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Agreed TT with many of the points you've been making both over these past months and more recently. However I think you gotta balance the cautionary side of things with the fact that this year BIO have already put half a million dollars into CIZ's coffers (on top of covering the expense of running their own significant team and activities), and within the last few weeks Frazer Lang has come further on board with £250k to prep the UK side of things. I'm assuming that all these parties know a load more than we do, and are willing to put their time & money on what they see the situation as, and don't think they're flogging a dead horse. But like everyone here, I haven't a clue whether we're days, weeks or months away from getting that holy grail of test accreditation.

Surely Freenome are a fairly long way behind CIZ ? Their trial is apparently designed to determine the sensitivity and specificity of their lung cancer test and a document I saw (that was issued in Aug 2025) had the estimated completion date of the test as Jun 15 2027.

Totally agree with TheLord and forgot to add my own take on the wording within the RNS - I don't think anything in the timeline has changed, and am expecting the CEOL invite late Nov/early Dec, with the likelihood slanted more on the November side. Ignaceo in the Investor Meet seemed pretty sure on the end of November scenario, although he hedged once stretching the possibility into early December - and it seems like he's been having regular interaction with the government.

Yes, nice to have the MRE increase with likely a further increase after the extra drills are completed. The wording re the CEOL timescale "The Chilean government is finalising the indigenous community consultations for Laguna Verde and it is expected that the streamlined process will be announced shortly afterwards" is a bit unfortunate because it could imply the actual consultations haven't yet finished and as such is a delay, but equally it could dovetail with exactly what Ignaceo had mentioned in the last Investor Meet, that the Government has completed the consultations and are in the middle of collating and assessing all the results and before inviting CTL to apply to be entered into the fast-track CEOL process somewhere around the end of November.

After a couple of years of waiting these last 4 to 5 weeks should pass quickly :) then at last the thing should take off. But I was thinking exactly the same this time last year when the ASX listing seemed imminent... who knows what Fate has in store for us but for once the timeline seems definable and solid, unlike the previous timelines they outlined.

In case anyone finds it useful, the expected timeline seems to be this:

Indigenous consultations with government which last approx 3 months should have just finished, and government now has an admin period of a couple of weeks collating their findings and prepping for next stage. Feedback to CTL during indigenous consultations was positive.

Nov 16 - Chile holds government elections, regardless of election outcome should have no negative impact on CTL’s situation, nor future outlook or timeline.

Late Nov to early Dec government invites CTL formally to re-open fast track CEOL application. (Should be an RNS release by CTL)

Early Dec CTL formally submits CEOL application (should be another RNS)

Government then has approx 45 days to assess application, no problems for CTL are expected, and at end of assessment period government announces acceptance of CTL’s application and invites CTL into formal contract negotiations (announcement (likely sometime 20 - 31st January but it’s dependent on when the things above happened - and of course another RNS will be released). CTL then starts formal direct negotiations with government, but given that the contracts issued to the earlier CEOL applicants have been pretty standard no problems or delays with this are expected. either.

Once Government has accepted CTL into these direct contract negotiations (late January/early Feb), CTL will release the Laguna Verde PFS to potential Joint Venture partners, as there’s no longer any need to keep details of CTL’s past research on Laguna Verde's mining situation secret, as a government mining licence is now assured. It seems that a multitude of JV potential partners have already approached CTL expressing their interest. Detailed discussions with these potential future JV partners can now take place and agreements with one or more might even be reached, but I imagine nothing would be signed or announced until the mining licence is actually issued, even if they get this far. Maybe more likely JV partnerships are announced late Spring / early Summer.

The PFS release will also then trigger CTL re-starting and obtaining the ASX listing (assuming CTL still sees this as useful)

Late March or early April Government / CTL licence discussions conclude, terms agreed and the mining licence is issued.

Sometime April onwards I guess JV partners are announced and then everything prepping for the mine development starts moving fast…

So I imagine the share price will remain in this area or slightly higher until late Nov, then will start building steam, and really heat up from around the end of January ... assuming that no unexpected wrenches get thrown yet again into the works...

GLA

Agreed. Gives a clear way forward rather than being in limbo-land.

Just saw the delayed share trades.... looks like others see it differently. The first two hours of trading on Monday are going to be "interesting" (as the Chinese would say....). Shame that they didn't have the update today.

I suspect (just a guess) that an RNS will be issued pre trading hours on Monday, and that it might concern not only an update on the public tender CEOL application position but also could concern a new financial arrangement to take the whole venture (them/us/++) forward.... Certainly better than being left hanging in the dark, and I still have vestigial confidence in the team to find a good step forward that suits all ( ... so said the Lemming to his pals as they ran towards the cliff edge... ).

