Lithium Argentina AG (LAR) 2025 Q1 法說會逐字稿

Thank you for standing by. My name is Kate, and I will be your conference operator today. At this time, I would like to welcome everyone to the Lithium Argentina AG first-quarter 2025 earnings conference call. (Operator Instructions)

I would now like to turn the call over to Kelly O'Brien, Vice President, Investor Relations and ESG. Please go ahead.

Thank you for the introduction. I want to welcome everyone to our earnings conference call this morning. Joining me on the call today to discuss our first-quarter results is Sam Pigott, President and CEO; Alex Shulga, VP and CFO, will also be available during the Q&A session. Before we begin, I would like to cover a few items. Our first quarter 2025 earnings press release was issued last evening, and the corresponding documents are available on our company website.

I remind you that some of the statements made during this call, including any production guidance, expected company performance, update on the regional development plan, the timing of our projects and market conditions may be considered forward-looking statements. Please note the cautionary language about forward-looking statements in our presentation, MD&A and news release.

I will now turn the call over to Sam.

Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining us. We will start on slide 3, where we highlight several key achievements this quarter that reflect our strategy and our ongoing commitment to long-term value creation.

Overall, the operation delivered production in line with expectations. As previously noted, planned maintenance and optimization efforts to improve reliability and drive lower unit costs resulted in a slight decline in production volumes. This was reflected in our 2025 guidance, and we are already seeing the benefits from these changes with April production back over 85% capacity.

On the cost side, the operation maintained low production costs in an even more challenging pricing environment. Our disciplined approach to cost management and process efficiency remains a cornerstone of our competitive advantage.

Strategically, we've taken important steps to unlock value and define our growth plans. We executed a letter of intent with our partner, Ganfeng, to jointly develop new regional projects targeting a combined capacity of 150,000 tonnes per annum of lithium carbonate equivalent. This represents a significant opportunity to advance our long-term development plans while increasing our strategic and financial flexibility in the near term without any substantial capital commitment.

Finally, we published our 2024 Sustainability Report, which provides a transparent view of our current environmental and social performance. It highlights the progress we are making in areas like water use, environmental monitoring, community engagement and governance practices. This report helps keep us accountable to both our operational goals and stakeholder expectations.

We entered the year with clear operational targets and are delivering according to our plans. As a result of the maintenance and optimization efforts mentioned, lithium carbonate production was slightly lower in the first quarter. These planned shutdowns focused on optimization and lowering costs and were largely completed in Q1. By April, production returned to over 85% of nameplate capacity.

Cash operating costs remained low, reflecting our focus on cost discipline. We're continuing to advance targeted cost reduction initiatives that aim to lower operating costs by an additional 5% to 10% in 2025 without compromising performance or quality. We continue to anticipate higher production volumes in the second half and reaffirm the operation remains on track to meet full year guidance of 30,000 to 35,000 tonnes.

This slide outlines the financial highlights at Cauchari-Olaroz. Cash operating costs remain competitive at $6,600 per tonne, with costs slightly lower than expected. We note a portion of our maintenance-related costs were deferred to the second quarter. We remain diligent on costs, especially in the current pricing environment and are taking continued efforts to reduce these costs further.

On the balance sheet, we have made significant progress here in recent quarters. At the project level, we continue to work with Ganfeng and expect to have over $200 million in additional liquidity from low-cost unsecured debt facilities. This excess debt capacity should provide a buffer to support ongoing operations and refinance existing debt, extending maturities into 2027 and 2028, enhancing our financial flexibility.

We also continue to work closely with Ganfeng to advance and define our long-term growth plans. This continues to be a priority even in this more challenging pricing environment, given the limited capital requirements and the strategic and financial opportunities we see from advancing these efforts. In April, we executed an LOI to jointly develop and consolidate our regional growth in Pozuelos and Pastos Grandes Basin with Ganfeng.

