I wonder who has the most muscle ?
And who the PLS ‘big reveal’ will show now has dibs on Pilbara Minerals 49%, and what will be the result of the imminent J/V decision about joining in? with POSCO’s Korean processing plant (adjacent to POSCO’s upgraded battery production facility*?)
I was mostly ignorant about POSCO but have been learning a bit today ...
..And now I don’t know if it was POSCO that just acquired 11.8% of AJM in one fell swoop on Thursday but, if it wasn’t, I am curious as to why not ?
... and if I was JRO I would be so cranky about being shut down and hamstrung that I would sell my shares cheaply to a non-Chinese company as fast as I could .
And if I was Ganfeng what would I do?
A bidding war would be nice
Meanwhile as Mr Cheeseman repeated a few times in that Santiago interview, ‘timing is everything’
So I made a bit of a timeline on POSCO
Long before Pilbara Minerals days, it had a big footprint in Western Australia - since March 30, 2012 when it acquired a significant stake in Gina Rinehart’s Roy Hill iron ore mine;
Under the alliance deal confirmed today, Korean steelmaker POSCO will take a 15 per cent stake, Marubeni a 12.5 per cent stake and Korean company STX Corp a 2.5 per cent stake. The combined 25 per cent stake is valued at $A3.2 billion.
POSCO and STX already hold a 5 per cent stake in Roy Hill, having paid $332 million more than two years ago. https://www.perthnow.com.au/news/wa...confirmed-ng-b637579e01db2af1745740a9f768832b
And after that...
March 1, 2018: Lithium developer Pilbara Minerals has formed a partnership with POSCO that will see the South Korean steelmaker buy up to 240,000 tonnes a year (t/y) of lithium concentrate from its Pilgangoora operation in the Pilbara of Western Australia.
POSCO will acquire a 4.75 per cent stake in Pilbara Minerals for $79.6 million to secure the deal. The two companies signed a binding agreement for POSCO to take an initial 80,000t/y of chemical grade spodumene concentrate from the Pilgangoora stage two project.
The offtake will increase to 240,000t/y dependent on Pilbara participating in a downstream 30,000t/y lithium carbonate-lithium hydroxide conversion plant joint venture in South Korea.
March 11, 2018: (A few days later in Chile, POSCO and SAMSUNG etc won the tender (a J/V investment of US$27.02M each)to be part of the conglomerate building a battery processing plant in Chile by 2021 https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-cathode-plant-in-chile-by-2021-idUSKCN1GN04G)
May 29, 2018: Lithium company Galaxy Resources has secured an agreement to sell a package of tenements (Northern tenements) at Sal de Vida in Argentina to Korea’s POSCO for $US280 million ($371 million).https://www.australianmining.com.au/news/galaxy-makes-us280m-lithium-deal-posco/
June 26,2018 http://www.newsworld.co.kr/detail.htm?no=4045
October 24, 2018: SEOUL -- South Korean steel leader Posco on Oct. 23 reported a record operating profit of 1.53 trillion won ($1.34 billion) for the July-September quarter, a 36% increase on the year, as brisk shipments to China and emerging markets buoyed results.https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Posco-marks-record-profit-despite-US-cap-on-Korean-steel
December? 2018: “Just this November, POSCO ChemTech completed the construction of the first anode material factory, also wrapping up the first phase of its plan by finishing the first four production lines by the second half of 2019. Through this accomplishment, POSCO ChemTech secured production capacity of 20,000 tons per annum. It plans to further expand to ten production lines, with a view to subsequently boosting the production capacity to 50,000 tons per year.
Earlier this month at its board meeting, POSCO ChemTech agreed on a merge with POSCO ESM for improved synergy between two groups’ energy materials businesses. POSCO ChemTech and POSCO ESM, who are respectively in charge of anode and cathode production, will unify as an operation headquarter for energy materials — bringing together dispersed business structures for cathode and anode materials. The merger between the two groups is expected to crystallize by April next year after the board’s final approval in February 2019.
https://newsroom.posco.com/en/everything-you-always-wanted-to-know-about-secondary-batteries/
January 2, 2019: MOU between PLS and POSCO for hydroxide plant in Korea next to POSCO steel mill.http://www.pilbaraminerals.com.au/site/PDF/2314_0/MoUwithPOSCOforLargerDownstreamChemicalFacility
January 14, 2019: South Korea’s Posco is set to merge two of its business units to boost its global share of the battery materials market.
