Lake Resources' lithium process slammed by short seller report

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Lake Resources (OTCQB:LLKKF) closed -14.1% in Monday's trading after a report from J Capital Research said the company's plan to produce lithium in Argentina is based on a process that likely does not work.

Lake's (OTCQB:LLKKF) process depends on direct lithium extraction technology developed by Lilac Solutions Inc., but short-seller J Capital says there is no evidence that the technology works at scale and if so at what cost.

"Lake has a track record of failing to deliver on promises," according to the report, which cites Lake's promise that a Lilac DLE pilot plant would be delivered in 2019; it has not been delivered and a feasibility study promised for 2020 has not been published, J Capital says.

Lilac's technology uses ceramic beads to attract lithium in batch cycles, then a water-and-acid mixture is used to wash off the metal; J Capital believes the high cost of the beads would make Lake's (OTCQB:LLKKF) project uneconomical and that the process would leave behind "toxic waste."

The report also alleges Lake (OTCQB:LLKKF) has issued stock options to analysts who published favorable reports.

Lake (OTCQB:LLKKF) shares surged in April after Ford Motor signed a preliminary lithium supply deal with the company.

Comments

[Torrid tungsten]

Sli v2.0 imho

Article I read years ago before lithium was even invented said chemistry was "settled" to use modern parlance.

One piece of evidence was Nobel prizes went to bio chemists. No new major advances likely.

Unlikely to work imho. Better off genetically modifying bacteria to eat it

[Austin Craig]

@Torrid tungsten Lithium is an element.

2nd, SLI was awarded DLE patents recently via Craig Browns work.

[Torrid tungsten]

@Austin Craig I know. It was a joke.

But if you look at the Saudi attempt to get lithium from seawater, the clever stuff wasn't really chemistry. The lanthanum filter is the tricky bit iirc.

If that does scale, I suspect land based brines will be wiped out.

Fwiw I made good money on both sli and lake. But I'm out now, and won't get back in.
Obviously I'm glad people believe more than me, I needed someone to sell to.

[Austin Craig]

@Torrid tungsten You can get lithium from seawater but whats the cost per ton? High I suspect.

[murphy666]

so this was just released by Lake
"Lake Resources and WMC Energy execute Conditional Framework Agreement involving a 10 percent strategic investment in Lake Resources and offtake for up to 25,000 metric tons per annum (mtpa) battery grade lithium (LCE) from Kachi Project"
according to a zoominfo WMC's revenues are less than $5 million
this is a joke

[Austin Craig]

I hope the FBI investigation concludes and justice is served upon short seller firm liars. Thinking of how much they harm good companies - SLI / Vulcan.

[Juan Carlos Zuleta]

Following a response from Lilac's CEO to a report from J Capital Research (www.reuters.com/...), LLKKF is more than 17% up post-market right now. I hope Lilac will also react soon to the accusation that it will generate toxic waste. Other than that, I personally found the report weak. On page 6, for example, it refers to EnergyX as a lithium explorer when everybody knows that it is a DLE supplier.

[MorningInfidel]

@Juan Carlos Zuleta Not worried at all about the short report. Long term holder from below 20 cents USD.