Li-FT Power: New Lithium Drill Results and a Major Development Strategy

0:16Trevor Hall: All right, everybody, welcome back in to Mining Stock Daily, continuing on our coverage here this Wednesday post-midterm elections in the U.S. and we're all still kind of digesting all the news, but we're actually going to get in touch with one of our favorite lithium plays, and that is Lyft Power. They trade on the venture with LIFT, on the ASX with LFT, and on the OTCQX in the US with LIFFF. Happy to welcome in long overdue CEO, Mr. Francis McDonald. Francis, good morning or good afternoon, your time. Good to have you back on. With the Democratic sweep, Are we seeing any sort of move higher in the lithium price?

1:01Trevor Hall: Is demand going to be just put on our plate here the next two years? EV futures have been on a tear this morning. So get in while you can.

1:14Trevor Hall: It's good to have you on. We can always crack a few jokes about everything. But listen, man, it has been a while since we've had you on. So I do want to pick things up. In fact, the last time you and I chatted was this summer. So let's pick things up from where we left off. You signed the Renard option tour. You were about to start drilling at Idina Gallinay. So let's talk about what has happened in the last four months. What has gone better than expected, you know, since this summer? I think the drilling was really successful in terms that we saw very good continuity between the Adena and Galenae side so if you remember there was a claim boundary there that we consolidated across and there was not a lot of information there so from a geological perspective these things might not have been connected, they could have been potty or they could have been continuous and they ended up being quite continuous.

2:17So that's what we were hoping and that's what ended up happening. And so that we've, we've started putting out, uh, some drill results, just like everybody else in Canada, we've seen just horrendous turnaround times at the assay labs. So we're averaging about 10 weeks right now, um, which is a long time to wait, but, uh, we'll have news coming out into the end of the year with the drill results. And I guess what else has been better than expected? I think we've been hosting a number of site tours up at Renard and the Adina project. And so I think that's been very successful. And it's really, when you walk into a plant that you could turn on tomorrow and see the scale of this, I think a lot of the buy side, sell side strategic investors that we've been taking up there um you are quite surprised but at how good of condition the plant is in and and the scale uh that you could be running through that plant so that's been a big part of this is you know we got the drilling done uh we're continuing to execute on the plan but it's also about getting out and telling the story and showing people uh what this is going to be Yeah.

3:33Trevor Hall: Is this one or the only real lithium processing opportunity in entire region of Quebec that's going to be a hotbed for lithium development and mining in years to come? But where does it position? Does this give you almost first movers advantage here, Francis? I wouldn't say that. There's a number of projects that are advancing, right? But the thing is that they will have to build plants themselves, so greenfields build. And when you look across Canada at what mines actually cost versus what their feasibility study costs might be, it's significantly higher. And to build something at, let's say, 5 ,000 tons per day, which is the federal permitting limit, it's a lot of money.

4:22And I don't think you could do it today for less than probably 1.3 to 1.5 billion Canadian. So the CapEx is always a big impediment to building projects in Canada versus places like Africa. and when we look at development projects around the world, the combination of the Adena deposit plus the Renard plant, this puts us on par with Brazil, Brazilian projects in terms of capital intensity and it's at least half of the capital intensity of any of the other Canadian projects and at least 50 % lower than the Australian projects. Okay, very cool.

5:03Trevor Hall: So about a week ago, you did publish a huge data dump of drill results here. 45 holes in total were reported. So quite a bit of information. I don't want to go into complete detail in every hole, obviously, Francis, but can you give us an overall sense of what the strategy with the drill program was and really what this data is showing you? Yep. So we did 45 holes overall, and so only five were out in that last news release. And again, the reason being that the labs have been really slow. So that will be coming out over the next, let's say, hopefully six weeks to a couple months. And the strategy was really infill.

5:45And that's where we're at right now is really converting as much as we can of the inferred resource into indicated so we can move that into reserves and the feasibility study. So a lot of that drilling was focused on the Galenaire part. So the southern part of the deposit, which hadn't seen a lot of drilling. to date. And, but again, infill getting us to, it's about 75 meter centers is, is what we need to get in to indicate it.

6:10Trevor Hall: Okay. And, and so, and how many holes have been completed thus far? 45. 45. Okay. Yeah. Sorry, I completely misread this in the news release, so I apologize. Five were reported, 45 have been drilled. So obviously, huge backlog of assays still pending here. Yeah. And that's probably going to be a huge part of your news flow for the next coming months, I presume. Yeah, exactly. Okay, okay. So you are planning on taking this data, folding it into a resource and combining it with the PEA, correct? Is that covering the main footwall and galanay zones? And when is that kind of looking at? What's the timeframe for that?

