Hello, everyone, and welcome to Lithium Argentina AG Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2025 Earnings Conference Call. Please note that this call is being recorded. After the prepared remarks, there will be a question-and-answer session. If you would like to ask a question during that time, please press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. Thank you. I would now like to hand the call over to Kelly O'Brien, Investor Relations. Please go ahead.

Thank you for the introduction. I want to welcome everyone to our conference call this morning. Joining me on the call today to discuss the fourth quarter and full year 2025 results is Sam Pigott, CEO of Lithium Argentina AG. Alex Shulga, our CFO, will also be available for Q&A. Before we begin, I would like to cover a few items. Our fourth quarter 2025 earnings results were press released earlier this morning and the corresponding documents are available on our website. I remind you that some of the statements made during this call, including any production guidance, expected company performance, updates on development plans, the timing of our project, 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 releases. I now turn the call over to Sam Pigott.

Thanks, Kelly. Good morning, everyone, and thank you for joining us. 2025 marked an important year for Lithium Argentina AG. Cauchari-Olaroz demonstrated its ability as a stable, cash-generating operation, but we significantly advanced our next phase of growth. Starting with operations, the project is performing exceptionally well. For the year, production was over 34,000 tons, reaching the high end of our guidance range and ending the year near capacity, with fourth quarter production at 97%. We are now seeing that strong operational performance translate into lower costs, with fourth quarter operating cash costs around $5,600 per ton. Following year-end, the operation distributed $85,000,000 of cash, $42,000,000 for Lithium Argentina AG’s share, and we completed a $130,000,000 six-year loan facility, strengthening our balance sheet and highlighting the financial capacity of our assets. In parallel, we were able to make meaningful progress across our growth pipeline. This included the consolidation of PPG, supporting a more efficient development plan as outlined in the scoping study released late last year, as well as the submission of RIGI applications for both PPG and stage two. Since completion of the chemical plant in late 2023, production has steadily increased. 2024 represented our first full year of production. In 2025, the focus shifted to consistent recoveries, sustaining higher production levels for longer periods of time. During the year, the team made continued improvements across several areas, including brine management, wellfield optimization, process stability in the plant, and reduced reagent usage, which together supported more reliable and consistent operating performance. That progress resulted in the operations achieving close to nameplate capacity in the fourth quarter, with production of approximately 9,700 tons. This operational performance translated into strong financial results, which, despite the low lithium price environment in 2025, Cauchari-Olaroz generated $56,000,000 in adjusted EBITDA. I want to spend a moment on cost, because I would argue this is just as important as the production story, if not more so. Since Q1 2024, cash costs have declined 30% from over $8,000 per ton to around $5,600 in Q4. That improvement is broad-based: reagents, maintenance, camp services, and overhead. Every major cost line moved in the right direction. This is not just fixed cost at higher volumes. Much of this reduction is in variable cost driven by our efforts to optimize the operation following the ramp-up. The best way to show this structural change is by looking at the impact to a revised long-term estimate. Based on the current cost structure at full capacity, we now forecast cost of approximately $5,400 per ton, down from $6,500 a year ago. That is a 17% reduction to our own prior estimate. And it is important to note that we are not done. We and our partner, Ganfeng, remain fully focused on driving further efficiencies with both stage one and as we grow. On the next slide is an updated cost curve, which includes actual operating performance at Cauchari-Olaroz. Not a feasibility study. It is not a projection. These are actual costs from an operation that has now been running and improving quarter over quarter. This operation is one of the few sources of lithium chemical production to come online outside of China in the past ten years. We now have the opportunity to scale from 40,000 to over 200,000 tons of lithium chemicals to serve global markets directly from the Americas. Turning briefly to the market, since mid-2025, there has been a significant recovery in lithium prices, supported by strengthening demand across both electric vehicles and, increasingly, energy storage systems. On ESS specifically, the wide range of forecasts you will see from global banks and consultants reflects how new and large this demand is becoming. This gap is particularly visible even in 2025. Our estimates, especially those outside of Asia, are still adjusting to how material ESS has become as a driver of overall lithium demand. For Lithium Argentina AG, this rising ESS demand aligns well with our existing operations and growth platform that we have developed, in terms of scale, cost, and ability to integrate with a more global customer base. Looking ahead to 2026, we expect production in the range of 35,000 to 40,000 tons of lithium carbonate, reflecting our focus on sustaining stable operations at current levels and long-term optimization. Based on our production targets for 2026, Cauchari-Olaroz is expected to support significant EBITDA under a range of lithium price scenarios. Using today’s market price of about $20,000 per ton and the midpoint of production guidance would imply around $460,000,000 in EBITDA for 2026. This incorporates actual results year to date and adjustments to market price. From a cash flow perspective, this should translate into strong cash conversion supported by accelerated depreciation and low sustaining capital requirements of approximately $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 per year. Following year-end, the operation distributed $85,000,000 of cash, increasing Lithium Argentina AG’s cash position in Q1 to now around $95,000,000. In March, at the corporate level, we also completed a $130,000,000 debt facility with Ganfeng, increasing our balance sheet flexibility. With Cauchari-Olaroz now operating at close to capacity and costs well below $6,000 per ton, we are turning our attention to what comes next. And the opportunity in front of us is significant. We have the potential to grow from approximately 40,000 tons per annum today to over 200,000 across a series of phases, using Cauchari-Olaroz stage one as the foundation. In 2025, we laid the groundwork. The resource base is defined, the permits and RIGI applications are advancing, and the economics, as the PPG scoping study showed, are compelling in nearly all pricing scenarios. We recently published an updated resource and reserve estimate for Cauchari-Olaroz, reinforcing the scale of the basin, with total measured and indicated resources increasing by approximately 42%, positioning Cauchari-Olaroz among the largest lithium brine assets globally. Beyond this, our platform includes PPG, another large-scale brine resource with over 15,000,000 tons of measured and indicated LCE resources. Together with Cauchari-Olaroz and PPG, we are advancing two of the largest lithium brine resources globally, providing the right scale and brine chemistry to support our growth plans. We continue to see a more supportive investment environment emerging in Argentina, with the RIGI helping to attract long-term capital and improve project economics, as reflected in the more than $70,000,000,000 in investment applications submitted or approved under the program. RIGI applications for both Cauchari stage two and PPG have been submitted. As we look ahead, we are scaling our lithium platform in Argentina. At Cauchari-Olaroz, we are advancing the stage two expansion plan of 45,000 tons, leveraging our operating track record, existing infrastructure, resource scale, and using the significant cash flow from stage one to provide a strong foundation to support the execution of this expansion. In parallel, at PPG, we are progressing what is targeted to be Argentina’s largest lithium operation, with a phased development plan to grow to 150,000 tons LCE. Here, we are working closely with Ganfeng to bring in the necessary financing and are seeing strong engagement from customers and potential minority partners. The next phase of execution is defined by a series of clear milestones to de-risk this growth, including RIGI approvals, finalizing the stage two development plan, and financing PPG. In conclusion, we are incredibly proud of what we have accomplished and excited for the years to come. In 2025, we delivered what we set out to do: establish a strong operating foundation with industry-leading costs, strengthen our balance sheet, and take meaningful steps to de-risk our growth pipeline. Looking ahead, we are in a very strong position to build off what we have already accomplished at Cauchari-Olaroz stage one and scale from 40,000 to 200,000 tons. We have world-class teams, a proven track record, two of the largest and highest-quality lithium brine resources globally, a much improved investment environment in Argentina, and a market that is undergoing strong demand tailwinds from continued EV growth and accelerated demand from energy storage build-outs. We are focused on de-risking and advancing a path to more than quadrupling our lithium production and creating the largest lithium platform in Argentina.

