I made much of the following post on TOB but thought it might be interesting to some here as well. Regarding LAC's statment in the GT1 announcement of "Both GT1 and Lithium Americas have the shared objective of building the pre-eminent vertically integrated lithium business in North America."

When you imagine the full vertical integration supply chain for lithium, it would include exploration, "mining", conversion to lithium carbonate, lithium hydroxide or lithium metal, then further refinement into CAM (Cathode Active Material), then placement in a cathode and then battery cell, and finally into a car. LAC is knees deep into the integration up to the pre-CAM phase. I'm wondering if they'll enter this phase at some point.

I think what they get from GT1 is an Ontario presence, a reasonable early stage product, and GT1's experience as an exploration company at sniffing out other opportunities. I highly doubt that they have a new extraction process to add to the equation. They're just not there yet, In fact, the benefit to them is getting access to LAC's lab to determine their process.

What I love about this deal is the message it is sending with respect to the scope of LAC's future endeavors. No limits.