Meeting postponed about 45 minutes before it was due to start, I imagine because there weren't enough people who noticed or accepted the last minute invitation issued early Friday afternoon. It starts instead at 10am on Monday....

Surprised that no-one has posted it, and it seems I'm unable to post a new thread on LSE, but this is just to point out that there's an update coming from CTL after market close today (5.30pm BST) with Investor Meet Company... will certainly be interesting, good news or bad news....

I'd wonder whether either publishing the PFS or applying for an ASX listing would be a good move until the CEOL story is fully sorted in CTL's favour... Better surely to show any completed PFS privately to those potential partners who have already been in contact with CTL and are under non-disclosure arrangements? Wouldn't want to hand over all the expensive research to people who might want to bid at any public tender process, even if CTL holds the relevant mining rights at present... However, it would be good to know though that the PFS has been successfully completed...

[article follows on with:]

The case of Wealth Minerals, in Ollagüe, is similar. There, it has a project called Kuska, the second of the firm's three lithium assets, and although it claims to own 10,500 hectares of established mining properties, the government has not processed its application.

“The company is evaluating its alternatives to obtain the CEOL, either by appealing the recent Ministry of Mining resolution through regular channels or by applying for a CEOL under the regular permitting procedures available to all lithium projects,” the company said in a statement, noting that Wealth “was unable to complete 80% of the polygon with its mining concessions, despite being the largest mining concession holder in the Ollagüe area.”

In its statement, it added that the request was made “in good faith despite this issue, under the assumption that the state permitting authorities would consider all factors,” hoping for recognition of “Wealth’s progress on the Kuska project to date, as well as the empowerment of the Quechua Indigenous Community of Ollagüe,” where the company ceded a 5% stake to the local community.

As stated in its statement, the company has not ruled out an appeal. If not, it will go to tender, although they still don't understand why the polygon defined in the area didn't grant them the required 80% in the process.

The firm's CEO, Henk van Alphen, described what happened as "regrettable" and stated that the Ollagüe case was "impossible for Wealth, or any other potential participant, to fulfill."

"We remain committed to moving this project forward and hope that, with the appropriate sense of urgency, things can move more quickly," he stated.

[That's it]

08:35 - yes agreed - if it's simply a case of mistaking the needed criteria. but somehow ctl felt that they qualified and i guess we'll find out why later, might have simply been assurances and encouragement from other ministers in the government. might as well post the rest of the article ::

the government presented it as progress, but for at least two companies, the results of the so-called fast track for simplified allocation of the coveted special lithium operating contracts (ceol) were unsatisfactory. in only three salt flats: ascotán, located in anto***asta; coipasa, located in tarapacá; and agua amarga, in atacama, did the process allow applications submitted by mining concession holders to be processed.

according to the authority, all of them met the requirement of holding at least 80% of the mining holdings within the defined polygon for each deposit to develop a lithium production project.

five companies benefited: the french company eramet, which held 100% of the agua amarga holdings, and which, along with chilean quiborax and state-owned codelco, also applied together for ascotán. they were joined by cosayach caliche, a firm belonging to the errázuriz group, and the canadian-owned company lithium chile.

according to the authority, all of them met the requirement of holding at least 80% of the mining holdings within the polygon defined for each deposit to develop a lithium production project.

but cleantech lithium, a london-based firm that applied to hold the ceol at laguna verde, a deposit located in atacama, and wealth minerals, based in vancouver, which was seeking a permit for the ollagüe salt flat, located in anto***asta, fell by the wayside.

the former had the most direct reaction. it did so on wednesday, when it announced that it would appeal the ministry of mining's ruling.

“the company will appeal this decision within five business days, in accordance with the procedure set out in the ministry's resolution document,” it reported in a statement sent to the london stock exchange, stating that it “believes it can meet the criteria established by the government and will provide a further update in due course.”

its ceo, ignacio mehech, emphasized that “although this is not the decision we expected, we will exercise our right to appeal within the five-day period provided.”

the cleantech project in laguna verde is described by the company itself as its flagship in its corporate presentations. it is the most advanced initiative, where exploration has been carried out since 2022 and is currently conducting pre-feasibility studies. in fact, it claims to have completed nearly 90% of the project's pre-development and has invested more than us$30 million in the process.

but despite having 147 square kilometers of mining property for exploration and exploitation with preferential rights, the polygon defined by the authorities in the area left it with 39% of the concessions, far from the 80% target.

Interesting article in MSN posted today which I found by googling Chile CEOL:

https://www.msn.com/es-cl/noticias/other/el-lamento-de-los-privados-que-no-avanzaron-en-el-proceso-para-explotar-salares-priorizados/ar-AA1DL4Eg

It's in Spanish. Much of it is already known but it seems CTL's extensive document applying for the fast track wasn't considered, it didn't possess enough of the mining rights for the enormous area it was lumped into. The couple of companies that advanced onto fast track owned between 80% and 100% of the mining rights of the polygon allotted by the Chilean authorities for those particular areas. In the section on CTL, the article says: "But despite having 147 square kilometers of mining property for exploration and exploitation with preferential rights, the polygon defined by the authorities in the area left it with 39% of the concessions, far from the 80% target."

