conferences. On behalf of OTC Markets, we're very pleased you have joined us for our three-day Precious Metals and Critical Minerals Conference. The next presentation of the day is from Lake Resources. Please note, you may submit questions for the presenter in the box to the left of the slides. You can also view a company's availability for a one-on-one meeting by clicking Book a Meeting. At this point, I'm very pleased to welcome David Dickson, Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer of Lake Resources, which trades on the OTCQX Best Market under the symbol LLKKF, and on the ASX under the symbol LKE. Welcome back, David.
Thank you. Thanks for having me. So, good afternoon, everyone. As Greg said, I'm David Dickson. I'm Managing Director and CEO of Lake Resources. And just to give a little bit of background on Lake Resources, we are an Australian listed company formed back in 2016, 2017, focused on developing lithium assets here in, sorry, in Argentina. And today I'm gonna talk about our main asset, which is the Kachi development, which is located in the province of Catamarca within Argentina. I personally joined the company back in 2022, with a previous background in oil and gas activities, and particularly in processing technology and things like that.
So when you look at the nature of this development, it's all about, you know, extracting lithium from brine, which is more like an oil and gas process than it is really about, mining activities, and I'll touch on that a little bit later. But talking about the Kachi asset. So as I said, Kachi asset is located in the province of Catamarca. To date, we have developed a DFS, a Definitive Feasibility Study, with the first one published back in late 2023. And then last year in August, we updated the DFS based on some further work that we've done in regards to further exploration work, to the further engineering development work, and I'll touch on that again a little bit later.
Our plan is to produce lithium carbonate battery grade at over 99.5% purity. The asset itself, Kachi, is up to date. We have 11.1 metric tons of LCE equivalent, of which 8.2 million tons of that is actually measured and indicated, so a very significant resource in this play. As we look at it, we are planning on phase one to produce 25,000 tons per annum, and with a resource so large, then obviously we've got capability to further expand in later years. Couple other points in the actual quality of the lithium in this brine.
We have done a work, recent work around an average lithium content of 249 milligrams per liter, but we've also, since the DFS update, we've also demonstrated and proven that we're actually having a higher average brine concentration, more like 268 milligrams per liter, which honestly will provide some more benefits with regards to CapEx and OpEx, as we progress through the development. We're also looking at a mine life of 25 years. So as I said, as introduction, I came on board in 2022, and we built a technical team with a lot of experience in both drilling and extraction, but also process technology. As I said, this is more like a specialty chemicals project than it is a mining project.
In 2025, there was a number of milestones that we achieved. So as I said previously, we were able to update our DFS, and I'll touch on that on the next slide in terms of the benefits that came from that from both CapEx and OpEx. So again, we also demonstrated that we have a large resource, and that 11.1 million tons of LCE is one of the largest assets in Argentina today, and as I said, lots of room for expansion, higher grade. But a couple of things to focus on that happened towards more the end is we continued with developing the power supply.
So this project is in a remote part of Argentina where there is no grid power currently today, so we've been working with a company called YPF Luz, which is the power company of the Argentina oil and gas company, YPF, who completed a FEED study last year that allowed us to bring that into the DFS update and demonstrate that we have a solution and a cost for power supply to that project from the grid. We've also, over the last year, continued to engage and have discussions with potential offtake and strategic partners, and those discussions continue on and will continue on until the point that we commit to a final investment decision.
At the end of last year in December, as part of the EIA process, our environmental impact assessment, getting approvals, we received the Ramsar site zonification, which is a major milestone. So this is all about permits, and that will allow us to protect the wetlands, as we have some wetlands around the Kachi facility. Go on to the DFS update. So firstly, what I would highlight here is that we ran the economics for the DFS update at a lithium price of $20,500 a ton, and I'll touch on that a little bit later as we look at the macro.
But back in November, we saw lithium prices down to $8,000 a ton, and then more recently, in the last few days, lithium carbonate has been trading at roughly $20,000-$21,000 a ton. So with the economics based at $20,500 a ton, we're more or less in the ballpark. And as a result, and the work we've done with DFS update, today, we're looking at a CapEx of $1.16 billion, and again, that's for 25,000 tons per annum. We're looking at an OpEx, which is just under $5,900 a ton. On the OpEx side, one of the... not a challenge, but one of the things that we're working on, is how to better optimize the power.
So we have a solution for power, we have a cost for power, but today in our OpEx, power is more than 55% of our OpEx cost. So if we can find an alternative or demonstrate a better solution, we see opportunities in reducing our OpEx costs. And just again, reminding everybody that with lithium sitting at $20,000 a ton, and with OpEx at these levels, this makes this project very attractive. As a result, NPV at $1.5 billion, return of 22.5%, and again, reminder is we're based all this on a lower brine concentration. So we're, you know, we are at 249 as in the design, but we have the ability to go up to—we've proven we've got lithium up to 268 milligrams per liter.