Ladies and gentlemen, please be on standby. We will just address a quick technical issue. Again, please be on standby. We will be back momentarily. Thank you.

Apologies for that. My line dropped. Obviously, we are not recording this. And so I will carry on where I left off. Based on our production targets for 2026, Cauchari-Olaroz is expected to support significant EBITDA under a range of lithium price scenarios. Using today’s market price of about $20,000 per ton, and the midpoint of production guidance, would imply around $460,000,000 in EBITDA for 2026. This incorporates actual results year to date and adjustments to market price. From a cash flow perspective, this should translate into strong cash conversion supported by accelerated depreciation and low sustaining capital requirements of approximately $15,000,000 to $20,000,000 per year. Following year-end, the operation distributed $85,000,000 of cash, increasing Lithium Argentina AG’s cash position in Q1 to now around $95,000,000. In March, at the corporate level, we also completed a $130,000,000 debt facility with Ganfeng, increasing our balance sheet flexibility. With Cauchari-Olaroz now operating at close to capacity and costs well below $6,000 per ton, we are turning our attention to what comes next. And the opportunity in front of us is significant. We have the potential to grow from approximately 40,000 tons per annum today to over 200,000 across a series of phases, using Cauchari-Olaroz stage one as the foundation.

And with that, we are ready to open up the line for questions.

We will now open for questions. Please limit your question to one question and one follow-up. We will pause for a brief moment to wait for the questions to come in. Your first question comes from the line of Anthony Tagliari of Canaccord Genuity. Your line is now open.