It goes on to say that the case of Wealth Minerals, in Ollagüe, who also failed to get onto fast-track, is similar, despite being the largest mining concession holder in the Ollagüe area. Wealth Minerals "is evaluating its alternatives to obtain the CEOL, either by appealing the recent Ministry of Mining resolution through regular channels or by applying for a CEOL under the regular permitting procedures available to all lithium projects,”

One's left with the question in both cases why the Chile government office tasked with advancing lithium development devised polygons for those areas that automatically excluded CTL & Wealth Minerals from any chance of being considered. Or why, given the circumstances, CTL or both of them weren't given special waivers for that clause ... Personally I feel that the recent appointment of the Chilean CEO with all his past connections rather than the earlier Australian pick may prove to be extremely fortuitous... but I guess we'll find out what's happening sometime soon... GLA

the article states: "otherwise, public bidding processes will be initiated, as was the case with the ollague salt flat in the anto***asta region, and piedra parada and laguna verde in the atacama region," the statement said."... note the "as was" -we've already been through that process before we got onto the fast track stream... or am i being dumb?

Are you sure that the article / fast track allocations etc have anything to do with CTL? Surely these are for a different category of participant , big players like Codelco etc, operating on different types of deposits and about not the private smaller fish like CTL and its' group of six fast tracked applicants. To me this might just explain why our CEOL application result has been delayed... the government was first concentrating on the big boys on the salt flats... I confess I know nothing about the wider picture of how the Chilean government has approached developing all its resources but I assumed we were in a group of relative minnows.

Thx Jace - it's just that I don't see any option to post a new thread, alter the title or anything, can only reply. But this subject title's better, and like Smart Sam I'm also in, happy enough, patiently waiting, neither adding nor selling...

So much for being brief! Ran out of space... just to finish off, I think it’s also significant that from the start CIZ chose to directly list on the main stock exchange instead of AIM and the main players took options rather than bigger salaries - it shows very good confidence in what they’ve got (from the people who actually know). I imagine it’s also significant that their latest Company-level move was to appoint a NED who’s a specialist in “strategy, partnerships, licensing and shareholder communications”… not a move you’d make if you thought that your test was sinking in the USA…

GLA (and especially N & his wife).

It’s hard to continue writing about CIz after reading earlier this morning Neilin’s very sobering post, and realising the amount of pain & difficulties that must have been happening all these days, weeks & months since xmas. What can you both do except to soldier on and hope that it comes to a good outcome as soon as possible… Best wishes for that, “bon courage”, I hope you have the very best medical support and some good friends and family nearby to alleviate some of the burden.

I’ll try & be brief on Ciz, TT, how are you so sure that Ciz knew in January that April definitely was not on the cards? (Genuine question). There’s a test centre now ready to rumble, and April hasn’t yet arrived. Yes, there’s some sort of obstacle to starting but without knowing what the cause of the delay is, I wonder how you can assert about their “lying” so adamantly? I also wonder why you think that CIZ BIO has kind of mentally abandoned CIZ to focus instead more on offering other tests?

I totally agreed with TS/Joey after reading the RNS his immediate sentiment that they were “kicking the can down the road”, and I was also disappointed that there was only one test centre involved (which seemed to point to, as you say, “there hasn’t been the take up as expected from the healthcare system” - I even checked to see if the test centre was in BB’s home town), and I wondered whether Prof DC had been appointed CSO and was having to spend her time in the USA because there were major difficulties being experienced by test centres in applying the test. But after reflecting about it, I now think having one test centre is enough of a start, and I think it’s actually a really big start. One lab in Texas that’s successfully testing whether a person has early stage lung cancer will certainly spread through the medical community that specialise in that side of medical care, so I’d imagine that other test centres will soon want to also offer that test, after all, lung cancer isn’t a very obscure cancer that hardly anyone ever gets… I’d also caveat that we don’t know the actual situation, there may be a number of other test centres already in line for having the test, and getting prepared for it right now. (And nb that, quietly in the background, the Moffitt centre is already actively checking out the test).

We just aren’t told the situation in any depth. (Does anyone know whether the work on best method for reagent transport/storage etc was completed?). In the vacuum of no information, either we assume the worst or the best, but have little knowledge to state either case.

I personally get the impression that CIZ management are focussed entirely on getting the test out into market, and trying to develop a POC test, as well as other potential applications for the CIZ biomarker and are willingly ignoring the murmurings of us private investors with the feeling that the proof and reward will come in the pudding.