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221. Bull, Bear & Beyond – CleanTech Lithium: executive interview
1 Plays3 seconds ago
In this interview, CleanTech Lithium CEO Ignacio Mehech discusses the company’s transition from lithium explorer to developer, cantered on its flagship Laguna Verde project in Chile. He highlights two major milestones: the award of a Special Lithium Operating Contract, which provides a clear regulatory pathway for development, and the publication of a pre-feasibility study that demonstrates the project’s strong economics and long-term production potential. Mehech explains how direct lithium extraction differentiates CleanTech Lithium from traditional evaporation-based producers, offering faster processing, higher recovery, reduced land use and brine reinjection to help minimise environmental impact. The interview also covers the company’s pilot-plant progress, production of battery-grade lithium carbonate, engagement with local and indigenous communities and the importance of securing a strategic partner at project level. Mehech sets out the roadmap towards an environmental impact study, final investment decision in 2028 and first production around 2030–31, while positioning Laguna Verde, Viento Andino and Arenas Blancas as the basis for a wider lithium district in Chile.
CleanTech Lithium is an exploration and development company, advancing the next generation of sustainable lithium projects in Chile.
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About ‘Bull, Bear & Beyond’
Bull, Bear & Beyond': features candid conversations with senior executives and from our own team of experts from across industries, exploring strategy, innovation, and the opportunities shaping their markets and 60-second pieces are a compressed summary of content designed to convey our message in a single, easily shareable hit.
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Transcript
Introduction to Edison TV and Lithium Market Overview
00:00:07
Speaker
Hello and welcome. You're watching Edison TV. I'm Ashbourne. Now, whisper it very quietly, but one of those commodities, not one of the ones we we know that a lot of commodities have been doing very well recently, but one of those which has been...
00:00:22
Speaker
quite quiet for a few years, just appears to have woken up. Which one is it? Well, it's lithium. And in the last few months, let's say about six months, the price has at least doubled, having, as I think we know, had a pretty miserable time in the immediate post-COVID
Guest Introduction: Ignacio Mahesh and Cleantech Lithium
00:00:39
Speaker
era. Well, who are the beneficiaries? Well, of course, the biggest beneficiaries in percentage terms should be those smaller companies that are transitioning from explorer to producer. Well, we have in the studio with us exactly one such company and its chief executive. The company is Cleantech Lithium and its chief executive joining me now is Ignacio Mahesh. And Ignacio, thank you very much indeed for joining us. Thank you for the invitation. I'm very happy to be here with you today.
00:01:07
Speaker
So tell us a little bit about Cleantech. Tell us a little bit about the lithium market. Where are you? Where are you trying to get to? What milestones do you have to get through? Well, first of all, Cleantech is an AIM-listed company since 2022.
00:01:22
Speaker
We have projects lithium projects under development in Chile. Our flagship project is called Laguna Verde. And just recently, in the past few months, we have reached a few milestones that I think are worth highlighting in our progress to development.
Achievements: CEOL Contract and Economic Studies
00:01:36
Speaker
First of all, we have been awarded what is ah known as the CEOL, the CEOL, that is the special contract that you need to um to have in Chile in order to be um able to produce lithium. And it's quite a landmark for us because we have become one of the first companies in the history of the country.
00:01:56
Speaker
to be awarded such a contract. um There are only two COLs awarded to date to state-owned companies, Enami and Codelco, and we are within the first batch of private fully privately owned companies to be awarded as whole. And that happened March 9, 2026.
00:02:12
Speaker
And then the second major milestone that we reached is the publication of our pre-feasibility study. that was published in March, 30th of March of this year as well. And it it you know delivers the economics of the project and proves that it's a very attractive project, very prospective, especially with these lithium prices, but even with lower lithium prices. um And yeah, so we are just in in this transformational stage of development where we're now looking ah to develop the project. We've already already done the exploration, so it's a big time for us to be here. So you've got your sale.
00:02:47
Speaker
and you got your pre-feasibility study. You've been quite modest there actually when you said delivers the economics. The PFS, am I right in thinking, it had a net present value of a about a billion dollars, just a little bit less, US dollars?
00:02:59
Speaker
Yes, in well a post-tax basis, the MPD is million, dollars assuming a price of thousand dollars per tonne.