We are finalizing the development plan now that integrates Ganfeng's DLA processing technology with our conventional solar evaporation pond process and expect the results to support attractive large-scale and low-cost development. We are working with Ganfeng to assess the best options to unlock value here, including collaboration with potential customers and strategic partners. You will also notice we mentioned the plan has flexibility to produce lithium chloride or lithium carbonate. This is based on customer interest to support emerging cathode chemistries at the lowest cost.

As we look beyond the first quarter, our focus remains on further lowering costs to reinforce our position as a low-cost producer. Second, with optimization activities now complete, we are increasing production volumes into the second half of the year and remain on track with full year guidance. Third, with the completion of the previously announced letter of intent with Ganfeng, we plan to continue to prudently advance our growth plans and use these initiatives to increase our strategic and financial flexibility.

Finally, we continue to strengthen the balance sheet at Cauchari-Olaroz, extending maturities and ensuring we remain well capitalized through the current price cycle. Across all fronts, we're proud of the progress we're making in Argentina. From scaling up the Cauchari-Olaroz to defining our growth pipeline, we're building a platform for long-term growth.

Thank you. And now we'll turn it over for questions.

(Operator Instructions)

Ben Isaacson, Scotiabank.

Thank you very much and good morning, everyone. Sam, just a question on the cash cost outlook over time. So you came in at around $6,600 this quarter. You've talked about some deferral of the maintenance into Q2. So presumably, things maybe bump up a little bit. And then just looking out further ahead, you've talked about how DLE will bring costs down.

Eventually, you're going to have Stage 2, that will bring costs down. You're also doing a cost optimization effort of 5% to 10%. Can you just kind of walk us through the shape of how you see cash costs evolving over the next four to six quarters?

Sure. Thanks for the question, Ben. I think coming into this and what we disclosed at the year-end Q4 was that we expected operating costs to be in line with the average of last year. I think what we've seen so far is these cost optimization strategy is really paying off. So what we disclosed is an expected decrease in operating costs of between 5% and 10%, and those will be captured this year.

I think you're correct, $6,600 reflected some deferral of costs into Q2. So there will be some variability quarter-over-quarter, but we expect again this year for this cost optimization program to deliver 5% to 10% improvement over what we guided to at the end of last year.

Longer term, I mean the technical update feasibility that we put out had long-term costs of $6,500. I mean that was based on what we were experiencing in Q4 and basically extrapolating to 40,000 tonnes. I think that is certainly achievable from what we're seeing and what we think we'll get to by the end of the year. I'd say, in addition to that, I mean I think we do see opportunities along with Ganfeng to lower cost beyond that, just on Stage 1 conventional.

The DLE, which we're going to be integrating into Stage 1, the demonstration plant, it provides an opportunity to lower cost even further. Largely, the cost savings will come from two places: one, improve recoveries; and the second one will be a reduction in the amount of reagents used.

So long story short, we expect operating cost to be 5% to 10% below the average of last year this year. Longer term, '26, '27 working with Ganfeng to kind of achieve and hopefully surpass the $6,500 target in our feasibility study. And then longer term, with the DLE client, we expect cost to be even lower than there.

That's really, really great color. Thank you for that, Sam. Just two more very quick ones for me. You mentioned a couple of times in the MD&A about easing FX restrictions in Argentina. How will that benefit Lithium Argentina? And maybe just some context of timing or magnitude, what should we be looking for? Why should we be excited about this?

Maybe for this, I'll turn it over to Alex Shulga, our CFO.

Hey, Ben, this is Alex. Well, we do see that (inaudible) is following on his promises to remove or reduce restrictions, specifically around foreign exchange. In April, there was a first step, mostly aimed at easing restrictions for individuals. And the expectation is that this will follow towards the end of the year with reducing restrictions for corporates.

It generally will help overall economic environment in Argentina. In terms of us specifically, removing restrictions will allow for more free flow of capital cash funds in and out of Argentina, which will be definitely helpful for us.

