Banter and General Comments, page-9188

Yes, it was an eye opener - as to how weak these guys understanding of what is going on and how behind the times they are. There was literally nothing in that podcast that I didn't already know, or knew the real story behind - which they apparently did not, and I'd say that would be true for many of us here. The fast markets guy was particularly unimpressive. The only reference to GXY was an off hand stupid comment about COGS versus COP, so I guess he thinks that transport & marketing for a mutli-year contract is going to soak up an additional $200 / tonne? It was just dumb. Or was it that he was trying to average the costs of production for the quarter the quantity sold? If so it was an incredibly stupid point to be trying to make - particularly given the stored inventory is clearly being sold this quarter - as promised. Did he not know that? What kind of an expert doesn't know the shipping data that we know? They didn't even seem to be aware of the state of the converter upgrades, stating some were still underway that finished over two months ago and are now taking product.

He demonstrated what we already knew, that fast markets don't seem to be able to understand that unlike base metals - which was his area of expertise, Lithium spot prices are lower than Lithium contract prices precisely because it costs a packet to tune a converter to optimally extract the Lithium, and if you buy spod on the open market without tuning you pay a lot less because you will have to throw away a significant percentage of it to get the Li out of it - hence it is not worth the same to a non-tuned converter as to a tuned converter. He kept on describing Li as a commodity business in one breath and then in the next saying he understood it was really a specialist chemicals business in the next. I don't think he understands the difference or he wouldn't keep mixing them up - but it kinda matters when you are the guy publishing benchmark prices, because the market models are entirely different.

His comment about removing excess Fe from the spod ("just need a couple of magnets") was so incredibly, embarrassingly stupid as to just about ruin his credibility on everything else. The problem with iron is that it creates clag in the converter during roasting requiring frequent cleaning and de-clagging because of the temperatures a converter runs at which turns the Fe to molten Fe, when it is there it is not sitting as free lumps of iron waiting to be sucked out of the material, it is embedded throughout.

To describe that podcast as "light-weight" does a disservice to helium. Name a struggling, at risk Li producer and these guys loved it.

This is an example of the crap we are dealing with in the "specialist advisers" market. These people are no more expert than my budgie. The stupid - it burns. I want my 45 minutes back - that podcast just made me dumber.