The Lake Resources N.L. (ASX: LKE) share price has returned from its trading halt and is charging higher.
In morning trade, the lithium developer's shares are up 23% to 63 cents.
This means the Lake Resources share price is now up almost 700% in 2021.
Why is the Lake Resources share price charging higher?
Investors have been bidding the Lake Resources share price higher today after it announced a partnership with Lilac Solutions.
According to the release, the partnership is for technology and funding to develop Lake's Kachi Lithium Brine Project in Argentina.
Under the terms of the agreement, Lilac Solutions will contribute technology, engineering teams, and an on-site demonstration plant. This will allow it to earn a maximum 25% equity stake in the Kachi project based on performance-based milestones.
If and when this occurs, Lilac Solutions will be expected to fund approximately US$50 million of future development costs.
The release explains that Lilac Solutions' production process is lower cost. It also offers higher lithium recovery rates (80-90 percent) than other technologies to produce battery quality lithium carbonate (99.97 percent purity), while also protecting the local environment, including water resources.
Management commentary
Lake's Managing Director, Steve Promnitz, said: "We have progressed methodically through testing and pilot stage work and are now pleased to have the partnership established."
"Lilac's technology is truly disruptive as it has taken a non-mining tech solution which cuts operating costs and boosts lithium recovery from our brines. The process is modular producing high purity lithium and can be ramped up quickly through pilot to commercial stages – this equity stake ensures a rapid commercialization of the Lilac technology at the Kachi site."
This sentiment was echoed by Lake's Chairman, Stu Crow.
He said: "With a successful capital raising; partnering with a leader in lithium processing that will place us in the bottom quartile on the cost curve; and getting an Expression of Interest for debt funding from the UK's Export Credit Agency – it has been a busy few months for Lake."
"We have all worked hard to align Lilac's industry leading technology and our project funding in order to accelerate development and production of the resource. We are closing the gap to being fully funded when you assume the DFS and other requirements for UKEF are met. There aren't many near term lithium projects that can say they are funded to production," he concluded.
