On that train of thought, I found myself wondering about this question. If a DFS is required (And I'm genuinely unsure if it is actually required or just good form) to show our offtake partners that we actually have the goods in terms of resources to legally supply them in good faith, can we not already use the DFS as it currently stands anyway??
Because as it stands, we are currently talking about producing 175 000 tons a year for 3.5 years. That total tonnage is 612500 tons which if you divide by 190 000 tons would still be 3.22 years worth of production. So if our old figures allow us to supply this in our first rounds of contracts and it's been independently verified etc then surely for the time being we could go straight to the off-takes anyway?? (just a wee Kiwi brainfart anyway.....)
I think whatever way we choose to do it however it's in the interests of the shareholders and the company to eventually get another DFS out before FID. If we have off-take agreements we all know that's the real make or break for the project and at that point the Share Price is gonna rocket. If management also timed a major upgrade and some gold releases (and if it turned out to be a genuinely decent upgrade that in itself could give us a hell of a momentum swing) followed up by a very handsome DFS release which shows jaw dropping profit margins compared to other projects at the moment, just before FID the share price would be absolutely catapulted!
Like those 45 cent oppies for the lucky ones who got to access them would be absolute no brainers and we would immediately be homing in on the dollar mark while unlocking another 36 million for more drilling!
And maybe having the off-takes in the rearview mirror first might actually be for the best. Keeping a lid on our target price for the sale of Spodumene (instead of advertising our target in a DFS) until its actually a fully done deal with our partners gives us an advantage in negotiation with our partners as they have to bid honestly and competitively against one another rather than knowing where our target price is and then working backwards from there to try and pressure us downwards.
The squeeze is coming and they are gonna have to actually fight for us to sign with them (which gives us a lot of ability at the table to say that pre-payed finance isn't negotiable otherwise take a hike and stop wasting our time).
(20min delay)