Major Milestone Achieved: Pilot-Scale Lithium Carbonate Production

The Company has made significant progress with the Pre-Feasibility Study (“PFS“) at the flagship project, Laguna Verde, and seen encouraging results from the Direct Lithium Extraction (“DLE”) pilot plant in Chile and will be producing battery-grade lithium carbonate for potential strategic partners to evaluate. The Company is also pursuing a dual listing on the Australian Stock Exchange (“ASX“) and aims to be trading on the ASX in Q4 2024.

Highlights of the Period:

Operational:

Corporate:

• Board changes:

  • Executive Chairman Steve Kesler assumed the duties of CEO on an interim basis, following the resignation of CEO, Aldo Boitano in April.

  • The search for a new CEO is well underway and the chosen candidate will be announced in due course.

• ·Cash position:

  • The Company’s cash position at the period end, including proceeds received from Loan Notes shortly after period end, was £2.1 million.

Post-period Highlights:

• Operational:

  • Pump tests and a reinjection well at Laguna Verde, planned to be undertaken in Q4 2024, will help define the brine extraction and reinjection wellfield design and the sustainable production rate required for the PFS.

  • A plant location study was completed by Worley for the Laguna Verde project and concluded that the DLE and eluate concentration should be undertaken at project site and the purification and carbonation close to Copiapo which is at a lower elevation with good technical support locally available. This latter plant would be expanded in the future to also process concentrated eluate from the Viento Andino project.

  • Completion of the first stage of production of concentrated eluate from the Company´s DLE pilot plant which has been shipped for conversion to battery-grade lithium carbonate by process partners in North America.

Corporate:

• ASX Listing:

  • The Company is seeking to dual-list on the Australian Securities Exchange (“ASX”). Although the Company announced an extension to the ASX IPO timetable on 20 September 2024, to allow it to address some procedural matters raised by ASX, the intention remains to complete the IPO before the year end. An associated capital raise is planned to enable completion of the PFS and continuance of other work programmes. Notwithstanding, the Company continues to consider its funding options on an ongoing basis as a part of its normal practice.

• ·CEOL Process:

  • The Government has streamlined the CEOL process, announcing an update at the end of Septemberprioritising six salt flats for lithium development including Laguna Verde, the Company’s flagship project, as having the most favourable conditions to advance lithium exploration and extraction. CEOL applications to be submitted by 31^st December 2024.

• Local stakeholders:

  • CTL attended a seminar organised by CESCO alongside local indigenous communities. The President of the Colla Pai-Ote community publicly endorsed CTL’s Laguna Verde project as the way forward for the lithium industry in Chile, which was widely reported in the Chilean media.

  • CTL’s DLE carousel…