Thanks for finding and posting. I wouldn't have thought to look for a Spanish language interview, and because of you I learned how to use YouTube auto translate. 

What I understood from the interview with respect to Pastos Grandes is that they intend to invest $35 million in the project to do what is required (presumably more testing, updating the FS, maybe some early engineering design) to get to an investment decision in H2 2023 which would facilitate the start of construction in 18 months, so late Q1/early Q2 2024. He anticipates 20-25 tpa for 40 years. He mentioned that they have been communicating with the Governor of Salta Province regarding the project, and the government is obviously critical to have onboard. The provinces operate differently so there might not be the equivalent of Jujuy Energia y Mineria Sociedad del Estado (“JEMSE”) in Jujuy Province who help them navigate the government. 

He also mentioned that although they have people looking for new projects (in Argentina), their focus is on their two existing projects which require a lot of effort. There was no mention in the interview at all of Arena. 

I love speculating about where the dots line up, and the following comments ignore whatever might happen regarding the Thacker Pass split from the main company and how LAC might mitigate Ganfeng's ownership of common shares through some horse trading in Argentina. 

In my mind, the 18 months to construction date lines up very nicely with when we might expect construction to be completed at Cauchari Stage 2, just three hours away from the Pastos Grandes project. We already know that LAC tied the start of Cauchari Stage 2 to the end of Stage 1 construction in part to leverage the same skilled construction teams, which are in short supply. It would make perfect sense to use these same teams for PG.

Now for the interesting part. PG and Arena's project both draw from the same salar so would presumably have very similar properties. LAC and AN are cooperating on the technical issues of the salar, and LAC and Ganfeng are investors in Arena, probably growing their ownership. One could imagine Arena's project merging with LAC's PG project to utilize a single conversion plant, with the ultimate ownership yet to be determined but I bet it's being drawn out on LAC and Ganfeng's blackboards. They have already explicitly announced the intention to seek cooperative development, and this one seems to be a no-brainer.