Spodumene market at the junction, page-78

Firstly the VB tastes ok, and continues to do so.  Secondly, in terms of PLS's pricing at the time they enterred the contracts my take was they did the best they could do, albeit it would be interesting what prices they are actually attaining in the now btw (but suspect some of this pricing will be based on the equity for Offtake Agreement formulas they adopted).  And I don't hold PLS btw, but see PLS like Greenbushes as a main hardrock competitor.

As to some of the other points here - lithium hydroxide makes better batteries than carbonate because of the lower iron content, fullstop.  But this is the crux, hydroxide prices cannot run-a-away because ultimately it is the price of the commodity and substitutes that count.  At a point people re-switch if prices for one become too high, and as I asserted on this thread btw the data I was looking at showed that if carbonate prices fall, it does result in a 70% equivalent fall in the hydroxide price (i.e. if the lithium carbonate price falls by $1 the lithium hydroxide monohydrate price falls by about 70c).  Again refer - Post #: 36381399 

The monohydrate price is for 56.5% grade by the way and there is actually more lithium content in carbonate (refer posts above again, but would be nice to actually see some lithium hydroxide prices themselves, not to be confused with what is actually reported in the market by and large been lithium hydroxide monohydrate).

On a different matter, the  iron content is actually important not just for the hydroxide market but for the technical grade lithium market.  Batteries is actually chemical grade sales, but technical grade actually has lower iron content than chemical grade and can be substituted for chemical grade in any event in producing carbonate or hydroxide (i.e. that is where you also can get good premiums). 

Now there are a lot of applications of lithium that are not destined for the chemical grade market that require low iron and this is where I can also see AVZ doing well. (Note: Greebushes supplies into both the technical grade and chemical grade market and because of its low iron content produces technical grade product ranging from 6.5% to 7% spodumene concentrate.  That TG product can also be used for the battery market, so yes I agree and keep saying I expect AVZ to be producing grade of 6.5% and possibly higher here).  Would be interesting whether AVZ have also spoken to 'potential buyers' outside the battery space as well by the way as market diversification also helps the 5mtpa and 10mtpa ore feed facility strategy IMO.

Finally, I don't mind that we differ in opinions but I will be more than happy if my viewpoints are wrong.  It wouldn't be the first time I have taken a conservative approach on my views on AVZ btw as many will know here btw since  last year. I have always been more conservative in my views than many posting here and the same applies here.  Whether yourselves agree with me or not is fine by me, but balance on a forum is always a good thing IMO.

All IMO