00:03:13
Speaker
If you look at the price today, it's... And that's a lithium carbonate price? Yes. And the price today, sorry, you were... The price today is around $27,000 per So we have proven um to be quite conservative on the pricing. And also if you read ah analyst notes, recently they have been forecasting deficits of lithium for the next 10 years.
00:03:34
Speaker
So we believe the lithium price will be ah in the vicinity or higher to the price that we use for our pre-feasibility study. But even with those numbers, the IRR is 21.2%. As you said, the MPD pretty attractive project.
00:03:50
Speaker
pre-tax one point three billion dollars so it's a pretty attractive project so your ah you've you You've got a company in cleantech and I think I'm right saying the market cap is about 15 million pounds, 20 million dollars there about. So it's just 2% round numbers of the NPV of your project.
00:04:10
Speaker
Yes, no, definitely we believe the price, ah current price, that does not reflect the value of the company. And if you compare it to our peer companies in in developing lithium projects from brines in other parts of the world, we are trading ah way, way below that that comparison, may even 10 times lower than that.
Innovative Extraction: DLE Technology and Local Support
00:04:33
Speaker
And your technology, now that this is not typical technology. You have a a sala, is is that fair to say in Chile? This is the thing you're going to, you know, mine in inverted commas.
00:04:47
Speaker
But just tell us how that technology works why it and also why it's different from the typical industry technology. Yeah, well, we say we don't do mining, we do brining, which is quite... I think I like the concept. I like it. um So, yes, we are we are not the developers of the technology, but what we want to do and we have we have said from the beginning is we will use new technologies to develop our projects. And in this case, in Laguna Verde, what we have developed up to the pre-feasibility stage level is direct lithium extraction.
00:05:19
Speaker
ah what So let me give you some differences between direct lithium extraction and normal or historical lithium production from Salars. um ah I used to work for a company that did such exploitation method before, so I have you know i can compare.
00:05:36
Speaker
With a regular operation, it takes between 18 and 24 months to get the product. With direct lithium extraction, it takes two days. With evaporation, your overall yield or recovery from the brine is around 30%, being optimistic.
00:05:52
Speaker
With DLE, we can recover more than 85% of the lithium from the brine. With evaporation, we use use a massive amount of land because you need these huge evaporation pods. With DLE, you have a footprint of just a couple of hectares, so much is smaller.
00:06:10
Speaker
And also, it allows you, as you selectively recover lithium from the brine, it allows you to then return the brine back into the aquifer, and that keeps the levels stable so you but also protect the environment by using this technology. And also, and finally for us,
00:06:25
Speaker
This technology really enables the project because we couldn't, um ah many SLRs would not be ah able to be exploited without this technology. So that's why we have been so committed to technology since the starting of this company and that's why we spent so much money um building ah a pilot plant in Chile, testing the technology, ah producing lithium carbonate with partners in the US, battery grade, to prove that the flow sheet is works and is efficient. And this is something you now have the pilot plant you mentioned there.
00:06:57
Speaker
This is something you're looking to get into continuous operation? Yeah, um the pilot plant we have already tested um very thoroughly in the previous years. That's why we produce this Elwet or post DLE brine that we sent to the US.
00:07:12
Speaker
um produced We have produced to date, last year we announced 100 kilos of battery grid lithium carbonates and this year we are producing 200 to 300 kilos more as we speak. it's ah It's public information. And also in Chile with our technology partner we are doing the end-to-end process from DLE to lithium carbonate, which is also quite unique for a lithium company so because we have with our partner the capabilities of running the whole process up to or down to lithium carbonate ah battery grade in Chile.
00:07:45
Speaker
What environmental sensitivities are there around ah my brining your salar in this way? Because you look at South America, there have been, you know look at other countries, there have been some some local communities have have you know got involved yeah They're not always entirely happy to see their cellars being mined in this way. And is that the reason why you chose this technology?
00:08:10
Speaker
Yeah, well, first of all, the main concerns of the communities and the broader society in general with brining has been the evaporation in these big evaporation ponds of the water.
00:08:22
Speaker
That's why one of ah a few years ago the government the Chilean government, when they announced the lithium strategy, they said, okay, to the we want to develop this industry, we want to bring in new players.
