As we've had a another pretty flat dull day, I posted this just now over in the PLL offtake thread in reply/reference to Patrick Brindle's recent comments that were quoted there by Banksy, and it's obviously relevant or maybe more relevant here I suppose, in relation to what may or may not be going on in Quebec. There's more than meets the eye imo, re POSCO, 'A plant in Quebec', Becancour, IQ requirements, kicking out the Chinese, etc... :
This is actually the paragraph from Brindle that I find the most intriguing personally:
"It may be the intent and spirit of long-term objectives would be conversion of spodumene within the province. The goal posts move a little bit with respect to timing etc if the facilities are owned by the partnership or where the partnership has an equity position in you know say a conversion facility where there are other partners uh versus one in which we sell spodumene concentrate to a conversion facility in the province that's owned by others."
He is implying that SYA/PLL are considering or actually developing the option of delivery to a possible jointly owned (with other parties also) plant in Quebec that is NOT at NAL..? This therefore could already be in the works, no time frame is specified here and he states the 'goal posts move in respect to timing' with this possibility. POSCO? Becancour? 2024?
As we all know from all existing literature, as stated in the opening post of this thread for example, the spod OTA agreement does clearly state "(NAL spod) would be preferentially delivered to that conversion plant upon commencement of conversion operations. Any remaining spodumene concentrate not delivered to a jointly owned conversion plan would first be delivered to Piedmont Lithium up to Piedmont Lithium's offtake right and then to third parties."
So, hypothetically if there were a plant up and running in Quebec say, that SYAQ has a stake in, as Brindle referred to in that first quoted paragraph, well then this would basically end the OTA from NAL and take precedence no? Recent SYA literature does also clearly state 'A conversion plant in Quebec' - not specifically NAL at any point...
If there were in fact another plant in Quebec, it would most likely be hydroxide in my opinion, and obviously it could be up and running far earlier than a refinery at NAL, if other large players like POSCO etc were involved. The NAL plant could then be operational at a later point and funded without any debt.
Imagine, say, that there was already a haulage contract with a rail operator to Becancour/Trois Riveries from NAL...
This could make the SYA/PLL joint venture a LOT of money, very quickly, with the existing 75/25 split. The faster we move with production and refining the better, first mover advantage is huge right now,
Again, why is there a dotted line in the Piedmont presentation running from Atlantic Lithium in Ghana to Becancour in Quebec?
There's more than we all know going on up in Quebec imo...
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