Good morning, Sam and team. So first of all, congrats on the excellent cost performance in Q4. My first question is related to cash cost expectations for 2026, noting your new long-term goal of $5,400 a ton. So how should we expect this to evolve in 2026? Is $5,600 a ton the new base case for Q1 moving forward? You know, between that 35,000 to 40,000 tons of production on an annual basis?

Yes, thanks for the question. So, yes, in Q4, we delivered $5,600 per ton in cash cost. These were really driven not just by volume increases reaching 97% capacity, but also structural changes we made to the cost profile. So that would include things like reagents, camp services, maintenance, and optimization of our workforce at camp. With all those changes, and what we realized in Q4, we did update our long-term cost estimate at full capacity of $5,400, which is the 17% decrease from what we put out last year at $6,500 per ton. So we would expect some variability quarter over quarter tied to volumes produced and timing of cost. But certainly, sub-$6,000, that $5,600 is a pretty good indication of where things are likely to settle throughout the year.

Okay. Great. That is helpful. And maybe as a follow-up on Q1 realized price expectations. Could you bridge us from sort of the average Chinese benchmark price of approximately $21,000 a ton to date in Q1 versus the expected realized price of $17,000 a ton? So, you know, simple math after considering that, that implies around $1,900 a ton of processing costs there. So is that something we should expect moving forward for the rest of the—

Yes. I mean, as a general statement, our pricing today is based on the market price for battery-quality lithium carbonate outside of China. So that does strip out VAT from the export reference prices you typically see quoted by SMM, Fastmarkets, etc. Beyond that, the adjustments for quality are around mid-single digits from that reference price. And that is something that we continue to monitor with our partner, Ganfeng. But at the moment, that is what we are realizing.

Thank you. That is helpful. I will pass on.

Your next question comes from the line of Joel Jackson of BMO Capital Markets. Your line is now open.

Hey, Sam. You talked about the different opportunities working at any price level. I think your partner, Ganfeng, would sort of say similar things. Can you talk about some of the volatility you have seen in the global markets the last few weeks? If that has changed any risk factors to think about Cauchari or its phase two or PPG. And then also, would your objectives be the same as Ganfeng? Obviously, they are not your companies, but could you talk about maybe how some of your objectives versus your partner’s growth over the next couple of years could be similar or different?

Sure. Thanks, Joel. I mean, as a broad statement, we are obviously monitoring the impacts of the situation in the Middle East. We are not seeing any material impact to our operations. In a lot of ways, we are pretty well set up and insulated from increased costs to oil and gas prices. Our largest energy input by far is the solar radiation onto our ponds. We have done a series of analyses over the past couple of weeks just given the developments in the Middle East and the energy complex. And our direct energy exposure is very limited. So approximately, or less than, 2% of our total operating costs are tied to diesel and natural gas. And then looking further afield into our indirect costs associated with logistics and other cost lines, it all remains below 5% of our OpEx which is exposed to that. So we are very well insulated. We are not a traditional mining operation with heavy reliance on diesel for mining or for crushing or haulage. So from that perspective, we are doing very well. All of our deliveries and shipments are meeting their targets on schedule. Demand is still being pulled very strongly from China and our offtake agreement with Ganfeng. So, you know, we obviously do monitor it, but are very pleased to report that minimal, if any, impacts are being experienced to date and various limited likelihood for escalation. In terms of our growth ambitions with Ganfeng, I think both of us understand the unique position that we have here today. We have brought online Cauchari-Olaroz exceptionally well. Costs are, again, below where we thought they would be at full capacity going back last year. $5,600 in Q4, the ability to more than double production at Cauchari-Olaroz, and then similarly, the largest potential lithium project in Argentina, 150,000 tons staged across three 50,000-ton phases, expecting operating costs to be low $5,000 a ton. So I think we have the right type of growth. We now have proven that we can execute. I think the partnership is working very well. Ganfeng has pretty ambitious targets for where they want to see their lithium production by 2030. A big part of that growth is through their portfolio with us in Argentina. I think it is around finance. Ganfeng is a $20,000,000,000 market cap company, with huge access to capital in China. I think the question was always, are we going to get pulled in one direction or another? I think the answer to that is, one, our shareholder agreements provide joint control over key decisions, including expansions, so we do have some control over our destiny. But the way things are developing now, Cauchari stage two, at today’s prices, stage one would be generating somewhere in the order of $460,000,000 in EBITDA, which provides quite a bit of cash flow to execute on stage two. We are obviously waiting for a development plan mid-year. And then PPG, when we decided to put all these assets together with Ganfeng, we made it very, very clear, and in a formal agreement, to work together on financing plans that would not require shareholders to contribute equity, and we are seeing a lot of engagement around that. There are a lot of groups that really appreciate the scale of this business. They appreciate the team that has been able to execute at Cauchari. And so we are very confident we will be able to put together a financing package that does not require equity contributions from shareholders. So I think, in today’s market, we are very much aligned in terms of pursuing both growth plans simultaneously.