00:08:33
Speaker
Chile has historical, the two largest companies in the world have are being operating in Chile for 40 and 30 years ah respectively, but no new entrants in 30 years. So to develop further develop the lithium industry in Chile, the the government decided to demand or to request the application of direct lithium extraction.
00:08:52
Speaker
Because it first, it reduces the footprint, as I was telling you, and secondly, it it reduces it or or eliminates water evaporation, you can ah protect the watershed oh as you re-inject the brine back into the aquifer. So really, DLE, beyond all the benefits that I told you operationally, and also that is a very low cost, so it's in the first quartile of costs as per any other lithium operation in the world, ah it will allow us to to return that brine into the aquifer and therefore protect the environment.
00:09:23
Speaker
And I always like to highlight in terms of indigenous communities, the closest community to our project is 100 kilometers away, but we have no matter anyways, engaged with them and other indigenous communities in the region, and they have actually been very supportive of the project so far.
00:09:42
Speaker
When we applied to the COL last year, they signed support letters to our project, to the ministry, and they have been in public stages, in in events, in seminars, speaking about their support for the project. So ah because we have a long-term agreement with them and and we have we plan, first of all, to do all the environmental studies with them, and when we are in production, I share part of our sales with them as well.
Future Plans: Partnerships, Listings, and Expansion
00:10:10
Speaker
So can you outline for us what steps do you have to go through now from web from where we sit today in you know the middle of 2026 to get into full scale production? What's the roadmap?
00:10:22
Speaker
Okay. Yeah. So our strategy ah runs three things in parallel, basically. Today, after publish publishing the PFS and getting being awarded the CUL, we can move on to the next stage of development. What is it?
00:10:37
Speaker
Firstly, we are looking for a strategic partner at project level to develop this project. The process is ongoing and will be finished by the end of the year. And we want to bring a partner that supports, first of all, what we have between now and the final investment decision. And then once an FID has been met, ah supports with equity and debt the development, the actual funding of the project.
00:11:02
Speaker
In parallel, we are um in the process also of dual listing in Australia. That process should be finished by the the end of the third quarter of this year. Because we want to go to a different audience, a market is is is limited in terms of and knowledge of lithium brines in South America, but the Australian market is much larger. So we believe when we compare to peers that are listed there, as I said, we are undervalued and we want to get all this analyst coverage and all this liquidity from the Australian market to to re-rate our stock price.
00:11:38
Speaker
And finally, um we want to start as soon as possible ah with the preparation of the um and environmental and Environmental Impact Study. That takes 12 months to prepare. So we aim to be submitting by mid next year, hopefully being approved by mid to late 2028. And that's when we will be doing FID. And if everything goes well, we will be in construction 29, 30, and in operation late 2030, 2031.
00:12:04
Speaker
So final question, and you're allowed to exercise some latitude here. Where would you like the company to be in, say, three or four years time? Well, first of all, ah four years time, our project Laguna Verde should be in construction.
00:12:19
Speaker
We have other projects in our pipeline. Viento Andino is 100 kilometers away from Laguna Verde. And our strategy has been and to develop the extraction part in the salar, but then the processing, the final bit of the process, do it in the city.
00:12:34
Speaker
which is kind of five four hours away from the Salar. So therefore, afterwards, when we develop Viento Andino, we can bring this Eluet to the same centralized processing facility that can grow. So we we want to create a district in in that region in Chile.
00:12:51
Speaker
And we have another project called Arenas Blancas, which is located in Salar de la Gama, which is where Aldo Mal and SQM operate, the best lithium resource in the world. Hopefully we will be exploring and developing that project as well. And why not ah having found more opportunities in Chile, which is a country that holds the largest lithium reserves in the world. So there are plenty of opportunities for for companies that are first commerce and the first first in production in Chile after so many years.
00:13:19
Speaker
Ignacio, we wish you the very best of luck. Ladies and gentlemen, that was the chief executive of Cleantech Lithium, Ignacio Mehetsch, talking
Conclusion: Stock Performance and Market Outlook
00:13:28
Speaker
to me there. That's all we've got time for, I'm afraid, today. We'll be bringing you more such opportunities in the very near future.
00:13:34
Speaker
Cleantech Lithium, have a look at them. The shares are up from about five pence, say, six months ago to about 7.5p now. So up 50% in the last six months, and I'll let you do the math. um Until then, you have a very capital day.