. Yeah. Then then technical project risk, DLE is next one concept. It must prove itself in Chile while maintaining the project OpEx. All eggs in one basket. Is that a prudent strategy? Project risk includes delays to post production cost overruns.

41:34 Well, every, you know, every project introduces new technology. We are introducing well established technology into into lithium. And when we say it's, you know, all eggs in in one basket, the the established way of of gaining lithium in Chile using evaporation ponds, it's not tenable in the future. Now with the with the aquifers, with lower concentrations of of brine, the only way those are gonna be developed is using direct lithium extraction. And the onus is is on us and with our technology partners as it is on all the other projects around the world is looking at how we can ensure that the DLE process becomes the the world leading process for extracting lithium from brines, not just in Chile, but in the rest of the world as well. So the reality is all eggs are in one basket. Now we are using DLE in in Chile because evaporation ponds is not tenable.

42:47 Project risk is always there. You know, there's always technical things you find out during your your feasibility studies. At the end of the day, it goes back to the strength of your project team and having experienced people to undertake and manage the work in the project. And that's where we've got a strong board. We've been developing a strong operating team, and we are engaging world leading consultants to undertake these technical studies with us. Now we've been using Wally on the feasibility studies, been using Montgomery as our independent geologist, we're using Zalandis on the on the reinjection. We're using ad infinitum with many, many decades of experience in in SQM on the on the metallurgical processing.

43:40 So we intend to make sure that we have very, very strong technical contribution to to these studies. Project finance, I discussed earlier. We're not necessarily looking at at 1,000,000,000. There's two projects of 400,450,000,000. They could come sequentially or they could come shortly after each other, but I don't see the the financing of that in the long term as a as a big issue. We will be getting into position to bring on board a strategic partner, an off take partner later in in next year when we are in the best position to do that and have finalized which is gonna be the best strategic partner for the long term development of the of the company.

44:32 Cash in hand, now we put the interims out a month or so ago. We had just under £5,000,000 in in in cash at that at that time. And the board has always said, look, we we are putting funding in place to match the the requirements of our project development. And the last fundraise in November was for this year's project development program. We're looking at the program going into into next year, and the board will determine what is the appropriate funding package and timing for that. Yeah. There's another question. Thanks, Steve. There's has been the question is there's has been in the past political instability and corruption in South America.

45:24 Will this affect how CLEANTECH operates? Chile, country risk is comparable to those of European countries and developed countries. Chile itself is a developed country. You will never ever, offer money to a police or any or or or any source here. You will go into into into the court or into detain detention. We have, 85 of the world's economy has free trade agreements with Chile with the strict regulations. We've been credited sometimes in magazines like Forbes and and and Financial Times as the as the good as the good house in a bad neighborhood. We hope that that this political and civilian corruption is not, in all the countries that that are nearby us.

46:15 We have a very strong, political system, independent central bank, independent various offices and, and institutions to oversee the government. We've, been growing from a per capita adjusted per capita income of some $4,000 in the in the in the eighties to between 25 and 30 in recent times, etcetera. It does not affect our CLEANTECH operates. We we have plenty of of assurance again of how we run things and how things are run. The money that Steve mentioned is tightly held, in in The UK. We have to do cash calls, approval for fund release.

47:02 The interims, again, you can look on our funding and strategy going forward. The next question is a very interesting one. Steve, are the projects in the top five by size worldwide? Definitely. But I don't know exactly our ranking. To give you your idea, Salar de Takama, of course, it's very large and everything and and but still has four to five times the production of our two places combined. It will be our 20,000 ton per year operation will be each one will be, I don't know, six to eight times smaller than that, but you're comparing to the largest solar of the world. That's why the government has view our projects as not being strategic. But they are very important because it it shows an example of a the low hanging fruit or the or the easy win for the government to show their policy.

47:52 Which number we are ranked? I don't know, but definitely in the top 50. More in the upper side on that those. Again, Steve, going back to DLE. On on on on DLE, I'd there there's a lot of companies that are out there, which have the demonstration plant stage or the pilot plant stage. We're working with with with SunResin that has 12 projects, which are either six of them are in current production at commercial scale and six are in construction. So they are the the leading developers of of direct lithium extraction process, and they are an engineering company that does the the engineering and construction to bring them into into production. They're working, let's say, with one project in Argentina to Bett Summit when they shipped a 25,000 ton a year plant last last year.