6:50So we're targeting March 1st for PEA and we're on track for that right now. So we have to get the final block model done in the next, call it six weeks or so, to stay on track there. But it looks like no issues at this point.

7:07Trevor Hall: You have a PDAC special news release. There we go. Yeah, yeah. Too early to be talking about PDAC. But in general here, what's the summer drilling really shown you that's made combining that updated resource estimate with the PEA all worth it? What are you seeing out of the drill results that might be surprising to investors? it's really continuity like i think we've got a very high confidence in the geology model and at the end of the day that's always what's going to be driving uh the resource estimate so i think uh confidence in the resource estimate plus the geology model but also the grade on the gallinae side has surprised and i think um probably shouldn't say numbers but uh like we estimate grade based on the spodgmine percentages that we see on a meter basis.

8:02And, you know, you can see some of this core, it's almost 100 % spodgmine for like 10 meters, you know, so there's going to be some very high grade intersects coming out of the Galinay zone. And like I say, that's been a big surprise to see that kind of solid spodgmine. You don't see that very often. Yeah.

8:25Trevor Hall: You highlighted hole two in that drill release came out with 56 meters of 1.43 % LI2O out of Galena. Is that an exception or kind of baseline standard here for what you'd look at at Galena? No, I'd even say that's probably on the, let's say, medium to low end. Like there's some very good grades, like there's some historic intersects of 92 meters at 2.4%. There's some intersects, you know, in the range of 2.7%. So like, which is, you know, I'd say the global average is probably 1.1 to 1.15 ish, right? So, you know, you're at least double the global average grade in those kind of intersects. So we'll see quite a few other ones coming out like that out of this drilling.

9:16And yeah, I mean, that's one of the big things. The grade is very good here. But the recovery is also increased in tandem with grade. So when we're seeing those high grades like that, then we can assume that we're getting even better recoveries, which is going to be affecting the economics significantly.

9:35Trevor Hall: Okay. With the PEA, obviously you're going to highlight some economics. Back in July, you did walk us through the capital intensity case there. You said roughly$260 million U.S. of initial CapEx for about 290 ,000 tons of concentrate a year. If there's anything certain, there was going to be price fluctuations within the lithium price here, Francis. That's always been the case as much as I've been following. that market, but was spodamine about$2 ,000,$2 ,100 a ton. It was back earlier this fall. How much room does that cost structure give you to absorb price swings compared to with, you know, building something brand new?

10:20Sure. So as of today, we're back to about$1 ,300. And so we've, again, seen a big swing in pricing. And so on the last study, the all-in sustaining costs were about$700. a ton. So, you know, we've got definitely, there's definitely some margin in there. And I think a big thing is the grade and recoveries, right? So that brings our all-in sustaining costs down compared to a lot of piers. There will be increased trucking costs between the Adena deposit and the Renard plant. So I'm not saying that we'll be at the bottom of the cost curve on this but i think the grade does even out some of those additional costs or opex uh opex costs um but yes that is the thing is the lithium price is volatile and you know i think i've probably said this in the past volatility can be your friend and if you're on the right side of it so that's always the thing is that if if we're going to need lithium in the future we we need to see the price moving upwards as well to incentivize new production to come online.

11:27Trevor Hall: Okay. I want to talk to you about Renard here and kind of make us or help us kind of make sense of where that stands because beginning of October, you published news saying that you were authorized and received the postponement of rehab and restoration work at the Renard mining site until until the summer of 2028. Give us a sense of where it's at. I mean, does this take it off of care and maintenance or how do you continue to kind of keep it in shape to when you do decide to turn it back on, things go easy peasy? Yeah, so that was really around the remediation date. So with the closure plan that's in place or the remediation plan.

12:19Remediation of the Renard site was supposed to start by July of next year. And so for us, we said to the monitor and the secured creditors that why would we be spending significant money on a site that we would need to remediate next year, right? So what we said to them is that date needs to be pushed out. And so that was the reason for that press release. We pushed that date out to the date when the option would need to be exercised by. And then we would be back talking to the Ministry of Natural Resources to again push that remediation date out. And that's really just a procedural point. You know, we did it this time and we'll do it again at that date when we exercised the option.

