Been a Silex shareholder since May 2015 but attended my first AGM on Thursday and had the pleasure of meeting
@scaggs and
@Nuts50 both during the meeting and for a few beers afterwards. Hopefully
@moosey can join us next year.
A few of us had a good chat with Craig Roy before the meeting and I had a brief chat with Helen Cook afterwards, both of which were very pleasant and confidence inspiring. Unfortunately MG was on crutches and whilst very enthusiastic I am sure he was in a bit of pain.
My thoughts/comments on the meeting from notes taken of stuff that I thought was interesting and clearly my own opinion.
* Not sure if was Craig or Mike but there was a comment made about the increasing and improving profile of GLE in Washington since the appointments of Stephen and James.
* I was not aware of this but a comment was made about the huge floorspace required to build centrifuge plants and some of them are close to 50 acres in size, this is clearly a big advantage for Silex.
* Comment was made about the vast majority of isotopes of all types currently come from Russia, and of course with the war in Ukraine, the world is looking for Non Russian supplies of Isotopes which is a great headwind for GLE and Silex.
* GLE are having ongoing conversations with other Utilities in the US as well as Duke and Constellation.
* Renewables and Storage are clearly not the total answer and as MG said when you apply the basic laws of physics you lose about 15% of the energy when it goes from the grid to storage and then you lose another 15% when it goes from storage back to grid.
* When talking about the Nuclear renaissance (slide 10) MG made a few funny remarks about how Germany has clearly lost the plot and if there is one country in the world with more stupid energy policy politicans than Australia it has to be Germany
* Extremely hopeful and positive that GLE will see a fair chunk of the $700M set aside for the HALEU availability program.
* Comment was made about the huge worldwide deficit in enrichment capacity if and when Russia is taken out of the equation.
* Very interesting comment from MG that it is not a given that the opportunities that present themselves will be sequential with regards to PLEF1, 2 and 3 and it is very likely that PLEF3 might be the first cab off the rank (ie. HALEU production). I thought he looked extremely confident when he made this comment.
* Like SMR's the Silex technology is also very modular, scaleable and flexible, ie. you could build a small plant and then as demand increases you can just add new Laser modules and Separator modules etc.
* With regards to the ZSS project the end product is currently selling for about US$500 per gram and with Russia being the only current source a number of interested parties have already made contact with Silex about potential future supply.
* In answering a question MG was keen to point out that he does not foresee the need for any capital raisings in the near future.
* MG also mentioned something about a proposed Bill (NDAA?) that will be put to congress in the US after the mid term elections that is seeking a further US$1.5B for the DOE to spend on Nuclear and he thinks that GLE will benefit in some shape or form .
* A question was asked about the other work at Wilmington ie. Gas handling and separator systems, and will their be difficulties in bringing them to production. MG was at pains to point out that he does not see any issues with this as this technology is nowhere near as complex and cutting edge than the laser systems. So now that the laser systems have passed the latest milestone he sees no reason for everything to be full speed ahead both at Wilmington and Paducah (once funding is made available).
* MG said he would be "shocked" if GLE did not manage to get any money from the DOE, and that the DOE having wasted so much money with Centrus over the years and not wanting to risk single source will share out the funding with the 3 suppliers (Centrus, Urenco and GLE), and then GLE will be able to compete on a level playing field.
* A question was asked (which I think MG misunderstood) about why if the American government was so desperate for HALEU and to move away from Russia is the accelerated timeline still 3 or 4 years away and why the hold ups, as American companies ie. Tesla when they want something quickly can move heaven and earth to get things done. MG seemed to take offence to this and became very defensive of the industry and how and why it way takes a long time to get things done. Helen Cook later mentioned to me privately that Washington is definitely the problem, it is starting to be realised in the corridors of power everywhere and that is why SMR developers are increasingly turning to Canada and the UK which are much more friendly and streamlined in their regulatory approach.
* A question was asked about Cameco increasing its share in GLE and when does he think they will pull the trigger, the response was that he thinks Cameco are very interested in increasing the share as soon as they can, this was also consistent with a discussion with Craig Roy before the start of the meeting.
* A question was asked about how will the Silex CCO and the GLE CCO interact with each other and who will make the ultimate decisions. MG explained that the Silex CCO will have a lot more stuff on his plate than just GLE in the US, which without saying specifically makes me think that the ZSS stuff and the new medical isotopes is going to be massive, as well as potential for further Uranium enrichment outside of America in years to come. He is extremely confident that GG and JD will work well together.
* There were a few questions from the floor about why Australia is so backwards with regards to Nuclear power and MG doesn't seem to think anything will happen in his lifetime. In a private conversation with Helen Cook afterwards she is not as pessimistic as MG and she has also been having discussions with the authors of the CSIRO report about the severe flaws in its costing models and assumptions.
* Craig made some good remarks in his closing comments that even if Australia did embrace Nuclear Power it won't make much difference to the outlook and prospects for Silex which are much more global and diverse than the potential for a domestic nuclear power sector in Australia. The board spends a lot of time working on things that they can control and influence and not get too hung up on things they cannot control or influence.
* Somebody asked if Silex has considered listing on the Nasdaq which MG did not think would happen, but he did say if there was going to be a Nasdaq listing it would more than likely be GLE and not Silex.
* Over a beer afterwards myself, Scaggs and Nuts seem to think that Cameco will want to exercise their increased ownership as early as possible and the main job in front of Geordie once he starts in November is to start working on the deal.
In closing there seemed to be a palpable sense of optimisim in the room, and people I spoke to said this was the most upbeat they had seen MG for ever. My only criticism is that I wish he would have let some of the other Directors answer some of the questions from the floor or at least asked them for their opinions.
Overall a very positive meeting and I will be holding on to my shares for dear life, Scaggs will take me sailing when we hit $15 a share and I will take him skiing.
If anybody wants to add to my comments please do.
(20min delay)