Ann: Blackstone Completes Ta Khoa Refinery Pre-feasibilty Study, page-79

The Market Herald has erred in its article stating that the refinery will only go ahead if there is further exploration success.........The very large PFS base case NPV only includes the Ban Phuc DSS MRE and assumed 3PF(which they are very confident about securing given current agreement with Trafigura and confidential negotiations with others).

LOM is guaranteed to rise with Ban Khoa DSS and Ban Phuc/KCZ extensions by themselves likely to add significant longevity.......MSV's ore bodies not yet included in the numbers either as they are yet to be defined.

Whilst on exploration I thought Dr Owen had a calm confidence and he truly believes there remains plenty of MSV discoveries ahead of us. We've all forgotten that there should be a steady flow of assay results into the UBU PFS in very late Q4.(SW did say they were a bit behind where they wanted to be...no doubt lab delays being the cause.)

From the detail in these presentations I was left with the belief that the DFS is already well underway given the extensive interaction with local stakeholders including all levels of govt, community and local suppliers.

Some of my favourite quotes amongst many......

SW...... "with a 20yr relationship with the Son La govt(via Steve Ennor the original owner) we believe they are very supportive of our mining plans including open pit mining".

SW....Paraphrased....."We have only included the 2 train scenario so far but we are still focused on expanding to 4 trains in later studies if possible."

Danesh......"the stars have aligned with a complete vertically integrated strategy for the Vietnamese EV industry taking shape"

SW......Right at the end and in the context of his earlier comments that strategic partner funding is preferred..."we are very focused on minimising dilution to existing SH's."

Bottom line is we now have a better Idea on where we are going......we just don't know who with yet(apart from Ecopro who by themselves would be enough but with LG and Samsung already in Vietnam building batteries it's most likely one or both of them as well). I just wonder also if Vinfast may come in given it would lower their battery unit cost and give them a further pricing advantage for their EV exports.

At the current MC you cannot rule out an industry player coming from left field and giving SW an offer he can't refuse, so once again it all adds up to holding long term and letting it play out

Keep enjoying the journey.......wouldn't want to be anywhere else in this sector!

IMO DYOR GLTAH