JD, the information I quoted about the game plan for processing Thacker Pass lithium clay came from the 2018 PFS.  That was 2 years ago.  It is essentially unchanged from what we see in the most recent update of September 2020.  We don't know if that is still the game plan or not.  We do know that the Reno Lab was established to figure out ways to optimize the lithium extraction from clay process and beyond that we have learned little to nothing in regard to updates from that Lab. 

We don't know, for instance, if the Reno Lab is working only with LAC or whether it might involve a joint effort with another one or more facilities in the world looking for improved methods of extracting lithium, especially as those methods apply to mining lithium clay. 

Correction:  the latest update reveals that LAC has "engaged third-party vendors to engineer and design lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxide evaporator and crystallizer"  So, who are these third-party vendors doing the engineering and designing?  The answer to that question could be very interesting.  

The reason we don't know that is because LAC has been largely silent about what is happening at their Reno Lab.  Maybe nothing, maybe something of immense importance to the future of LAC.  We do know that theSeptember 2020 Investor's Presentation still mentioned a lithium sulfate slurry and that LAC has a long term contract with North American Coal for mining engineering, construction and operation of the Thacker Pass facility.  So is it North American Coal doing the engineering and designing of the lithium carbonate and lithium hydoxide evaporator and crystallizer... or someone else?

We know that the PFS and follow up Investor Presentations show an acid leaching process of the lithium clay that leads to the formation of a lithium sulfate brine and that further processing of that brine is what leads to the final production of lithium carbonate and/or lithium hydroxide.... at least according to "the plan" as of September 2020.  Just taking a second to focus on the processing of that lithium sulfate brine, that could involve the plan according to the original 2018 PFS or it could involve additional steps that were not contemplated back when the 2018 PFS was published... steps concieved and perfected at the Reno Lab.. or elsewhere.  

Page 16 of the September Investor Presentation does show the Process Flow Sheet still indicates that the lithium sulfate brine is to be turned into either Lithium Carbonate or Lithium Hydroxide at the Lithium Processing Plant on campus at Thacker Pass, but it provides few details about that.

The Process Testing Facility, the "Lab" in Reno, was established early in 2019 and page 17 in the 2020 Investor Presentation provides a smidgeon of information about how that process has been optimized, but again... little detail.

My take on this is that the sulfuric acid leaching specified in the PFS was not chiseled in stone... or in lithium clay, for that matter.  The fact that we haven't had informational updates in regard to what is going on at the LAC lithium clay lab( The Process Testing Facility ) makes me all that more curious.  I don't know that LAC has any connection with Lilac, but those extraction per cent numbers are identical and we do know that Lilac is working with another player in the small world of potential lithium clay mining.

At this moment in time, I see almost all of the LAC Share Price and Volume increases as secondary to wide spread speculation.  Right now that speculation is in favor of LAC, but it could turn on a dime and be negative just as easily as it now is positive.  Truly, we are still in the "Where's the  Beef?" mode as related to the future of LAC. 

I can't wait to see "the Beef". 

JMO