So again, some further opportunities as we further progress through this project. When it goes to the technology, and a lot has been talked about DLE technology over the certainly through the 3.5 years I've been involved in the industry, and there's a number of DLE technologies that exist in the marketplace today. At Lake, we've been working with Lilac, a company based out in Oakland, California. Lake has been working with Lilac since well before I joined the company, but since I've joined the company, I've been very much a supporter of this technology. As I said, there are a number of technologies that exist in the marketplace today. The Lilac, the DLE, the Direct Lithium Extraction technology is all based around what we call ion exchange.
Ion Exchange in itself is not a new science, and so it's taking an existing science and applying it to extracting lithium ions from brine. And Lilac have been working on this for a number of years. They've been working on a number of pilot plants and demonstration plants. And we worked with Lilac, and we actually developed a demonstration plant in Kachi, using Kachi brines, and we did that in 2022, operated it all the way through into 2023, with a lot of success. And since then, Lilac has continued to further develop the technology. And now, in the second half of last year, Lilac announced what they call the Gen 5 DLE. So they continue to improve. They continue looking at the productivity of the media.
This is the Ion Exchange beads, the ceramic beads that actually extracts the lithium ion. They've improved on the life cycle of each of these beads and recovery rate. So they continue to do a lot of very, you know, positive work, and so today we are very pleased that Lilac has got to the point where they have, they've got to today. Same thing on Lilac is, as part of this process, they need to supply these ceramic beads where the IP exists, and they have now completed the construction of their commercial scale ion bead manufacturing facility in Nevada, in the U.S. That facility is capable of supplying beads for production up to 100,000 tons of Lithium Carbonate per year.
And a reminder, we are at, you know, we're looking to produce 25,000 tons. So again, Lilac has made quite a good progress in terms of both the technology and building the manufacturing plant for the beads. And then lastly, and more recently, Lilac announced that as part of building their own lithium plant in the Great Salt Lake in the U.S., and that's going to be a 5,000-ton plant, they announced an offtake deal with Traxys, who I understand is one of the largest trading houses with regards to lithium globally. They announced an offtake agreement with Traxys to take their product in the U.S. So again, further emphasis on does the technology work, how efficient it is, how commercially competitive it is.
So a lot of good progress on, on the Lilac side. I'd also highlight that on the Lilac project, when we talk about 249 milligrams per liter, Lilac is looking to develop a project where it's only 69 milligrams per liter. And again, this demonstrates about the nature of the technology of using Ion Exchange versus others in those lower brines with the lower lithium content. So again, further emphasizing, further supporting, you know, the work that Lilac has done in supporting the Kachi development. And lastly, what I would say is that we have a very strong relationship between the companies. And, you know, Lilac remains a small partner of the Kachi development.
So a very good, strong relationship, and all of us working forward to obviously take this project at some point into a final investment decision over this next period. From an operational aspect, and I touched on this earlier, there are two things that today we're primarily focused on, and that is, achieving or receiving the final permits that would allow us to go to work, and that's what we refer to as our environmental impact assessment. So we are working with the Catamarca government within Argentina, who will give us the final approval. We did submit our application back in March 2024 with a hope that we will see final approval sometime in the first half of 2026.
As I said earlier, a big part of that approval is in December, we did receive the Ramsar site zonification, and that was formally approved. So that is all about protecting the Laguna Carachi Pampa. So a lot of good work and also a good message that, you know, the Catamarca government is really working with us. And then the other side of it, we have, you know, a number of ongoing discussions with the government and the things that we will do as we look to get final permit, and also the things that we will do after we receive this final permit. And as I said, this permit allows us to move into production and essentially make the project what we call as shovel-ready.
So as we think through the next half, I think through the next half of 2026, you know, these are the sort of things that investors should be looking for with regards to announcements from Lake. The other side operationally we're working on is on the power supply, and again, I touched on that earlier. With over more than 55% of our cost of OpEx, then obviously we're striving to look for, you know, is it a hybrid option? Is it an alternative option? Is an alternative option from the grid. So we have a number of, you know, companies doing work and studies with our team, looking at how we can come up with a better improved solution for power.
Now, saying all that, with an OpEx at $5,900 a ton and the level of CapEx, today, this project is already very competitive. So what we're looking for is really how we further enhance that. And again, we'll keep the market posted as we progress through those discussions. Now, let's move on to talking about Argentina, 'cause obviously Argentina has been a big focal point for a number of years. And obviously, since Milei took office back, or was voted in back in the end of December of 2023, there has been significant progress in things in Argentina and around Argentina. More importantly, midterm elections, which occurred back in October of 2025, we saw a strong support for Milei and his cabinet.
