I was in attendance until 1:15pm.
JZ shared that they are experiencing increasing global corporate interest in Argosy and Rincon.
There is now multiple Asian, Korean, Japanese, European and South American groups knocking on the door and starting conversations.
However many of these groups are only after one thing – a guaranteed supply of product – and they want a transaction rather than a relationship. This isn’t much help to use when we need capital to get up and running to meet their needs.
Jerko has hired an expert to assist develop the strategies for financing (Andrew – didn’t get his surname?)
Still, things are blossoming slowly with Mitsubishi. We’ll get the 100t bare minimum off to them and cement our status as a new producer on the scene and from these results we can hopefully see Mitsubishi open up to us more and start getting serious.
JZ stressed the pilot plant is for science experiments/tweaking/optimisation – not for making money. It hasn’t got optimised cost per tonne and the 2000 and the 10000 plants will be far more efficient and give us better economics.
The faltering confidence in lithium prices at the moment has left us with a bad market to write long-term deals and many potential suitors are scared of locking themselves in. Manufacturers in our supply chain are working with some tighter profit margins so price fluctuations down could mean our long-awaited deal could wipe out any profit they may make.
Other than Mitsubishi, there’s always the chance that another suitor may sweep in with an offer we can’t refuse. The projected demand is massive, after all, and there’s not that many proven producers around.
The team has obviously done a lot of research to keep their eyes on the competition. This has given them a lot of confidence in their IP and methods for processing as the lower cost per tonne production is generating interest. JZ is very bearish on a lot of the start up competitors and is happy that AGY’s lower cost per tonne is keeping in track with the biggest players on the block.
I’m happy to be corrected or get some clarification on this but at one point JZ divulged that Pablo is eager to move towards business whereby dividends for his stake in the operation begin to flow. I’m not sure if that would be limited to Puna.
JZ said the onlychallenge we face is capital investment.
My takeaway is thatafter accelerated progress in 2018, we now find ourselves in a marketplacewhich is hostile to truly great deals being written. We are growing trust withmajor corporates and waiting for that pivotal moment where the global supplyworries force equity to make serious moves to consolidate supply into the longterm.We need to be patient for a bit longer but the future is looking very bright.
I would love it if someone could share what questions were asked after 1:15pm.
(20min delay)