Okay. Now I will just follow up with, I know you and Ganfeng talked about wanting to put on some DLE plans and trial it out at different assets in Argentina, Pastos Grandes, Olaroz, Mariana. Can you talk about, at least for Cauchari, what is the DLE plan there? Or is it more going to be a stage two idea?

It is going to be a stage two. So the DLE, all the results that we are working with Ganfeng on, they are really taking the lead, as you would expect in terms of new technologies, applying new technologies to brine assets in Argentina. So right now, the focus for us is completing this development plan with Ganfeng, and we are targeting mid-2026. With that, we will obviously have a lot more to share through that report and other disclosures. But I would say the bar has been raised in terms of what we would want to see from that new technology. Conventional has pluses and minuses, but we are seeing a lot more of the pluses right now. I mean, our cost profile has come to a level that I think we were all very impressed with. These are structural changes to the cost profile of the business. A long-term target of $5,400 a ton, which is very, very real. I mean, we just came out of Q4 at $5,600 a ton. It already places Cauchari certainly in the first quartile of the cost curve. And so we look favorably on the technology that Ganfeng has been pushing ahead. But it has to deliver better CapEx and better OpEx, which we are confident it will. And we will disclose more when the development plan is finalized mid-2026.

Thank you.

Your next question comes from the line of Corinne Blanchard of Deutsche Bank. Your line is now open.

Hey. Good morning, and thank you for taking my question. Maybe the first question, I want to come back on the pricing. Obviously, this is quite a big jump from 4Q to 1Q due to the spot market. But can you maybe share your view on expectations throughout 2026 and maybe kind of a six-month shared view here that would be helpful. And then maybe the second question, maybe if you can just comment on the financing environment for the extension. I know you cannot comment extensively on Ganfeng, but there is definitely a question coming from the converts and balance sheet. So anything you can address there? Thank you.

I mean, pricing is, as you know, Corinne, very, very difficult to predict. I think the visibility that we get is largely through our partner, Ganfeng, which is the largest lithium producer in China. They are seeing very, very strong demand, and it is really based largely on ESS. I think the view is, pricing could remain volatile, but expectations are for pricing to remain in and around where it is trading today. I am not saying that is necessarily our expectation, but that is what we are hearing through our partner in China. And I think part of that is just around—we had it in one of our slides—because ESS is relatively new, it is growing very quickly. It is relatively opaque versus tracking EVs. There is just not the same maturity of data collection and disclosure that there is in the automotive business. So there is a huge divergence of view in terms of what the market is going to be in 2030. You know, even in 2025, I think people are still trying to reconcile what the actual lithium demand pull-through from ESS installations or shipments was. So, I mean, getting feedback from China, and this is shared by many of the other end customers that we have discussed over the last couple of months, is that energy storage is certainly on the high end of the bank and consultant range. So that should be very supportive to lithium prices going forward. And, sorry, your second question, do you mind repeating that?

Yeah. No problem. Just asking about financing and, again, you kind of fenced it a little bit previously with Ganfeng’s view, but if you can talk about balance sheet and converts and what you intend to do there.

So, I mean, I think we are very, very pleased with the progress we have made strengthening our balance sheet over the last year. We have closed a $130,000,000 six-year debt facility with Ganfeng. We distributed $85,000,000 from the operation, $42,000,000 of which came to LAR. Our cash position is just under $100,000,000. And meanwhile, if today’s prices are anywhere near them, the project is generating meaningful cash flow. So I think taken together, the cash we have on hand, the cash flow capacity of our operations in a wide range of pricing scenarios, provides us with a lot of flexibility and optionality to address the convert. I would say, one thing that I think is important to note is that the lithium price environment has been very challenging over the last couple of years. Anybody following the space would appreciate that as a fact. Meanwhile, LAR has not issued a single share for any financing purposes. And I think that speaks to our discipline and quality of our approach, and we are in a very, very good position right now. So that is on the convert. In terms of the financing plan for our growth, I think there are two different distinct paths between PPG and Cauchari. Cauchari stage two has stage one as a foundational backstop. So at today’s prices, $460,000,000 of EBITDA, which can provide some funding to the project. It can also allow us to access debt to finance phase two, and we will have a lot more information midyear with the development plan. On PPG, this is a joint effort with Ganfeng, working with some of Ganfeng’s global customers to look at different potential minority partners to bring into that project to provide the majority, if not all, the equity financing required.

