Hi folks, I'm surprised there's been little commentary on the Paydirt article since it was posted yesterday as this includes some significantly insightful comments from Lynch which puts SYA consortium in a very unique position as a bidder for NAL. These comments have further increased my confidence personally of a successful NAL bid and Authier permit being issued. The NAL operation has been put on ice 3 times in the last 10 years which would have both Quebec govt and CATL frustrated after throwing in $300mill and they would be desperately looking to get this right once and for all. From Lynch's statements, the combination of Authier ore + NAL ore is the answer, as the previous failures to achieve nameplate for NAL are directly correlated to the complexity of mining the extremely narrow NAL orebody; hence simply introducing a new management/operational team following the previous 3 won't change a thing. This is where SYA has the advantage.Quebec govt has come out publicly several times stating their aspirations to develop a Lithium Hub in the region and take advantage of their natural resource to boost their economy, but has so far fallen very short (and take into consideration Nemaska recently also submitted for creditor protection).
I've highlighted the comments I see as most significant from Lynch below.
"Frankly, if you just tried to work on the same thing you'll fail a fourth time," Sayona managing director Brett Lynch said."It may be
high grade, the NAL deposit, but it's a
far from simple orebody.
But if you were to blend that with ore from Authier, instead of a sub-6% lithium end product, we could actually get plus-6% and increase the throughput, increase the yields, increase the profitability and increase the life of mine because we now have t
wo orebodies feeding one concentrator.
"Over $C300 million has been spent developing that facility, but the facility is actually not the fundamental problem. The equipment is world class, but the problem has always been only having the one ore body to source from."
"We can invest the sunk capital with a relatively straightforward plan and then bring our management expertise to the table to deliver a world-class facility in Quebec, which is a first step in the turnaround they're seeking to become a world-class lithium mining centre."
"So, in some ways we're at a bit of a fork in the road and we've now opened up another corridor which, if it is successful, would literally link Authier with NAL and very quickly we go from being a junior explorer to having one of the largest lithium operations in the world."
"We wouldn't be entering this bid if we were only coming to the table with 'we think we're smarter' and 'we've got more mining experience' because that just won't cut it," Lynch said. "It just so happens we are fortunate to have Authier, the only deposit that is literally close enough to NAL to be a viable blending option. We have a unique position in the bidding process to win it and then go on to develop a world-class lithium hub for Quebec."
GLTAH.
(20min delay)