CleanTech Lithium (AIM: CTL) secures 40-year Laguna Verde CEOL from Chilean government, clearing path to Pre-Feasibility Study and strategic partner talks

CleanTech Lithium PLC (AIM: CTL, Frankfurt: T2N) announced on 10 March 2026 that it has formally agreed the contractual terms for a Special Lithium Operating Contract (CEOL) for its Laguna Verde project with Chile’s Ministry of Mining, securing a 40-year licence covering 153 square kilometres of prospective lithium-bearing terrain in the Atacama region. The agreement, reached through CleanTech Lithium’s wholly owned Chilean subsidiary Atacama Salt Lakes SpA, covers every phase of the project lifecycle from exploration through to closure and includes commitments on socioeconomic development aligned with Chile’s National Lithium Strategy. A final ratification step by the Comptroller General’s Office remains pending, with the board anticipating clearance in the second quarter of 2026. The announcement pushed CTL shares up 7.81 percent to 11.32 pence on 10 March, with the stock trading in a 52-week range of 4.75 pence to 16.25 pence and a market capitalisation that has risen to approximately 25 million pounds following recent capital activity.

What is the Special Lithium Operating Contract and why does it matter for CleanTech Lithium’s Laguna Verde project timeline?

The CEOL is Chile’s primary instrument for granting long-term lithium development rights to private entities under the country’s National Lithium Strategy, which the government has used since 2023 to selectively partner with companies that can demonstrate environmental credibility, indigenous community alignment, and technical capacity. Only a handful of companies have been awarded CEOLs to date, placing CleanTech Lithium in a small group of operators with formalised access to Chilean state lithium reserves. The contract’s 40-year term, combined with its coverage of all project phases, provides the kind of regulatory certainty that risk-sensitive institutional investors and strategic industrial partners typically require before committing capital to a junior mining project.

The application for the Laguna Verde CEOL was filed by Atacama Salt Lakes SpA on 29 December 2025 and progressed quickly through the Ministry of Mining review process. The speed of the agreement reflects both the project’s technical standing and the broader Chilean government push to accelerate lithium output in line with its stated production targets. The CEOL polygon, as finalised following indigenous consultations, excludes the lake surface area of Laguna Verde, a concession that appears to have been the mechanism through which community consent was secured without materially compromising the subsurface brine resource.

How does the Laguna Verde resource base stack up against other Chilean lithium projects at a similar development stage?

The Laguna Verde project holds a JORC-compliant resource estimate of 1.9 million tonnes of lithium carbonate equivalent, announced in November 2025, spanning measured, indicated, and inferred categories. Average lithium grades in the subsurface brine aquifer have been measured at 175 milligrams per litre, with peak readings of 409 milligrams per litre at depth across multiple drilling campaigns conducted since 2021. At spot lithium carbonate prices of approximately US$21,900 per tonne as of mid-March 2026, the in-ground gross value of the resource is substantial, though the discount investors apply to development-stage assets in a depressed lithium price environment means CleanTech Lithium’s current market capitalisation of roughly 25 million pounds reflects the execution risk and funding gap that still exist.

The company’s proposed extraction method distinguishes Laguna Verde from many peer projects. CleanTech Lithium intends to use Direct Lithium Extraction technology, which avoids the evaporation ponds that dominate conventional brine processing and carry significant water consumption and surface footprint concerns. DLE has attracted considerable industry attention as major automakers and battery manufacturers seek to de-risk their lithium supply chains from operations with large environmental and community footprints, and CleanTech Lithium’s adoption of the technology is a material selling point in a competitive field. Whether DLE at scale delivers the cost and recovery economics the company is projecting remains to be demonstrated in the Pre-Feasibility Study.

What does the Comptroller General ratification step mean in practice and when can investors expect the contract to formally commence?

The Comptroller General’s Office in Chile reviews all government decrees to confirm constitutional and legal compliance before they take effect. Critically, the Comptroller cannot alter the agreed commercial, economic, or legal terms of the CEOL; its role is confined to procedural and constitutional review. CleanTech Lithium’s board has stated it is not aware of any reason the Decree would be rejected and has guided investors towards a Q2 2026 ratification timeline, consistent with the processing pace seen for other CEOLs in Chile. Once the Decree clears the Comptroller and is published, the 40-year contract term formally begins.

The distinction between terms agreed and contract formally commenced matters for investors who have been watching CleanTech Lithium’s progress for some time. The company has carried the burden of a protracted regulatory process, referenced explicitly by chief executive Ignacio Mehech in the announcement, and the delay has weighed on the stock relative to the resource quality. The Q2 ratification window, if met, would set up a cleaner second half of 2026 story, during which the company expects to publish the Pre-Feasibility Study results and move into formal strategic partner conversations.

How is the Chilean government’s National Lithium Strategy shaping the competitive landscape for junior developers seeking CEOL awards?

Chile’s National Lithium Strategy, formalised under the Boric administration in 2023, shifted the country’s approach to lithium from a purely fiscal extraction model to one that requires state participation, technology transfer, indigenous consultation, and sustainable production commitments from private partners. The strategy created the CEOL as the vehicle for this framework, deliberately limiting the number of awards to operators that could meet a high bar across environment, social, and governance criteria alongside technical and financial credibility. This selectivity has made CEOL status a meaningful quality signal in the junior mining market, partly explaining the market’s positive reaction to CleanTech Lithium’s announcement despite the ratification step that still separates the company from formal contract commencement.