48:59 They didn't go into construction immediately because the client, Tibet Summit, didn't have the environmental permits in place. They got those permits in place, and Tibet Summit have now increased that contract to do two fifty thousand ton a year plus. I think it's about 1,500,000,000 contract. So so these the you know, these companies like like Sunresin are very, very experienced at both fabricating the plant and putting it into construction. The next question is I can answer it. We're moving the question is we're moving one to one ton per month to what we have done before, the one kilo certified lithium carbonate higher than kind of what is required that we've done in the past. That is coming from a small lab test work, the same multi valve system that we have.

49:53 But but now, yeah, it it's that's that's a big jump. One kilo that we produce so far to the one ton per month. The one kilo is important for metallurgical process for the PFS stage, but we're updating it to a larger and the the plant is already being assembled and within receipt. I think this next question is about ASX. Yeah. Yeah. We we we thought that that that getting a listing on on ASX would be very good because there's a great pool of capital and great experience in the mining sector and in recent years in the lithium sector. So we would get a very good reception in Australia.

50:38 I think we found that in putting all the documentation in for the the listing, we found that the ASX regulatory function is completely swamped with a number of of requests for listing. They've been losing a lot of their people into the private sector, and we're finding them very, very slow in in responding to to answers to to questions. So the process is ongoing. We said we expected it by the third quarter. Obviously, it hasn't happened by the by the third quarter, but we're still in dialogue with the ASX and hoping that we can get this process as fast as possible. So, yes, we still are intending to progress the ASX listing.

51:30 Yeah. There's a question here on our recent announcement, and we're just covering the presentation with the Salar de Takama announcement. It says that we are positioning the company to be the first mover in strategic locations, given that CLEANTECH has already the first mover advantage outside the strategic locations, can we view this as a move to forge that the first full bore relationship under the new LITHIUM strategy with the has or is the company discussing the recent exploration license applications in Platacama directly with the government? Yes. The last part, we always have direct communication with the government. We've we've kept those conversations. We're just exploring. Of course, we're in a in a very important world class, Salar, the most important Salar of the world, both in in research and in production.

52:20 And but we're we have to do our work. Our work is always to study all the geological information, hydrological information, do the initial geophysics, and see what's the conductivity or or resistivity, of the subsurface aquifers, where are they, and then go on. And and we have a tradition of being very serious and technical in our approach, and that's why the government respect us and the local authorities. That also involves talking to the to the indigenous community who we are engaging right now. So we we don't know, everything 100% what what we have there. We know, again, it's the best place to be, and, we'll talk with the government. It it's a different conversation because it's a strategic place, but, it's it's significant for the government to add players and and more upside, from the already existing production.

53:15 Steve, how do unit cost for DLE compared to conventional mining? I touched at the OpEx at the beginning, but you Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's it's it's it's it's very much less. I think you're looking at operating costs of the evaporation ponds, which use solar energy about the sort of $3,500 a ton using DLE with with purchased power. Now you're you're approaching the higher 3.5 to $4,000 a ton. Conventional mining is is very much more expensive. You look at hard rock mining in in in Australia, They produce a concentrate of about five and a half percent.

54:00 You then ship that concentrate to China with 94 and a half percent waste. That then has to go through a conversion process to make lithium hydroxide, and they get transported across the world. So the general costs in the hard rocking are in the $6,000 done. So it's definitely higher than daily. Perfect. Aldo, Steve, thank you for that. And I think you have addressed all the questions from investors today. And, of course, the company can review all questions submitted today, and we will publish those responses on the investment company platform. But before we direct the investors to provide you with a feedback, channel is particularly important to the company. Aldo, could I please ask you for a few closing comments?

54:51 Yeah. Again, for our more detail of our strategy and going forward, you can look at the interims that we just, outlined where, it's severely undervalued in our view and the view of the brokers has stopped to invest. We we are thankful of the support. We're very thankful of the support of existing investors, how reactive they are, and, and also we welcome new investors. We're leading the way in many ways and and, especially in Chile, we're the most advanced projects, to go into production. Four projects, it's not easy to manage or run. We've we've proven with the board and with the technical team and the world class consultants that we can deliver. So very excited, excited times. Keep following us, and we'll keep announcing on the market what we're doing and and and how good, things are coming up.

55:45 Perfect. Aldo, Steve, thank you once again for updating investors today. Can I please ask investors not to close this session as you will now be automatically redirected to provide a feedback in order that the board can better understand your views and expectations? This will only take a few moments to complete, and I'm sure will be greatly valued by the company. On behalf of the management team of CLEANTECH LITHIUM PLC, we would like to thank you for attending today's presentation, and good afternoon to you all. Thank you all. Have a great afternoon, everybody.