The Lake Resources N.L. (ASX: LKE) share price had a year to forget in 2022.
During the period, the lithium developer's shares lost 21% of their value and finished the year at 80 cents.
This is particularly disappointing because, as you can see below, the Lake Resources share price was up as much as 160% at one stage to a record high of $2.65.
Image source: Getty Images
What happened to the Lake Resources share price in 2022?
After initially benefiting greatly from optimism over the lithium boom, investors quickly turned sour on Lake Resources amid an ownership dispute and a short seller attack.
In respect to the ownership dispute, which has now been resolved, Lake and its direct lithium extraction (DLE) technology partner Lilac Solutions disagreed on when certain milestones needed to be achieved for the latter to earn a 25% ownership in the Kachi project in Argentina.
Given how vital Lilac Solutions' technology is to the project, this unsurprisingly caused a few concerns.
This brings us onto the short seller attack from J Capital.
Its analysts revealed that they are shorting Lake Resources partly due to its DLE technology. J Capital alleges that the unproven technology will fail to produce lithium in a clean way and instead produce toxic waste.
It has since followed this up with another attack, which alleges that the company jumped the gun on UK Export Finance funding claims. This creates uncertainty in regards to how the project will ultimately be funded.
Will 2023 be better?
There's certainly a lot to consider for 2023. Lithium prices, short sellers, updates on its DLE technology could all have a major impact on the Lake Resources share price.
But if everything goes in the company's favour, then there could be some big gains ahead according to Bell Potter. Its analysts currently have a speculative buy rating and $2.52 price target on its shares.
Based on the current Lake Resources share price of 77 cents, this suggests that the lithium developer's shares could more than triple in value in 2023.