The strategic dimension has competitive implications for other small-cap operators pursuing lithium licences in Chile. Companies without CEOL frameworks in place face a considerably less certain regulatory path and may find it harder to attract strategic partners or financing at comparable terms. CleanTech Lithium’s CEOL agreement also arrives against a backdrop of intensifying Chinese investment in Latin American lithium, ongoing battery supply chain restructuring by European and Asian automakers, and a lithium price environment that while depressed relative to its 2022 peak may be bottoming as demand growth from electric vehicles continues to outpace current supply investments.

What is the significance of the Metals One investment and how does CleanTech Lithium’s capital structure affect the path to production?

Metals One PLC acquired approximately 10.7 percent of CleanTech Lithium through a one million pound investment, a transaction that preceded the CEOL announcement and signals that third-party validation of the asset quality was building prior to the regulatory milestone. The company also conducted a retail offer to existing shareholders earlier in the year to shore up its working capital position. With a market capitalisation now in the 25 million pound range and the Pre-Feasibility Study still ahead, CleanTech Lithium will need to fund the study, pursue ratification costs, and maintain its Chilean field operations before a strategic partner transaction can inject meaningful capital.

The introduction of a strategic partner is explicitly named in the company’s stated next steps, and the CEOL award materially changes the negotiating dynamic. Prior to CEOL terms being agreed, any partner conversation was necessarily contingent on a regulatory outcome CleanTech Lithium could not guarantee. With the contract terms locked and only procedural ratification outstanding, the company can now approach strategic conversations from a position of demonstrated government alignment and contractual certainty. The identity and terms of any strategic partner will be closely watched, as it will determine the project’s funding trajectory, technology partnerships, and ultimately the timeline to first production that the company had originally targeted for 2027.

How has CleanTech Lithium’s stock performed in the context of the broader lithium sector downturn and what does the CEOL signal for valuation?

CleanTech Lithium shares have had a difficult 12 months heading into the CEOL announcement, with the stock down approximately 46 percent over that period according to available data, reflecting both the company-specific risk of regulatory uncertainty and the sector-wide collapse in lithium prices from the elevated levels of 2022 and 2023. The 52-week range of 4.75 pence to 16.25 pence captures the full breadth of sentiment swings the stock has experienced. The 10 March intraday move to 11.32 pence on 7.81 percent volume relative to the prior session’s close represents a meaningful, if measured, market acknowledgement of the CEOL milestone.

The analyst consensus target of 20 pence per share from Canaccord Genuity, maintained at a speculative buy rating, implies approximately 90 percent upside from the most recent close and reflects the view that the regulatory de-risking now achieved substantially narrows the gap between the asset’s in-ground value and its market capitalisation. Whether that gap closes depends on the Pre-Feasibility Study economics, the lithium price trajectory, and the quality of any strategic partner that CleanTech Lithium is able to attract. The market cap at 25 million pounds continues to look anomalous against the resource size in any scenario where DLE technology delivers on its promise and the lithium price recovers meaningfully from current levels.

Key takeaways: what the CleanTech Lithium CEOL agreement means for investors, partners, and the Chilean lithium sector

• CleanTech Lithium (AIM: CTL) has formally agreed the terms of a 40-year Special Lithium Operating Contract with the Chilean Ministry of Mining for its Laguna Verde project, a development that removes the single largest regulatory risk overhanging the stock.
• Only a handful of companies have been awarded CEOLs under Chile’s National Lithium Strategy, placing CleanTech Lithium in an exclusive group of operators with formalised long-term access to Chilean state lithium reserves.
• The Comptroller General’s ratification step is procedural rather than substantive — the Comptroller cannot alter agreed terms and is expected to complete its review by Q2 2026.
• The 1.9 million tonne LCE JORC resource, average grades of 175 mg/L, and Direct Lithium Extraction methodology differentiate Laguna Verde from conventional evaporation pond projects, improving its ESG positioning with prospective strategic partners.
• The company has explicitly flagged strategic partner introduction as the next capital event, and the CEOL award fundamentally changes the negotiating dynamic by removing regulatory contingency from those discussions.
• CTL shares rose 7.81 percent on the announcement day to 11.32 pence but remain well below the Canaccord Genuity analyst target of 20 pence, which implies substantial re-rating potential contingent on Pre-Feasibility Study delivery and lithium price recovery.
• The company’s market capitalisation of approximately 25 million pounds continues to sit at a large discount to the gross in-ground resource value, a gap that execution progress and a strategic partner transaction could narrow materially.
• Chile’s broader lithium ambition and the government’s track record of processing CEOL decrees without rejection provides reasonable grounds for confidence in the Q2 ratification timeline.
• The lake surface exclusion from the final polygon, driven by indigenous consultation, appears to have been a constructive compromise that preserved the subsurface resource while satisfying community requirements, a model that may inform future CEOL negotiations across the sector.
• The resource estimate may require revision once the final polygon is formally adopted, a modest outstanding uncertainty that investors should monitor alongside the Pre-Feasibility Study publication.