Great. Thank you. And then just my very last question. I don't usually nitpick at accounting, but did have one investor just kind of flag a $4.5 million compensation expense in the quarter. Can you just kind of break that down a little bit? And is that something we should expect to see going forward? Thank you.

So that is related to year-end bonuses as well as some related to the contract changes associated with the migration, I would say that, that was almost entirely stock-based compensation. And last year comparably lower because we granted year-end bonuses later in the year, partially in Q2 and Q3. So it's unlikely to continue.

That makes sense. And then just while I have you, Sam, you said 85% operating rate in April. Where are we right now? And what are -- like what's the normal operating rate that we're aiming for, like 95%, 100%? What should we be thinking about?

Well, I mean the year -- the full year guidance we provided was 30% to 35%. Obviously, that provides kind of a range of what we expect for operating rates going forward. The plant continues to deliver, reflecting the improvements of optimization through where we sit now in May.

The bottom-line is you're on track. I mean that's the key.

We're very, very much on track.

Okay, perfect. That's all for me. Thanks so much.

David Deckelbaum, TD Cowen.

(inuaudible) I did want to just ask if you can (inaudible) a little bit there on DLE installation plans. The construction, you talked about the pilot facility is going as expected. What should we expect on -- or how do you think about that installation (inaudible)

You're breaking up a bit, David.

Sorry. Hopefully, you can hear me. But just curious if you (inaudible)

Sorry, I'm not sure if it's just on our side. You're breaking up a bit.

Sorry, can you guys hear me?

Yeah.

All right. Sorry, I'll give us another shot. Can you talk about how the DLE circuit will impact your production once installed and how you see the ramp of that pilot?

So in terms of its overall impact to our total production, it will be consuming stock from the preconcentration plant. It's going to be delivering -- expected to deliver a higher recovery. But don't model it as an incremental 5,000 tonnes on top of 40 and may be able to deliver a small proportionate amount of additional production, but really it is to demonstrate the effectiveness in order to use in future growth plans, both at Cauchari as well as in Cauchari as well as Pozuelos-Pastos Grandes.

The second question was related to -- sorry, maybe you can remind me.

Yeah. Well, maybe just following up to that. So then if we're thinking about the 5,000 tonnes capacity, do you expect it to be fully utilized? And then do you expect the offsetting impact on cost with that as being introduced into the flow sheet is being offset with the benefit on price?

I mean we plan to commission it and run it at full capacity. I think the intention is to do that in a fairly short period of time. Ganfeng has a lot of experience operating a similar FX module in China. So the expectation is commissioning will not take very long, a matter of few months is what Ganfeng has guided to. The cost savings will obviously be important to validate on the DLE demonstration plant.

It will be 5 of a total of 40 or so in total production. So the overall kind of cost improvements will be minor overall, but the real intention is to demonstrate this technology, demonstrate the cost advantages in order to apply this new process and technology to our future growth plans in Argentina.

Appreciate it. Sorry about the connection.

Shannon Gill, Cormark.

Thanks very much. Sam, I just wanted to know outside of the planned shutdowns in Q1, why did sales volumes drop 24% quarter-over-quarter. Was there a buildup in inventory over 2024 that was sold out in Q4? I'm referencing that 9,400 tonnes sales in Q4 versus the -- yeah. Can you speak to that one?

I think sales just followed production into Q1. There was no buildup in finished product inventory. We have no issue selling the product. The demand pull-through has been very strong from Ganfeng. So I'm not sure what you're seeing. Alex, if you have anything to add there?

Yeah. No, I think our sales were approximately same as production, 7,200 in Q1. I think you mentioned in Q4, we had sales a little bit higher because, yeah, (inaudible) in '24, we did have a little bit of buildup, which was sold in Q4, if that was your question.

Yeah. Sorry about that. It was 9,400 tonne sales in Q4 versus the 8,500 tonnes in production. But I appreciate the color.

Ladies and gentlemen, that concludes today's call. Thank you all for joining. You may now disconnect.