International Lithium Corp. (TSX-V: ILC}: Argentinian Lithium Brine Project, Vertically Integrated Joint Venture with Ganfeng Lithium, One of the Top Five Lithium Producers in the World, Interview with Kirill Klip, Executive Chairman
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By Dr. Allen Alper, PhD Economic Geology and Petrology, Columbia University, NYC, USA
on 8/26/2017
International Lithium Corp. (TSX-V: ILC) is a lithium resource developer with a diversified global portfolio of lithium assets
who's current focus is the Mariana lithium brine project located in Argentina within the renowned South American “Lithium Belt” that
is the host to the vast majority of global lithium resources, reserves and production. We learned from Kirill Klip, Executive
Chairman of International Lithium, that the Mariana lithium brine project is a vertically integrated joint venture with Ganfeng
Lithium, one of the top five lithium producers in the world. According to Mr. Klip, International Lithium projects in Argentina,
Canada and Ireland show impressive results, and the stockholders will benefit from its experienced technical team, from the company's
deep financial connections, from it's capable joint venture partners, and from a diverse portfolio consisting of both hard rock
lithium spodumene projects and lithium brine “salar” projects in different parts of the world.
Mariana Lithium brine project
Dr. Allen Alper: This is Dr. Allen Alper, Editor-in-Chief of Metals News, interviewing Kirill Klip Chairman, President and CEO
of International Lithium. Kirill, could you update our readers/investors on what's currently happening with International Lithium and
give us an overview of the company?
Mr. Kirill Klip: Thank you very much, I'm very interested in talking with you today because we have some very impressive
results for the first half of this year. We have joint venture operations with one of the largest companies in the lithium sector,
Ganfeng Lithium, from China. This year they have had a very dramatic rise in share price and have a $6 billion market cap in US
dollars.
Our joint venture in Argentina, known as the Mariana project, has delivered a resource estimate and corresponding NI43-101 technical
report, available on SEDAR. According to the current resource calculation, there are 1.25 million tonnes of lithium carbonate
equivalent (LCE) contained within the brine at Mariana in the indicated resource category. There is also an additional 618,000 tonnes
of LCE in the inferred resource category, and our total exploration target is for up to 4 million tonnes of LCE, making this one of
the largest lithium salars in the world with a resource estimate. Some people here in London are already calling it the fifth largest
lithium brine system in the world.
We also have two joint ventures with an Australian company called Pioneer Resources, the Mavis and the Raleigh projects in
western Ontario. We recently completed a drilling campaign on the Mavis project and have reported some good intersections with high
grade lithium values in the core. We confirmed historical mineralization and found a new pegmatite with drill intercepts (not true
width)including 7.7 meters of almost 3% lithium oxide, 23 meters of over 1% lithium oxide and 26 meters of 1.7% lithium oxide.
I have built a very strong team at International Lithium and diversified the expertise of our board. John Wisbey, a top financial
professional here in London, particularly in banking and with a lot of connections in Asia, has joined our board and recently became
Deputy Chairman. We both have participated in the recent financing of our company.
Dr. Allen Alper: Sounds excellent. Sounds like you're making excellent progress since we last talked. Could you tell me a bit
more about your plans going forward for the rest of the year into 2018?
Mr. Kirill Klip: Yes, as you know, we had a lot of very exciting news in the lithium sector last week. The lithium price is
dramatically increasing; particularly in the Chinese market and now more and more lithium mega factories, to produce lithium
batteries, are being built. So our development is definitely following this trend anticipating that lithium will be in high demand
and as a result, we are accelerating our development program.
We are coming out of a couple of slow months due to harsh weather conditions in Argentina, but our partner informs us that
things are moving full speed ahead with the pre-feasibility studies at the Mariana project. Proposed work includes a pumping test,
continued natural evaporation concentration of the brine, operational studies and environmental impact assessment. We will have a lot
of development in Argentina in the coming months. Also, we are studying potential alternative ways to increase the efficiency of the
operations and we should have results on a membrane technology study that can extract lithium hydroxide directly from our brine at
Mariana.
In Canada, as you know, we are building our Upper Canada pool of projects. At the moment we have three projects in Ontario: Mavis
Lake, Raleigh Lake and Forgan Lake. Two of these projects are in joint ventures with Pioneer Resources from Australia. We have
delivered very impressive drilling results from Mavis Lake. Now our partners are preparing a follow up program in order to extend the
drilling campaign, particularly at the new found pegmatite on Mavis Lake. They are aiming to drill the project this fall and then
move to start drilling on Raleigh Lake and hopefully expand the potential of this project. So we will have a very busy second half of
this year as well.
Dr. Allen Alper: Sounds good. What are your thoughts on the lithium market, the auto industry, battery industry, how they are
progressing?
