I confess that after reading the above post by WB over on TOB, I couldn't help but respond to a comment/question from "Tom" about that post:

Excellent question, Tom: Why did Tesla choose PLL then?

Tesla has supply agreements with Joint venture partners Cadence Minerals and Bacanora Minerals ( August 2015 ), Pure Energy Minerals ( September 2015 ), Kidman Resources ( May 2018 ), Ganfeng Lithium ( September 2018 ) and Piedmont Lithium ( September 2020 ).

CEO of Piedmont Lithiu, Keith Phillips, has been quoted as saying:

“I think they [Tesla] like to have their suppliers close to home. That’s true for all the auto companies we talked to as well.

“We find from talking to the Germans, who are going to build cars in the US, that the idea of having a US supply of raw materials would be a good thing also.

“It’s less expensive to ship material from North Carolina to Tesla’s manufacturing facilities than it would be to import from Canada or Brazil or Africa or Australia.”

“We don’t need too many customers. If we had three or four that would be ideal,” Phillips said.

In terms of a production start date for its US lithium plant, Piedmont is two years away.

“We’re realistically going to be producing in the 2022-2023 timeframe, and battery companies have been more focused on tomorrow’s needs,” Phillips explained.

“I think that they [Tesla] can get material from us and that they can enable us to build our business and we’re hopeful that some of the other companies will as well.

“It’s been a buyer’s market for lithium for the last two years, so there hasn’t been a lot of incentive for EV companies to lock-up future supply.”

Tom, take a look again at that last quote from the CEO of PLL: “It’s been a buyer’s market for lithium for the last two years..."

Then, go back and look at the post by WB on this message board:

" PLL has a confirmed (mining only-rocks) off-take agreement with Tesla with pricing already set and tied to the current depressed lithium prices."

Again, allow me to draw your attention to one portion of that statement... " tied to the current DEPRESSED lithium prices".

Capitalization added by me for emphasis.

This is Elon Musk's Modus Operandi in dealing with lithium suppliers... bargain basement prices secured by long term Off Take agreements in order to take advantage of, in most cases ( Ganfeng being an exception ) small wannabe Juniors. Tesla largely dictates terms.

Kidman had the following "deal": Kidman’s deal with Tesla, which is for an initial three-year term on a “fixed-price take-or-pay basis” from the first product delivery, features two three-year term options.

My opinion, and it is indeed only an opinion, is that Jon Evans is far too shrewed to allow Elon Musk to hustle him by presenting a bottom of the barrel price with a take it or leave it dictum and expecting Evans to swallow his pride and belay his good sense and sign a deal with long term implications that would be less than ideal for Lithium Americas and well below the price LAC should expect in what has become, as noted above by PLL CEO Keith Phillips, a "buyer's market" for lithium. The reason Jon Evans shouldn't give in to the "buyer's market" scenario is that when Thacker Pass finally goes into production in either 2022 or 2023 ( most likely 2023 ), that "buyer's market" situation will no longer exist and it the scales will tip more in favor with a " seller's market" or, at the very least, a more favorable price for lithium carbonate and lithium hydroxice should be expected than what is now available.

Kudo's to Jon Evans for not taking the bait and settling for a Tesla "Deal" that extracts a low ball price from Lithium Americas. Evans is keeping his options open and he has lots of options to market the future production of Thacker Pass. Those options will only increase as the extant lithium oversupply situation transmogrifies into a tight supply situation in 2022, 2023 and beyond. We are not in a "Seller's Market" yet, but we will be when Thacker Pass goes into production. Evans is just far sighted enough to look ahead to future market conditions that will be current when Thacker Pass comes on line and he keeps that in mind when negotiating for an Off Take Deal instead of looking for a quick low ball buck with Elon or anyone else. Just good business! Go LAC!