Posco’s board is expected to approve the merger of its Chemtech and ESM lithium-ion cathode materials divisions next month— on condition that no more than 20% of shareholders object.
If approved, the merger would take place in April 2019. Chemtech would integrate all group R&D capabilities for cathode materials to “fully develop next-generation cutting-edge products, while also promoting sales expansion”.https://www.bestmag.co.uk/tags/south-korea
March 18, 2019: PLS moves ahead with 30% JV in POSCO https://www.australianmining.com.au/news/pilbara-minerals-to-enter-into-jv-with-south-korean-posco/plant in South Korea.
“We are proud of the relationship we have developed with POSCO over the last year, which has gone from strength to strength as we continue to work through the joint venture development process,” Pilbara Minerals managing director Ken Brinsden said.”
“The downstream chemical conversion facility would have a capacity of up to 40,000 tonnes lithium carbonate equivalent (LCE) per year and process spodumene from the Pilgangoora project in the Pilbara using POSCO’s PosLX purification process”
March 29, 2019 : ”PLS is set to follow some of its peers by selling down up to 49 per cent of its Pilgangoora lithium project south of Port Hedland, with analysts speculating it could fetch more than $1 billion for the stake.
...The $226 million stage three project would lift capacity to 7.5Mtpa, boosting annual spodumene production to 1.2 million tonnes and 1.1 million pounds of tantalite concentrate over an estimated 15-year mine life.
Pilbara has engaged Macquarie to help it explore options for the sale, which is likely to include arrangements for a downstream processing facility separate from its existing tie-up with South Korea’s POSCO.
The company said it had already received interest in the sale of lithium processers, battery manufacturers, trading companies, miners and car makers, with a deal expected by the middle of the year.https://thewest.com.au/business/min...of-pilgangoora-lithium-project-ng-b881150669z
April 8, 2019: POSCO has decided to pull out of the magnesium business after 13 years of investment. The group has suffered a steady loss due to erroneous demand forecasts and it has been continuously facing environmental problems, such as greenhouse gas emissions and soil pollution.....
..POSCO invested about 90 billion won (US$79.09 million) to build its magnesium sheet plant in the Haeryong Industrial Complex in Suncheon in 2007 before mobile devices, including smartphones, became popular and also completed its magnesium smelting plant with a production capacity of 10,000 tons in Okgye, Gangneung, in 2012.http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=30660
April 24, 2019: “POSCO Chemical Co., a subsidiary of Group, is planning to invest more than 300 billion won (US$262.58 million) to strengthen its cathode material business. Industry watchers say that the company will invest up to 1 trillion won (US$875.27 million) in this business to diversify its business portfolio beyond steel.http://www.businesskorea.co.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=31203
June 11, 2019 “Pilbara Minerals is in the middle of negotiations to sell up to a 49 per cent stake in Pilgangoora as part of a proposed stage three expansion of the project.”
‘Separately, Pilbara is eyeing plans to enter the high-value downstream processing market via a joint venture with its one of its offtake partners, South Korean steel giant POSCO.
The two parties are eyeing a chemical conversion plant in South Korea that would produce 40,000t a year of lithium carbonate equivalent.
A final investment decision on the joint venture, in which Pilbara is expected to hold a 30 per cent stake, is due before the end of the quarter.”
Ken Brinsden says ;
“The decision as to where your plant goes is driven by many different factors, only one of which is the location of the mine.
“It’s a combination of power, the cost of reagents supply, who’s supplying the technology, how sensitive are they to the location.
*...“If you’re doing hydroxide, there’s an argument to say, well really, that hydroxide plant should be immediately adjacent to the cathode materials or battery-making plant because they really want it fresh.”
June 22, 2019 SANTIAGO/SEOUL(Reuters) - South Korea’s POSCO has pulled out of a project to build battery parts in Chile, the Asian steelmaker said, little more than a year after winning guaranteed access to cheap lithium from top producer Albemarle. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...-chilean-battery-material-plant-idUSKCN1TM2LR
June 21, 2019 .. Altura Minerals (adjacent to PLS ) finally loses a troubled major holder;
JRO
ceasing-to-be-a-substantial-holder notice