13:08But that was the reason for that. So it really comes down to the requirements from the government on closure and remediation.

13:19Trevor Hall: Okay. You can exercise the option for$1 Canadian. Yep. It's hilarious. I'll give you a loan if you need some help covering that here, Francis. Favorable terms even. All right. So you've laid out a sequence, updated resource PEA, then feasibility, exercising the Renard option for a buck, and then first concentrate around 2030. So you've got about a three-year runway here. What are the key milestones investors should track over the next six months here, Francis, to really make sure that you're on track? I mean, the PEA is showing what the project can be. The feasibility is we are running some tradeoff studies right now just to make sure we've got everything tightened up.

14:15And like the feasibility study is the big one. Once that's delivered, then we can get into the environmental assessment. So feasibility is the big milestone. The initiation of the environmental assessment is a big milestone. And then the other thing is the road that will go from Adena to Renard. So we will be getting all of the environmental baseline data done last summer, next summer, and also this winter. So the initiation of the assessment, the environmental assessment on the road will be an important milestone as well.

14:54Trevor Hall: Okay. Quebec obviously getting most of the attention here than the company after that huge announcement with Galenae and Adina before. But Yellowknife also keeps growing. You mentioned a PEA there as well. How do you see Yellowknife creating value for your shareholders alongside Adina and Renard? Sure. So one of the other things we're doing is this scoping study on a lithium carbonate plant in Alberta. And the strategy there is really to put a little bit of money in to put the concept together and then see if we can bring any policy funding in from government sources or funding partners. And so Yellowknife really plays into that as well, is that it's not just about lithium carbonate, a value-added product in Canada.

15:42We have the feedstock in Yellowknife that would get shipped down to Alberta to make that lithium carbonate. So it's part of that strategy going forward. And so we're planning to get that scoping study out in Q1 as well.

16:01Trevor Hall: okay what what does the bank account sit here as we get to the end of the year here francis and is there going to be any sort of like financing opportunity you see on the horizon and maybe even early 2027 yeah so we're sitting about 10 million in cash right now and a lot of the um spend is wound down so we're in a decent spot uh we'll get into 2027 and like any development companies will need to bring in some more money at some point but uh we'll just monitor the market to see when that'll be yeah outside of the lithium market and because you are one of the better or not one of the best explorers i've ever met what in this general exploration sector is exciting you outside of your own company putting you on the spot hmm i mean i think like starting really macro copper and the reason being is that you know everybody even before the ai boom took off i think the major mining companies were really clamoring for copper exposure just seeing where this was going to go um you know at some point in the future right so i don't if anything i think that race for copper is speeding up.

17:21And so if you look at where copper comes from, it's really a lot of it's coming out of porphyries and a lot of it's coming out of said copper. So, you know, you think about where porphyries and said copper are, you know, obviously the Andes, the Tethian Belt, the Pacific Rim, and then the Southwest US are big porphyry districts. And then said copper is either really the Central African Copper Belt, the Kupfer Schieffer, but also the Kalahari Copper Belt has become a significant said copper play. So like those are quite interesting places to be. Um, and said copper is, you know, a decent play for juniors.

18:08Porphyries are difficult for juniors because they're big and no one thinks that you're actually going to be able to build it because, you know, the capex on a big porphyry. free could be upwards of 10 billion. So, um, porphyries are difficult for juniors. You know, if you want to look for higher grade copper, it's either VMSs or, um, IOCGs. And so, you know, there's definitely some interesting things out there in the VMS and IOCG space. So, um, definitely keeping an eye on things like that.

18:41Trevor Hall: Well, thanks for that insight, man. Appreciate that very much. we should be talking here hopefully at least once more before the end of the year Francis but what does the next couple months kind of look like for Lyft and what should we be watching drill results potentially drill results yeah so hopefully every week or two we'll be putting some fresh drill results in the market okay perfect alright thanks so much for your time thanks for the update and safe travels here over the next few weeks Lyft Power trades on the venture with LIFT, on the ASX with LFT, and on the OTCQX with LIFFF. Francis, have a great rest of your day.

19:24Trevor Hall: Thank you so much. Thank you very much. The information presented should not be considered investment advice. Mining stock daily Yintz affiliates are not responsible for any loss arising from any investment decision in connection with the material presented herein. Please do your own research or speak with a licensed financial representative before making any investment decisions.