I also attended and spoke to Martin afterwards. After reading the comments above i would add clarify the following.
Funding - He said they had $140m of funding and the pre production capital cost of the mine and concentrator was $111m +/- 25% in the presentation. Not sure what the cost of the refinery will be but there are operating, working capital and drilling costs as well so maybe in 2021 there may be another need for funding but that is a long way off. He was proud that they hadn't diluted the shareholders stake and kept share to around 350m on issue
Additional Resource
The infill drilling so far has shown a good consistent resource but they are also drilling some other areas. As it is part of the overall feasibility study there is no need to release parts of the drilling until it is finalised so expect something in Q2. This is pivotal for the studies for the Refinery and also for offtake agreements. It may well be that the production at the mine will be refinery constraint which is not a bad problem.
Refinery
Should the refinery go ahead, which seems to be likely, they will be supplying ore from their own resource. They will not be looking for third parties to feed the refinery. You can read from this Kidman have enough ore. Refinery capacity is 44,000t Lithium Hydroxide or 37,000t carbonate so feed required is ~280,000t pa of spodumene. The refinery is expected to be in full production by 2021. One thing that was mentioned is when the refinery is approved it will be likely they will stockpile the ore at site and not sell beforehand. A good stockpile of ore helps with the processing in the refinery. This will need a far bit of working capital up front and revenues will not be until 2021 but proceeds could be $23,000/t for 44,000t ~$1b in 2021, Cash cost for mine is 7t*$205*280,000 ore, conversion costs of around $4000/t, Transport to refinery and to customer to be added, leads to be a good profit from 2021 onwards. Long term holders should be happy around this.
Scoping study NPV
points to note on initial 2017 study was that they used 60% Plant recovery, current thoughts that it is very conservative, Also increased reserves will also help the NPV but that will be revealed when they complete the Refinery feasibility study.
Offtake agreement.
Kidman retain rights to 50% Marketing rights and could do a deal with China yesterday but the feel comfortable to do a deal with an European automaker which will be done when it can be. They are putting a lot of effort into this. Clarity on the Refinery and resource upgrade would help in the negotiations.
Gold rights
Confirmed Kidman owns the gold rights for Mt Holland.
KDR Price at posting:
$1.63 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held