So gave a lot of positive momentum and also a lot of positive, created a lot of positive support, internationally. And if you look at the things that, Milei and his team have done in Argentina, from, you know, reducing inflation, repaying back on debt, negotiating, structure, debt structures with, U.S. government, bringing in a large number of, of reforms, and working with the financial markets. There's a number of things that have, you know, really has improved the country. One of the items highlighted here is, you know, sovereign risk is now at a seven-year low, so that is now creating, you know, an attraction for international investors, to come into, to come into Argentina. So again, very positive for, Lake and, and obviously for the Kachi development.
This has all been happening obviously over the last couple of years. Now, with that, if you follow what's been happening in the last couple of weeks, there's been a number of developments, not only just in the U.S., but globally and U.S. with Argentina, and a number of those obviously announcements over this last past week or so in D.C. You may have seen there was a Critical Minerals Forum in D.C. with over 40 countries represented, all focusing on, you know, producing and securing and creating strategic reserves for a number of critical minerals, of which lithium has been, you know, part of a lot of those discussions.
But more importantly for us, a lot of discussion on the relationship between the U.S. and Argentina, and just in the last days or so, a few days or so, we've seen a number of things come out. Now, a lot of these things still have a number of discussions, and there'll be further negotiations. But certainly, when you look at things around the reciprocal trade and investment agreement between Argentina and the U.S., again, a lot of details that come out, but clearly there's going to be a lot of products, chemicals, services, whereby we'll see reductions in tariffs and some, you know, positive agreements with regards to taxation. We saw, you know, what we call the Financial and Security Corporation, so this is the U.S. getting behind Argentina and providing them with quite a large credit line.
We saw the announcement in the U.S. of Project Vault, and that's all about building strategic reserves for critical minerals. And then with that, obviously, there was a critical minerals framework, which, you know, Argentina is included, but also there's a number of other countries. And also, as we talked about in the past, you may have heard us talking about, you know, the Minerals Security Partnership, you know, it appear a lot of that now being replaced by a new initiative called FORGE, which again, was announced over the past week. So a lot of things really happening in the U.S., a lot of things happening in Argentina, and obviously the relationship between Argentina and the U.S. getting stronger as we progress forward.
And as a result, there's a number of events coming up, where, you know, Argentina delegations in the U.S. and U.S. delegations in Argentina. I will highlight one of them on the right of the slide, which is the Argentina Week in New York, which I will be attending, where Milei and his cabinet and a number of governors will be in New York for a few days, you know, to discuss a number of agreements between the countries and obviously attract an investment into Argentina. So for us at Lake and at Kachi, we think this is a really critical and important time for for the company. A little bit on the macro. So lithium prices, ever since I joined the company, have been hugely volatile.
We were in December of 2023, clearly we're up to $82,000 a ton. That then dropped off down to $8,000 a ton in 2025, and then we've seen just in the last two months, another spike with lithium up over $20,000 a ton. So clearly, a lot of volatility, and, you know, a number of markets trying to forecast what long-term pricing really looks like. As you see from the chart on the right-hand side here is, I think it's difficult for people to really forecast what the long-term price is. However, when you look at the range of forecasts from whether it's investment banks to the consultancies, everybody's focusing around this $20,000 a ton plus.
So I think from that and where we are from our economics, I think we're looking at, you know, we're positioned extremely well today. But again, looking at some of the data on here, if you just look at what's happened in, you know, the space of two months, where lithium has jumped up, you know, in the carbonate, nearly 100% or, you know, 80%. Same with the hydroxide and even higher on spodumene, and spodumene, obviously, you know, there to deliver to the existing or current market, obviously, at the, you know, more near time than where we are at. So a lot of good, you know, a lot of good positive momentum in the market. And a lot of that really driven by, you know, what is the supply-demand situation.
So if you were to look at this chart on the right, and you look at it a year ago, this would look completely different because people were talking about, you know, a supply deficit, not until 2029, 2030. That's accelerated, obviously, to 2025. We're seeing more of that in 2026. So there's been this shift of, you know, three, four years ahead with regards to deficit, and ultimately, that's what's creating this, you know, increase in the lithium price. And what is contributing to that? Well, I'm sure all of you are following the press, and you're following activities globally, but, you know, over this last year, people are starting to see the impact of battery energy storage system taking up a large part of that demand.
If you looked at the charts here on this slide, maybe a year or two years ago, you would see that the contribution coming from on the demand side for battery energy storage systems would be significantly smaller. So this market has grown significantly just over in the last year or so. I was at Benchmark Minerals Conference back in November of last year in L.A., and that's the first time people were really starting to forecast a little bit more accurately what is battery energy storage systems actually look like. But certainly we're seeing, you know, a large impact and a large growth coming from that area, and I think we'll continue to see that for some time in the future.
