General Discussion Topics, page-146967

I see Iggy Stardust and his Lithium Universe crew released today the definitive feasibility study for their back-to-basics lithium carbonate plant proposed for Becancour, Quebec. With typical Iggy reserve they've gone bugger it! let's blast straight past any further studies and the Final Investment Decision and go straight to raising the funds to commence construction. No mucking around! Becancour is the location for the main lithium supply chain cluster in Quebec with Rio to build a lithium hydroxide plant there and a number of OEM's and Korean industrials also planning to build cathode plants, battery plants etc there at Becancour.

Why I think this brave counter-cyclical decision by LU7 might be important for Sayona is that one of the conditions of Sayona and Piedmont getting to acquire the North American Lithium mine and facility was that they gave an undertaking to the Quebec government to build a downstream facility in Quebec to process the NAL product. However Lucas Dow has made it clear that he is very proppy about an upstream player like Sayona trying to be a chemicals manufacturer (also he does not think mid-stream is where the bulk of profit margins typically are). So that would have been an issue that needed resolving with the Quebec government. But with today's announcement by Lithium Universe it might be plausible for LD and MergeCo to argue that as the only current producer of spodumene in north America Mergeco can become a vital supplier to an independent mid-stream player like Lithium Universal. For Sayona, there is also the freight cost advantage for MergeCo as their product would not need to be shipped overseas for processing.