LAS VEGAS, June 27 (Reuters) - Lithium developer Lake

Resources is laying off staff and selling assets as low

prices for the electric vehicle battery metal hamper efforts to

find customers and investors for its flagship Kachi project in

Argentina, its CEO said.

The move is the latest blow to the lithium industry and its

struggling producers after the more than 80% drop in prices for

the ultralight metal in the past year, a fall fueled by Chinese

oversupply and concerns the EV industry is not growing as fast

as previously expected.

Australian-listed Lake is developing Kachi in Argentina's

mountainous Catamarca province with tech startup Lilac

Solutions. The project attracted preliminary interest from Ford

and others, but operating at the remote site fueled

extensive cost overruns that became untenable once lithium

prices began to slide.

"Everything today is just drive by lithium prices," Lake CEO

David Dickson said on the sidelines of the Fastmarkets Lithium

Supply and Battery Raw Materials Conference in Las Vegas this

week. "The standard (lithium) price needs to be a lot higher for

projects to move forward."

Prices for lithium carbonate, a common type of the metal,

are trading below $15,000 per metric ton, according to

Fastmarkets data. Dickson said he believes many in the lithium

market need to sign supply contracts with price floors of at

least $15,000 to $20,000 per metric ton in order to make

projects economic.

Lilac Solutions, which agreed in 2021 to invest $50 million

in Kachi to showcase its version of direct lithium extraction

technology, said it believes Kachi is a great lithium project

and that its supply will be needed later this decade to meet

rising global demand.

"We support Lake Resources and their great team, and we look

forward to getting into production," said Lilac CEO Raef Sully.

Lake is cutting most of its 180 workers but plans to keep a

skeleton staff of roughly 20, according to a source with direct

knowledge of the matter. Dickson declined to provide specific

numbers, but acknowledged Lake "is in a process of cost cutting

and resizing the company for where we're at now."

The move is the second blow to the Kachi project in the past

year after the company said last June it would delay first

production of 25,000 metric tons of lithium by three years to

2027 and more than doubled its capital cost estimate to $1.38

billion.

Lake is now looking to sell four lithium-rich acreage

positions it controls elsewhere in Argentina and is likely to

move out of its Houston offices to a smaller location, Dickson

said.

The company hired Goldman Sachs ( GS ) last year to find

either a customer for the Kachi project or an investor, a

process that had been set to finish by December. That now likely

will bleed into at least 2025, he said.

"We've got to find offtake partners and equity partners,"

said Dickson, who joined Lake in 2022 after more than 30 years

in the oil and gas industry.

The company is now working on obtaining environmental

approvals from regulators in Argentina. Lake, which has roughly

a dozen staffers maintaining the Kachi site, still plans to open

the project by 2027 if lithium prices rebound, Dickson said.

"As soon as lithium prices go up, that's when we'll start to

see movement," he said.