I suppose the highly simplified summary in terms of this possible further payment, and therefore the possible explanation of the Atlantic US$7.8m stock sell off, is that yes, SYAQ was down $43m for the quarter even after the $17m JV equity contribution ($12.75 SYA & $4.25 PLL).
Sayona has clearly already paid this $43m net loss for SYAQ as the full sum is displayed as a reduction on Sayona's overall current cash balance in this report obviously. So therefore yes I agree
@cmonaussie my understanding of it is that there will need to be an aprox A$11m equity payment from Piedmont for the 25% share of this $43m loss that has already been covered from Sayona's cash balance as the operating partner.
Would explain why Keith sold the stock to cover the $7.5m 'accrued provisional revenue adjustment' we discussed above previously so that cash on hand could be free to make this equity payment that will then show in the Q3 March Quarterly report from Sayona as a deferred equity contribution from JV partner.
Heck, it's clear as day actually, as $11m ($10.75m as 25% of $43m AUD) is in fact just a little over $7m USD.
Let's hope and pray these are the last equity contributions that the JV partners need to make to for NAL...
If there has already been a shipment sent in early January with production costs for that accounted for and sunk in the December quarter and with the majority of NAL capex now behind us, there is a chance of SYAQ breaking even or showing a small profit for Q3 even at these low current prices if opex can be reduced and recoveries continue to improve. It actually looks like NAL performed very well in December, with 66% recovery rate and production of just shy of 14kt, also with now a much larger and higher grade stockpile sitting on the ROM pad (again with the increased mining cost of that already accounted for this past quarter).
If they have achieved production on consecutive days of 650-700t as mentioned then that puts NAL over nameplate at around 237ktpa at the low end if this could be maintained at steady state which will likely bring down individual unit costs further due to economy of scale obviously.
If lithium pricing would play ball and lift a little we could be looking at a reasonably decent quarter and turn around for NAL come March with any luck.
(20min delay)