Ann: AVL Launches Underwritten Share Purchase Plan, page-67

AVL have yet to seek costings from fabrication companies which will be required to finalise the dfs. Detailed engineering design and costings will be handled by an independent expert company once the large scale pilot testing has been completed.

TMT used Wave International to organise the engineering design and costing. Quotes were sought about 3 months ago from local fabrication companies, so we will need to see the pilot testing results soon if the AVL dfs is to be released by the end of this year.

TMT have employed Dave English as Project Director. He’s about as good as they come. He oversaw IGO’s Nova Nickel Project from pfs through to construction and commissioning, SFR’s Degrussa Project and later on the Mt Holland Earl Grey Project, as well as Windamurra. He is known as a doer which is exactly what we need here.

Time for AVL to get moving and ensure they hit their timelines which has been very poor to date.

Project funding is virtually non existent for just about all companies at the moment, so I can’t see AVL having much chance of getting theirs before the dfs is completed. It seems very optimistic to think we can organise funding without knowing just what the capex and opex will be.

TMT have given themselves the best possible chance of securing project funding if the general market conditions improve, now AVL has to get to the same stage.

I think AVL is doing everything properly including the large 30t sampling program to give themselves an edge in the quality of the dfs, but the market won’t really care if all they see is missed timelines and extra costs. It may pay off long term if they release a very comprehensive dfs and are then also just waiting for funding opportunities to present themselves.

TMT are waiting at the starting line and AVL are still putting their shoes on, but as TMT holders have witnessed, the market is showing very little interest in the dfs. Only funding counts at the end of the day.

Hopefully both companies can eventually get their projects funded once the trade war between China and USA gets sorted out. Until then the headwinds are strong.