Okay: had a long chat with Vince today and I'll try summarise off memory what was said.
;D
Blesberg:
Most of the ore will be utilized, feldspar, spodumene and beryl. Heaps of never-before drilled pegmatites with lithium anomalies, most with relic spodumene crystals at surface indicating larger crystals once existed but have weathered at surface: hence spodumene to be found below. He won't say it but I think this resource will be pretty damn big based on the tenement size, strike length increases and the huge pegmatites just under the surface. Vince said that over the last 100 years in SA, miners only looked for things that were massive [Bushveld size we are talking] and that were visible: the moderately huge things were ignored!! It is quite possible in my opinion that we may only need up to $5M to get a mine going. So maybe only one small CR? Vince is open to all options including maximising return to SHs by potentially spinning off another company if lithium resource is large enough. Options a plenty and easy to raise cash for minimal capital. Great to have an MD with local knowledge.
**anintha:
The resource we have is well documented: the main products will be pentoxide and cobalt. TMT will have approximately half the resource size of AVL's JORC but AVL have a 10km strike whereby the resource could be upgraded significantly. TMT are restricted to the strike they have now. TNG will have low recoveries due to inability to utilize magnetic separation due to low iron content. The iron content we have is perfect. So AVL is the prime vanadium resource in Australia with a PFS in progress now. Plan A for AVL is to potentially use the $500M worth of processing equipment at Windimurra. It is a disused vanadium mining facility just down the road that was operated for 3 years by guess who: Daniel Harris! That would speed up the process to getting to production quickly! I believe it was Vince's primary reason for the appointment!
VRBs domestic:
It is clear that the domestic market will be the future of the VRB in combination with solar. It is perfect for 10kW/2.5kWh or 20kW/4kWh applications. Enough power to run overnight both in single phase or 3 phase [just need additional x2 inverters]. There are plenty of funding assistance opportunities to fund a manufacturing plant either in WA, SA or Victoria to build/assemble VRB batteries/machines based on a combination of local and overseas parts. Vince couldn't find anyone to give him a domestic VRB to sell so he decided to do it himself. Mass production will drive costs down. A huge effort is being put in to this side of the business and it should happen sooner rather then later.
VRBs commercial/grid:
Technology/market is in place so I guess we just need to sell the damn things. No update on EOIs yet.
EVs:
Check out vanadiumworld.
https://twitter.com/VanadiumWorld
Nano-technology is required to get the magical properties of vanadium into the EV batteries of the future. There would not be enough vanadium in production in the world if this breakthrough occurs soon so the disruption would be huge. Nice to know we have the extra strike length at our mine. Vanadium can be used potentially today to coat lithium batteries for heat stabilisation amongst other applications. Vanadium will be the next advancement to lithium. Plenty to read on the twitter feed.
Bryah Resources IPO:
Participation by AVL SHs given priority: IPO is imminent. Smelter royalty and 7-9% stake held by AVL upon listing.
Management:
What more could we ask for! Seems like we have all bases covered now. Vince wants to build a company with long term holders, a tight registry and provide a maximum return on investment for SHs.
I find it hard to believe how cheap our SP is and we are seriously undervalued!
A rerate is definitely in order.
(20min delay)