SiFT plant at Lanxess Project site

It has been a very busy week for Standard Lithium (TSXV: SLI) (NYSE:SLI) (FRA: S5L), as it first had to defend itself against a short report without merit which saw the share price temporarily crashing, and a few days later announced a US$100M investment by Koch Strategic Platforms, in order to advance its lithium projects further.

SiFT plant at Lanxess Project site

Introduction

At a time where lithium product pricing has fully recovered, beating all-time highs again, Standard Lithium (TSXV: SLI) (NYSE: SLI) (FRA: S5L) is working diligently on their flagship Lanxess project, and its second South-West Arkansas (SWA) lithium project, both in Arkansas, US.

1. Introduction

Despite COVID-19 gearing up for a second wave, Standard Lithium (TSXV: SLL) (OTCQX: STLHF) (FRA: S5L) continues to raise money in very significant quantities for a typical lithium developer. I continue to be impressed by CEO Robert Mintak, who raised C$34.5M in December of last year, after completing a heavily oversubscribed C$12.1M round in February of that same year.

After Standard Lithium (TSXV: SLL) (OTCQX: STLHF) (FRA: S5L) managed to close an almost two times oversubscribed C$12.1M capital raise on February 21, 2020, the company is financed at least into the “Proof of Concept” completion of the demonstration plant, and the subsequent consummation of the formal Joint Venture with LANXESS.

After Standard Lithium (TSXV: SLL) (OTCQX: STLHF) (FRA: S5L) managed to arrange a C$5M (US$3.75M) convertible loan and guarantee agreement with Lanxess on October 30, 2019, management hasn’t been sitting on its hands. On February 26, 2020, the company announced that an ongoing capital raise, intended to raise C$6M, was closed at no less then C$12.1M.

It seems more and more likely that Standard Lithium (TSXV: SLL) (OTCQX: STLHF) (FRA: S5L) is displaying a serious commitment of giant JV partner Lanxess these days, with construction of the demonstration plant advancing rapidly along the way. Standard managed to arrange a C$5M (US$3.75M) convertible loan and guarantee agreement with Lanxess on October 30, 2019, and has already been paid out to Standard.

1. Introduction

Usually, when I hear about companies pursuing new recovery methods necessary to make uneconomic specialty metals projects economic, I’m very sceptic about their chances of success. The simple reason for this is that developing such methods are very capital intensive, and very difficult to scale up from bench scale (laboratorium scale) to commercial scale pilot plants.