Good News & Bad News, page-927

I’m even more confident on 2020 being a positive year for the company after getting this reply today.

Hi Xxxx
and thanks for your query.


Market conditions (both Lithium and equity markets) are very frustrating. That said, we have the right project (and we believe strategy) to deliver for the long term. Clearly equity markets are very focussed on the short term.


The plant performance has been good, with recovery really the only last material work in progress. Recovery has been hamstrung by the outstanding project we have to do in the plant to modify the original design. They should have been finished by about mid-October, which is when we expect our next uplift in recovery. It’s the biggest lever we have to achieve lower unit costs and we remain confident in having a very competitive cost base, having guided to about USD$350/dmt CFR China by the June Qtr next year.


In the partnering project, we were faced with headwinds that meant we could not get the key participants to think about the right project value. Being clear, and identifying a path forward independently is the only way you can demonstrate that you are not prepared to sell at any price. The good news…… they were very significant parties and very serious about the process and location, quality and scale in our project. You don’t do that much work and not keep an eye on us.


With respect to offtake, there are still big moves being made downstream to grow batter making capacity. It wont be long before they have to exercise more influence upstream to ensure supply growth, quality and security in their supply chains.


Thanks for your support.


Regards


The Horses mouth