It is the same situation with ASN at the moment ,and a few others.
A lot of Lithium money is on the sidelines at the moment with the little available focussing on just one or two stocks at a time.
If all goes to plan with the ASN Paradox Basin brine drilling and sampling program ,a lot of focus will move out of the more risky countries where the Li grades are currently higher ,to a stable country like USA where the tax is lower with far better regulations for miners and processors ,particularly in the state of Utah.
If one or both of the current drill holes drilled or about to be drilled returns Li grades similar to historic grades from the 1960's ,all these south American briners will see a lot of money move out of stocks like GLN AGY BMG ,just to name a few.
The next few weeks could see a big shift in money and what Li stocks investors choose to invest there money in.
Also the chemical process has a lot to do with success and profit margins ,I believe the processing costs profit margin is quite tight for south American brine processors ,but not so for the Paradox Basin Utah brine where the economics are quite attractive when you include a chemical processing process that will produce very high grades of Br I ,potentially Li and B Mg ,the highest Li grades in the world can not compete with the equivalent value of all these minerals combined.
Certain types of brine can make more profit from 150ppm Li compared to 800ppm Li ,this is something a lot of people do not understand yet ,a bit like the issues AGY is having at the moment ,and something I always knew would happen.
Briner investors only focus on the Lithium ,but Iodine sells for twice that of Lithium ,and other minerals that can be extracted from a brine also each add similar value to that of the Lithium ,the Lithium in some brines can not only make a project economical but also only represent around 20% of the profit margins compared to the other minerals contained in the brine that can also be extracted.
It is certainly going to be a interesting year for Lithium and mineral brine exploration processing companies.
