Banter and General Comments, page-5449

Already posted here by another forum member but this article got me thinking:
https://www.reuters.com/article/china-metals-lithium-idUSL3N21U1DJ

"It will receive an estimated 135,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate offtake this year, the official said, and continues to carry out tolling in Jiangsu with volumes from the Greenbushes mine in Australia, a joint venture between Tianqi and Albemarle Corp. "

1. Who has the 135,000 offtake with General Lithium?

We know it's not PLS or AJM since we know their partners. We know it's not Greenbushes since they are clearly tolling and even if they are, the Kwinana plant will be up and running soon...so they wont be using a Chinese tolling arrangement.

Leaves either Tawana/A40, MIN or GXY that regularly ship into Jiangsu.



"China’s fourth-biggest lithium producer, plans to start building a plant to convert mineral ore to lithium that will more than triple its capacity by the end of 2020...

...However, the spodumene offtake secured by the company so far - from Australia, Brazil and Canada — will not be enough to feed the new facility. “We need more. We are in very frequent contact with all the major guys,” the official said."
"every 10,000 tonnes of LCE capacity in China generally needs investment of between 250 million to 300 million yuan ($44.7 million)."
"Our plan is to get this done by the end of next year,” the official told Reuters, adding that General Lithium has already secured all the necessary government approvals for the plant and is preparing the ground to start construction...."

2. Horses mouth, can't get enough spodumene to feed their expanded plant...looks like round 2 of the spod lithium boom should be underway in the next 12 months. Interestingly thats the timeframe Global Lithium podcasts (Jow Lowry and his guests) have been stating for awhile now.

3. Could this be who GXY is getting downstream for Mt.Cattlin with? - put up $50m USD (we're good for the money) and invest in a share of the spodumene processing?