Jeff Parent B. Eng. FCSI CIM E3 Lithium ETL-X WATCH Feb 28, 2024

Competitor to EMPS in lithium extraction, and ahead of it by about 6 months. Already started pilot plant, and about 10x the market cap.

The EV/lithium sector remains hot and ETL's share price is breaking out to new highs. The company has $18M in cash, no revenues, and generates negative free cash flow. It recently provided an overview of its lithium assets in Saskatchewan, and it recently begun operations at Alberta's first direct lithium extraction field pilot plant. We do not see major red flags here other than its small size, sector and capital risk, but we would consider it to be highly speculative and it's hard for us to strongly endorse it at this time. 
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Bit of a tech company, as it uses direct lithium extraction from depleted gas reservoirs. More environmentally friendly process. Not successful commercially outside China. Key is if it can be scaled. Lithium is well off peaks, starting to look interesting, but this name is speculative.

It is tough to forecast for a company that is pre-production. ETL recently stated that it may need to issue more shares and also that, "The company's ability to continue as a going concern is dependent upon its ability to fund its project and move toward commercial production of battery-grade lithium hydroxide monohydrate." This tone pretty much cements a future share offering, potentially in the near term. The company also has forecasted that in its investor presentation that commercial production will begin in 2026. We would say outlook wise, share offering(s) are likely and things will get worse before better. If ETL can begin revenue production/commercialization even to a small extent by 2026, the stock could do better.
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