"Part of RDT's commercialization strategy involves a starter DSO operation. ESS looks to be heading that way also"
This is possible and entirely dependent on our offtake partner, once chosen if our partner(s) have the ability to process and the need for Spod sooner rather than wait for the Concentrate I'm sure ESS will bend the knee. As Tim has alluded to - adding the most value by concentrate ( to at least 5.5%) would be their preference. DSO IMO would only happen with a Chinese offtake partner
A Chinese partner would also bring in the top dollar for our Spod Concentrate or DSO , however in Tim's recent webinar - Top Dollar was not their main priority. It appeared that they may be willing to sacrifice top dollar in a deal to implement a floor price for the offtake to protect ESS from any downturn and I'm not entirely sure if we were looking at a Chinese offtake that any agreement would be worth the paper its written on going on what happened in the last down cycle of Li pricing. So I'm also thinking that ESS may in fact be looking at a non Chinese partner and thus why DSO is off the table.
Anyway time will tell on this and things can change rapidly on this.
Also there wont be any surprises in the Resource upgrade we will announce soon - Tim has alluded also to CADE and DAVY Deposits upgrading of the indicated Category to somewhere between 7-8Mt total which will be converted to Reserve on the DFS - with the IMO total resource 12-13 Mt, the shallow drilling results are were for this purpose - to prove up a future minable Reserve. The Deeper disappointing drilling will limiting the total resource upgrade.
Its enough to Start the ball rolling and get mining though. Li pricings still going up with another PLS spot record price. We continue to be in a trading range, need an announcement to get the volume up and to break that pesky 57c resistance
Good luck all.
ESS Price at posting:
52.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
