Namensänderung in Standard Lithium......

• Standard Lithium has used a vast network of 15+ stock promotion outfits. Since going public, the company has spent over C$5 million on “advertising and investor relations” compared to about C$1.7 million on R&D. In fiscal 2021, its R&D budget dropped to zero.
• Around the time of the Standard Lithium’s reverse merger to go public in 2016, it executed 2 opaque land deals resulting in almost 21 million shares (worth ~$152 million today) going to unnamed beneficiaries.
• Both land deals appear to have been undisclosed related party transactions. The first was with a newly formed entity based at the same address as Standard’s merger partner. The former President of Standard’s merger partner, associated with the deal, was later charged by the SEC over allegations of helping insiders secretly dump large quantities of stock in at least 45 companies through the use of opaque entities.
• The second land deal was with a newly formed entity incorporated by the law firm of a then-Standard Lithium director. The now-former director was later suspended from practicing law for 2 months for misappropriating client funds and is reportedly subject to a “broad” B.C. Law Society investigation into “entities and individuals who were apparently involved in market manipulations”.
• Robert Mintak’s prior company, Pure Energy Minerals, also executed a questionable land option deal through the same firm that vended the questionable land option deal to Standard Lithium.
• Standard claims its proprietary “LiSTR” technology differentiates it from other lithium hopefuls. LiSTR is based on three patent applications it purchased in 2018 from an apparent one-man engineering shop. Two of the applications have already been rejected as “unpatentable” by the USPTO.
• Standard’s flagship project has been delayed by nearly 18 months with key partner Lanxess recently admitting that Standard’s extraction technology has still not demonstrated “proof of concept”. Lanxess says it has “no timeline” for development and is no longer mentioning Standard Lithium on its earnings calls.
• Even now, the pilot plant appears to be operating at a fraction of its boilerplate capacity, according to data we reviewed through FOIA. Standard’s technology solution seems to be struggling out of the gate.
• Another Standard partner and shareholder, TETRA Technologies, has sold ~90% of its stock.
• A subsidiary of Koch Industries, which starting last year has been aggressively investing in SPACs, PIPEs, and ESG-oriented “growth equity” investments recently stepped in as a partner with a $100 million investment. We think Koch missed red flags and failed in its due diligence in its haste to deploy capital.