It's remarkable how personal you take any challenge to the company, and it is difficult to understand why anyone would get so hot under the collar about a suggested change in the differentiations in colour vs calendar years.
The single cost would be the cost to produce lithium chemicals, I see you're still locked into the mindset of producing spodumene rather than an overall cost to produce lithium hydroxide which would be $3712.
Their transport costs of $6 are outstanding and when it comes to Telsa having an agreement to purchase spodumene, I am sure they could be swayed quite easily into having them converted lithium chemicals (lithium hydroxide) rather than sending piles of rocks all over the country side on a Leyland brothers type adventure.
Depending on the specifics of the agreement, perhaps Piedmont might decide.... Yes Mr Musk! we have your rocks that you wanted and they will come from Canada as our entire production at our mine in North Carolina is going straight into our converter. Or, we can come to a new agreement and sell you some Lithium Hydroxide from there?
The old bait and switch...
I noticed once upon a time you mentioned that you started investing in Galaxy back in 2009. That wasn't long after Iggy Tan started at Galaxy. You were probably attracted to the company by the vision he had. I can see the other days you reminded us all of that with the picture of the bags of lithium chemicals from Galaxy's Jiangsu plant, mind you I was disappointed you didn't include the one for EV Grade, that was Iggy's idea, and I think he consulted with Joe about that before he did it. You brought a tear to my eye when you also showed the Galaxy battery that made me reminisce of a time when Galaxy planned to then go further downstream into the growing e-bike sector.... hasn't that one done great? We see even scooters are popular too these days.
Many in the industry remember Iggy for his big vision to grow Galaxy into a fully integrated company, beyond just selling a few rocks into the various small converted around the Chinese country side. He could see that the margins were there in going downstream to not only lithium chemicals production, but also into battery production.
Thats what you brought into, because Sal De Vida wasn't there, and neither was James Bay.
Or was it just Mt Cattlin that drew your attention?
One of the things that Iggy would do is that he would divulge plans for things that would take shape, he was a damn good promoter of the company, and even went so far as to call out SQM for its dumping of lithium chemicals into China.
It's unfortunate the events that unfolded that lead to Iggy's exit from Galaxy and lithium entirely. I had contacted him a few years back to say hi and any discussion of lithium was a complete a no go. I think even Joe wanted him to join him on the podcast, but Iggy wanted to put his years of lithium behind him, which is a shame because I think the industry and particularly Galaxy could use a guy like that around.
A number of times I have noticed that when the conversation doesn't head your way, or people disagree with something, you always pull out that old line of push the button, as in, sell.
I can assure you that I have been selling since the top, with a few pip trades here and there.
I am sure I have mentioned this a number of times in my posts so you don't need to remind me where the button is G, because there are two.
My encouragement for the company and yourself is to seek a broader view, and look back on those days with Iggy and his promotion of the bright company's vision he saw. He didn't need to have a PEA or DFS, he just needed to tell the market about where he saw the business going, because that's what investors look for and get excited about. Just go and ask the good folks that are invested in Piedmont, or Pilbara. Listen to how Ken Brinsden talks about Pilbara and his vision for the future of that company. He even thanks his shareholders for investing in the business which is something Iggy would do. They were/are proud of the achievements of the team that surround them.
If it wasn't for Iggy there would have been no Hollywood Tony, as Iggy's vision was to list Galaxy on the Hong Kong stock exchange which would provide further capital to tie Galaxy through with Jiangsu. As you are aware the company didn't proceed due to the affects of I think it was Fukushima? But Anthony Tse went out and still got those investments, even from Li Shufu the founder and Chairman of Geely who wouldn't have invested had he not liked the Galaxy story.
Galaxy even held one of the best rare earth's resources in Ponton that made Mt Weld look like a child's sandpit. You would remember that wouldn't you? What a shame we let that one go given the rare earth story now despite its location.
Galaxy use to be great, because they were great with the story, they told of the vision that they had for the future of the company. These days, there is no excitement, because it would seem that like you, they don't see the value in having something to be excited about because they receive their free shares and bonuses, and as long as they can find a way to keep the bank topped up with the sale of an asset or a capital raising unlocking shareholder value by bringing any vision to the table has not been on the agenda for some time.
The last time I saw it was when they were talking about 100,000tpa of LCE in the next 5 years along with building a converter of 39,999 tonnes for James Bay.... They were excited to talk about it then at the 2019 AGM, but what happened to that sparkle in their eye? What made them lose that? and why don't they talk about it with that great vigour that they had of years gone by...