So just quickly on some of the financial just highlights. Our 5B was posted less than two weeks ago. So from the company's perspective, you know, cash position ended December, AUD 50 million, roughly $10 million. So the company, again, good pro forma and quarterly liquidity. And again, emphasize we have no debt. Our capital is all focused on advancing the project, so that's the work we're doing with the IA, the work that we're doing with the power solution... and the time that we're spending with potential offtakers and partners. We're really being focused on our cost management, so in, you know, in 2025, a large, over 40% reduction in what we spent in 2024, and we continue to really monitor our cash very closely.
So we are monitoring every dollar that is spent and making sure it's spent in the right areas. And as we look to 2026, you know, we're gonna continue to look at as our opportunities to better cut our costs, as our better opportunities to better use our money. But certainly, our big focus today is to really, to continue to advance, advance the project. So saying all that, just a close summary. This year, we're focused on EIA approvals, focusing on the technical commercial issues around power. We'll continue with our offtakes, and, and we'll also continue to manage our cash as we all look towards, achieving a final investment decision. And on this last slide, the reminder of the team. We are made up of three board members.
Stuart, one of the founders, as a non-exec chairman, and Robert Trzebski, Trzebski, as our, our non-exec, director, and then this is some of the, the management team. So with that, I'm gonna take a look at, we have a number of questions that have, came through, and I'm gonna just scan some of these questions. And I won't be able to answer all of them 'cause a lot of questions, but I'll certainly get back to all of you on, on, the questions that have come through. A lot of questions have coming through is: How do we see Kachi fitting into what's happening and what's been announced in, in, D.C. last week?
So one of the questions is, Argentina has just committed under the US Critical Minerals Framework to prioritize lithium exports to the US and allies by Project Vault and a $12 billion strategic reserve. Where do you see Kachi fitting into that priority pipeline over the next 12 months? Well, what I will tell you is that, you may have seen in some of the social media, is that I was at the White House some three or four weeks ago. And part of that visit was to start talking to various government departments on where does Kachi and how do we position ourselves so that we can be included on that? So there is some dialogue ongoing. We're also working with Argentina government side, as I said, we spending some time with that.
And also, we'll be participating in, you know, where, where does Kachi fit into this, and how do we stand up obviously against other lithium projects? So too early to say. I think over the next coming months, a lot of work will be done to see, does Kachi fit into, into this pipeline or not. One thing I would add, though, is, is that while the market for the last year has been focused on Argentina, even just the last few weeks, Argentina and the US, it's clear with this is that as the US moves to Project Vault and build strategic reserves, is that'll probably lead to questions, Well, what is the rest of the world going to do? So is it gonna be the same in Europe? What does Japan do? What does Korea do, and what does China do?
So I think even what's happening in the U.S. is that could stir a lot of activity across other continents. So I think, you know, watch this space, and let's see what happens over this next year or so. Another question here, changing the subject, is: Is the local community close to Kachi actively informed with project updates? And the reason why I pulled this question out is definitely yes. We have been working very closely with the local population of the near town called El Peñón, and the people who live in that area. 'Cause we are built-- You know, this is a remote location. There's not a lot there, and then suddenly, we're building a small chemicals plant, we're drilling wells.
So it was very important that we brought the town of El Peñón and people who live around the area along the journey with us. So they've been part of a lot of the processes. Even the government has been able to witness a lot of work that we've done with regards to the drilling and reinjection. So that has been a big part of our process. And the fact that the, you know, the local community is involved in the Ramsar approval. So again, it's another indication that we are working closely with, you know, with the local government. I'll take this last question, and then, as I said, we'll respond to other questions that we have.
But, you know, you know, brokers have sharply upgraded 2026-2030 price forecast and are calling the bottom of lithium winter. How are you planning to reflect this change sentiment in your own market communications and guides to 2026? Well, we will be out, obviously, in the market. There's a lot of activity. There will be a number of presentations, a number of attendance at a number of events. We'll obviously be looking at the right time, when is the right time to update, you know, our numbers. But with what I said there, with lithium trading spot $20,000-$21,000 a ton, us running our economics, our DFS update back in August at $20,500 a ton, I think it puts us in a good position.
You can work out from that, that as soon as lithium goes above $20,000 a ton, there's this whole positive, to the economic. So we will be monitoring what's happening. We obviously, we follow lithium price in daily, and obviously, we have people working with us that will be looking at how do we reflect our models, to reflect any changes in, in lithium pricing. But again, watch this space and we'll come on to that. So with that, I want to thank everybody for listening. I do have a lot of questions here, and as I said, we will take those questions, and we will, respond to everybody with, regards to, you know, an answer to those questions. So thank you very much.