Mr. Kirill Klip: Yes, this year has been very busy in our lithium sector, but the last couple of months were the most
exciting. I am based in London and in London it was announced that, from 2040 on, all new cars will be electric, so there will be no
petrol or diesel cars sold in the UK anymore after 2040. But even this significant move into the green technologies, in order to cut
pollution in our cities, might not be enough because more and more top financial institutions are talking about all cars being
electric much sooner than people currently think.
For example, IMF just recently published a study on the energy transition from oil, where they are estimating it is possible
that electric cars will replace all internal combustion powered cars within the next 15 to 25 years. Based on that, more and more
analysts have started to make very high forecasts for lithium demand. Bloomberg is now talking about a very large increase in lithium
demand by 2040, as high as 100-fold. In my personal estimation, if we follow the international energy agency’s projections, for about
600 million electric cars to be on the road by 2040, considered the minimum number needed to keep temperature rise below 2%, we will
need to mine 36 million tons of LCE by 2040.
There are now 17 so called Megafactories being built around the world. One of them, maybe the most famous is the Tesla
gigafactory being built in Nevada. Elon Musk is now talking about another two, or three Gigafactories (to be announced later this
year) to be built all over the world and then maybe another two or three in the United States. But there are also a lot of other
players building lithium Megafactories now; companies like CATL in China, Foxconn, BYD, and LG Chem. There are estimates that more
than 20 billion dollars is being invested now in lithium mega-factories all over the world.
We just had news that another huge lithium battery plant will be built in Germany, which will try to match the scale of the
Tesla gigafactory. We can already see a constrained lithium supply. Prices in Shanghai are as high as 20 thousand dollars per ton of
lithium carbonate and as high as 23 thousand for lithium hydroxide. Our strategic partner, Ganfeng Lithium bought a very significant
stake in Lithium Americas in January and now they are developing the Cauchari-Olaroz project together with Lithium Americas and SQM
in Argentina. SQM itself just bought 50 percent of Kidman resources. They are known as one of the largest lithium brine producers in
the world. The largest lithium brine producer from Chile is moving into hard rock mining in Australia.
Tianqi is building a new lithium hydroxide plant literally on top of the lithium mine, in Australia. Ganfeng Lithium will put
in another lithium hydroxide plant with a twenty thousand ton capacity in China. So we have a very fierce competition now among
lithium’s top five. They are becoming face to face competitors. For example, this June there was a very significant industry
announcement when SQM stopped shipping raw concentrated lithium brine to Ganfeng. They would like to sell more and more advanced
chemicals. So the security of their lithium supply is most important for all these very fast-growing companies. This is where our
joint ventures like Mariana, are coming into play for International Lithium.
Dr. Allen Alper: Sounds very exciting. Sounds like things are moving very fast and there's a real need for more and more
lithium for all these factories.
Mr. Kirill Klip: This is true, yes.
Dr. Allen Alper: Could you tell me a bit about your share structure?
Mr. Kirill Klip: Yes, of course. Our structure is not very complex. With total shares issued at around 90 million shares we
have fully diluted 100 million, but all the stock is very tightly held among our strategic investors, among which is Ganfeng Lithium,
who holds 17% in our company now. TNR Gold our holding company, holds 15%, I personally hold just under 10% and together with
management and insiders we are holding 46% of our shares issued and outstanding.
Dr. Allen Alper: Sounds very good! What are the primary reasons our high-net-worth readers/investors should consider investing
in International Lithium?
Mr. Kirill Klip: I think the primary reasons will be that we have very strong joint venture operations with Ganfeng Lithium,
one of the top five lithium producers in the world and the two lithium integrated producers in China. Basically we are developing our
joint venture projects for our vertically integrated lithium business plan, from the very beginning. We are aiming to produce a
particular specification of lithium chemical to be used for the already established operations by our partner Ganfeng Lithium. But
lastly our projects are located in the hotspots of lithium development in the world. We have our Mariana joint venture operations in
Argentina, with very significant exploration. Now we are moving into the advanced exploration stage and to pilot stage and
feasibility studies over there. We have a very big land package over 50 kilometers in Ireland where we are moving into testing of 23
defined exploration targets.
We have very impressive results at Mavis Lake, where we confirmed our historical mineralization. This project is located in Canada.
This fall we will be moving towards drilling another project called Raleigh Lake. Together these two projects are building our Upper
Canada pool of projects where we are aiming for potential high grade mineralization, over a smaller project, like a cluster of
projects, which we can combine and potentially start producing lithium concentrate at one central concentration plant.
Our stock holders will benefit from a very strong technical team, from our deep financial connections, from our very strong
joint venture partners in geographical diversification, plus we have both spodumene and brine lithium projects as well.
Dr. Allen Alper: Sounds excellent!
http://internationallithium.com/
Suite 1100, 1111 Melville Street,
Vancouver, British Columbia,
V6E 3V6,
Phone: +1 604-700-8912
Fax: +1 604-484-7143
info@internationallithium.com
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