This episode is a panel discussion that took place at the Arkansas Lithium Innovation Summit in October on the missing midstream.

The panelists were:

David Park, CEO of Standard Lithium

Dan Blondal, CEO of Nano One

Hugh McDonald, Arkansas Secretary of Commerce

Bhageerath Vadhi, Geologist - Ford Motor Company

Topics:

What is the midstream?

Why does it matter?

The cathode bottleneck

China's current dominant position

Margins

Nano One's LFP advantage

Washington's perspective and role

Emphasizing energy storage over EVs

Geopolitics

What does success look like?

There are three guests and a cameo appearance in this episode.

Sam Pigott and Carlos Galli from Lithium Argentina are joined by Jason (Xiaofeng) Luo from Ganfeng. The cameo appearance is from Kelly O'Brien the head of investor relations at Lithium Argentina.

Topics:

History of the LAR - Ganfeng partnership

Consolidating assets - PPG

The "marriage" & synergy

Ganfeng's view of Argentina

RIGI

The success of Cauchari

The team

Ganfeng's recent market growth comments

The incentive price

Components of demand

When does Argentina become #1 in brine?

Funding PPG

Ganfeng's Marianas project

Water issues

DLE

Rapid fire

This solo episode was recorded November 19th 2025 in Los Angeles while I was attending Benchmark Week.

Topics:

Ganfeng on supply / demand / price

Canaccord's take on the market

BESS

Exxon's comments on lithium

The midstream

DLE

Rio's lithium future US Congress on China's predatory pricing

Liontown's spod auction

IGO's Kwinana woes