The ship has not sailed to move the plant. The shell of the plant is just a building, The plant and equipment we move. Front end engineers can dismantle and reassemble. Politically I think we have an opportunity to work with the Labor Governmnet to provide funding. I have not done the math but to achieve the crazy net zero carbon objective in Australia by 2030 we will need more supply of rare earth metals than we could supply for our Country alone let alone what the rest of the world are doing. With tariffs looming on doing business with Countries who fail to achieve net zero or who have signed up to achieve net zero doing business in those Countries may price out an Australian Company such as ASM if we were to remain in SK, deal with Vietnam, China and Japan.
The US will have blacklisted SK after they refused to contribute to the war in Ukraine (reference is based on information in the leaked CIA documents earlier this year).
Time will tell but I believe it to be the only option. Forget the low shares on placement your holdings will be diluted. If the Company offers 100 million shares at $1.00 we can build a plant in Australia and have sufficient working capital. Don't scoff at that dilution as the Company will eventually raise 100 million to do more of the same all the while being hamstrung by a Government who refuses to co-operate and looming tariffs just for operating in and with said Countries.
What use is it for the CEO to be attending summits and consortiums if she can not convince the Australian Government of having an in house technology firm producing rare earth metals in Australia using existing and new technology.
As for Dave Woodall and Frank Moon just leaving, I do not agree. DW was a lame duck for over 6 months and Frank was always more invested in with the SK Government than ASM
Some fun reading of older threads. You will need to open the threads. there is a wealth of information for and against ASM over the past year on Hotcopper alone.
Ann: Institutional Placement raises $30m and SPP commencesCalling Mr Frank Moon of ASM
(20min delay)