Ann: Research Note, page-28

Hi windlove

Yes Talga's main focus is Europe as it should be. But they are also targeting the American market with the US marketing manager, the tie up with EAS and Mark's frequent trips there - I believe he is there now. The conference doesn't start for another week and I don't think he's there early to go sightseeing. Thankfully there has been no mention of China anywhere from Talga.

I agree that Talga don't expect to supply the world with graphene. They have a giant deposit which could still grow, but that one mine isn't enough to support wide adoption in multiple applications. But I disagree that other sources need to come on stream before graphene ends up in bulk commercial products. Talga can't supply the world but they can definitely supply one or a limited few of these companies with the vision to be at the front of graphene adoption. If you have the technology and ability to use graphene in your products right now or in the near future and a cheap source of high quality bulk graphene suddenly becomes available, are you going to sit on your hands because you know there's only enough for you and not enough to also supply your competitors? Of course not! You take it and you lock it up so that nobody else can do the same!

This is my point. A group like Tata are huge and have their fingers in a lot of pies with the potential to use graphene - coatings, paint, cars, batteries, aerospace, composites etc. They have an obvious real interest in graphene and have a recent stated focus on driving innovation and high tech applications. They have been testing samples for a year or more and already have a close relationship with Talga - did you notice they had a Tata researcher as their guest speaker during the recent Investor days? I don't see why they had a need to enter a formal collaboration, I'm sure Mark would have been happy to keep supplying free or cheap bulk samples from the new plant. But they've decided to put a foot in the door after seeing the plant in operation at the larger volume.