Recently on a less well behaved discussion board some people were bashing LAC's relationship with Ganfeng in Cauchari-Olaroz, leading me to do some quick digging to refresh my memory and then writing a short summary of the history of the relationship, as I understand it. I posted it on the other board mainly to educate new investors, but I thought it might be of interest to some here. I know that most people on this board are as familiar or more with LAC than me, but for what it's worth, enjoy.

"In 2006 LAC (at the Time Western Lithium) incorporated a holding company, Minera Exar S.A., to manage their South American operations. LAC started their Cauchari-Olaroz (CO) project in Argentina around 2010. In 2016 LAC entered into an agreement with SQM, one of the largest lithium producers in the world, that gave SQM a 50% stake in Minera Exar for $25M. In addition to the capital, LAC got access to SQM’s expertise in well and pond design, and other technical assistance. 

In October 2018 SQM, LAC and Ganfeng completed transactions which resulted in Ganfeng buying out SQM’s interest and receiving a 37.5% interest in Minera Exar, leaving LAC with now 62.5%. As part of this transaction Ganfeng provided the funds through transfer and guaranteed loans to fully construct the CO operation. This funding remains in effect and healthy today. They also provided the required expertise to develop the chemical processes that will be used to produce the required battery grade product. They were also the catalyst to investigate increasing the annual output from the planned 25k tpa to 40k tpa, which we all know is the current plan. 

In April 2019 LAC sold an additional interest in Minera Exar to Ganfeng such that the company was 50/50 ownership. LAC received $161M for this. In August 2020 LAC sold another 1% interest, leaving Ganfeng with 51% of Minera Exar and LAC with 49%. LAC received $16M cash and $40M from the proceeds of a non-interest-bearing loan from Ganfeng, improving their balance sheet. This was not done because of pressure from Ganfeng, but rather because it made good business sense as Evans has articulated. Despite the minority stake, LAC’s people remain as the main executives for Minera Exar, and LAC has meaningful minority shareholder protections around all major decisions, meaning they are far from having the project unilaterally controlled by Ganfeng. 

By all accounts LAC’s partnership with both SQM and Ganfeng have been very positive, and without the relationships CO would probably not be close to production. I have never run across any negative coverage of the relationship with Ganfeng, but if someone has seen something from a credible source that I have missed, I’m sure we’d all be interested in seeing it. Likewise, if anyone has meaningful information about any potential negative impact this relationship might have on LAC’s Thacker Pass project, beyond some people who would never invest in any company that had any remote relationship with a Chinese company in any way, then we’d all like to see it. 

This is my brief history. I’d welcome anyone amplifying it or correcting any meaningful errors or omissions."