Your next question comes from the line of Ben Isaacson of Scotiabank. Your line is now open.

Thank you very much, and good morning. Hoping I can ask three quick ones. Sam, your costs have improved dramatically over the past eight quarters or so. And I am just curious, do you think your costs at sub-$6,000 are a competitive advantage? And why am I asking that is, do you feel that competitive projects in Argentina have the ability to also reach that sub-$6,000 area? Or do you think LAR is unique in that?

I mean, there are a lot of different projects in Argentina. So it is hard to paint them all with the same brush. Chemistry composition is obviously a very important factor. Scale is an important factor to get costs down. And then the ability to execute and the technology selection. So, all different factors, but certainly brines do represent a very attractive resource base to deliver low-cost lithium units into the market. I think the second factor, in terms of what it represents overall, is brine seems to be the lowest cost and, in some ways, most resilient, reliable source of lithium chemical production outside of China. The entire industry is fixated on how to deliver these chemicals without going through China eventually. There have been a number of attempts and efforts to bring in conversion capacity outside of China to process spodumene concentrate. I think to date those plans have been challenging from a cost perspective, from an execution perspective. So I think my answer is yes, Argentina can be low-cost producers. Yes, I think there is something fundamentally different about what LAR has been able to accomplish, and I think that is related to the quality of our underlying resource as well as the design of our stage one plant.

Great. Thank you. And then just the second question, I see that stage two for Cauchari is rated at 45,000 tonnes. Can you talk about debottlenecking opportunities at stage one? Is it possible to get back to 45,000 tons? Why or why not?

Yes. I think with further investment, we probably could push it above 40,000 tons. I think one of the realities in planning stage two is that we are currently under a RIGI application process. RIGI is a very attractive investment framework in Argentina. It provides a number of fiscal benefits: lower tax rates from 35% to 25%, some changes in terms of VAT treatment with a non-cash item. But more importantly, any qualified, approved RIGI project has very clear ability to take cash out of Argentina and keep it out of Argentina. So I think our preference certainly is to make investments in stage two, whereby all of that production, sales, and profit will be captured under the RIGI.

Great. And then just my last one. Sam, you have a lot of experience on lithium and in China, and I was hoping you could share some insights into how you think sodium batteries are evolving and what it means to lithium demand growth rates, and maybe on the EV and on the battery storage side. Thank you.

Yes. And we typically hear a lot about sodium-ion batteries whenever lithium prices start to spike. And this start of this cycle is no different. So, yes, I think our view is that both technologies are improving. LFP has a significant advantage right now in terms of energy density, in terms of weight, and in terms of cycle, I should say. So all those are very important for, obviously, the EV segment, any mobility application, but also energy storage. There is still a significant economic advantage. I think sodium is a legitimate risk if lithium prices were to approach where they were last cycle. That starts to really eat into the economics and forces people to look at substitution. But I do not think we view it as a material threat at today’s price level or even significantly higher than today.

If you would like to ask a question, please press star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. That is star followed by 1 on your telephone keypad. Your next question comes from the line of Mohamed Sidibe of National Bank. Your line is now open.

Thanks, Sam and team, for taking my question, and congrats on a good quarterly cost performance. You answered my question on growth, the cadence of your growth projects as well as financing on that. But maybe back on the cash operating cost that you have, I know you touched on the no impact on fuel and diesel, but are you seeing anything from reagents pricing impacting your cost right now at the operations? Thank you.

As of now, we are seeing very limited impact. Most of the impact would obviously be the input cost to producing the reagents that we have. So we obviously use soda ash, lime, hydrochloric acid. I mean, obviously all of those do use diesel as an input to the actual production of the reagent itself. None of it travels through the Strait of Hormuz. None of it travels through the Middle East or the Red Sea. So from a shipping logistics standpoint, it is somewhat unaffected. We do understand that the war in the Middle East, or the conflict in the Middle East, is creating some issues for various fertilizer inputs. We are not exposed to anything of that order of magnitude. Our exposure is really around what the diesel price is going to do, and are those diesel prices going to be forced down into higher input costs for us. And so far, it seems minimal, if at all.

Great. Thank you.

As of right now, we do not have any pending questions. I would now like to hand the call back to Kelly O'Brien for closing remarks.

Great. Thank you, and thank you everyone for joining us this morning. Please feel free to reach out directly to the team if you have any additional questions. Have a great day.

Thanks.

Thank you for attending today’s call. You may now disconnect. Goodbye.