So yeah - I've listened into BOTH the I.Q moderated ' Joint ' conference call on the ' Partnership of a Turnaround ' of the NAL lithium mine as well as the K.P podcast.
And in many ways , you could take more away from the K.P Piedmont podcast than you could really from the conference call.
But let's start with the ' Joint ' Conference call on the ' Partnership for a turnaround of a Lithium mine in Quebec '. So we ALL know that part of I.Q scope of responsibilities and mandates is to source and HELP bring together ' Partners ' , ' Collaboration Agreements as well as foster Investor Interest from other areas like Private Equity ' sectors as well as perhaps other branches of Government connected entities outside of their specific influence like the sovereign investor funds like the CDPQ and other ' Green ' mandated private investing funds and Institutions.
So if I.Q wasn't going that extra ' mile ' if you like to be exploring , marketing , and influencing other possibilities with the Piedmont and Sayona partnership , they wouldn't actually be ticking the boxes and doing their job to help ' exhaust ' all possibilities of further ' venturing ' on the expanded project.
So having said that though , and apart from some meaningful ' repetitive ' narrative phrases like the use of ' Exciting ' or ' Interesting ' , I found the Conference to be nothing more than a ' Sales Pitch ' ...... with K.P carrying the can mostly as the quintessential Salesman , with Brett simply making up the numbers in so far as the ' Overall Summary of what Sayona is about and what it is pursuing with regards to its South - North HUB strategies.
So I guess if you are an ordinary shareholder like most of us here , you would have found as I did that the brief discussion to have NOT highlighted anything we didn't already know.
So then you have to ask yourself ......Well who was it ' Pitch ' for ......
, and then try and look beyond the more or less straight forward line of Q&A.
I also found it interesting that I.Q targeted the specific questions around Hydroxide and Carbonate conversion directly to KP ....with Brett basically concurring that ' All the Pots and Pans ' if you like were in place to explore this options , and as KP stated over the next few months.
But the narrative of the ' Pitch ' by the moderator became more obvious when he put it back to Brett to speak a bit about whats going on with Sayona outside of Abitibi HUB - and which of course I.Q would be well aware of right ......
So again , it begs the question as to WHY do this at all if you weren't ' Pitching ' to a much different audience and perhaps even the Federal Government attendees.
And I find it interesting that 1 or 2 days earlier if not on one of the same days as the Conference that a representative of the opposition Liberals makes and comments on a site visit to the NAL operations. So this in itself is a little too convenient for my liking.
So apart from ALL that , the only other point of interest for me in this ' Joint ' investor conference was what Brett confirmed that I already interpreted in that their aim with the current Moblan DD drilling program is to ' DOUBLE ' the current JORC ....." if not MORE " .. he said.
And this is actually a great lead in to the KP / Piedmont separate podcast discussion. And I say this because of what I had mentioned in one of my earlier posts in that the 50% of the ' unsold ' or uncommitted portion of Sayona Quebec's JORC is virtually more important to Sayona than is the 50% of the committed tonnage to Piedmont if you wish to continue to argue the Off-take this or Off-take that or whether it has any validity longer term or not.
But clearly at the moment , this off-take is being ' Leveraged ' as KP stated to construct and support their BFS on obviously the LIOH ' 2 ' proposed 100% owned lower capital cost plant which as he stated does NOT have the mine infrastructure or SOLAR Capex cost associated with it , and therefore this is how it can achieve the $500 - $600 million figure in his slides.
And this is a really interesting few points he makes in which you can then extrapolate and tie together what it all seems to mean. So FIRSTLY , with this comment about Capex being low on account of there being NO mine , no mine infrastructure , and no solar - I would then interpret this to mean that he is definitely proposing the LIOH ' 2' plant to be accessing some ' Other ' low cost clean energy input being obviously ' HYDRO '......and with perhaps other competing concessions which will obviously shorten the distance traveled and costs associated with shipping the SC6 to wherever this Plant ends up being.
The SECOND point he makes which supports the breakdown of the transport costs is when he states that its actually cheaper to ship the SC6 from Ghana to North American than it is for him to ship it from Quebec to North Carolina. So that to me also tells me he will be locating his FIRST LIOH ' 2 ' plant further North.
The THIRD point which supports and ties in with BOTH the FIRST and SECOND points is that when he states that he is very excited about Sayona aiming to achieve SC6 production in the first quarter of 2023 .....or first half as he states again later on , is that he specifically backs this up by saying that Ghana will not be in production until at least a year following this , but at the same time , he can build this LIOH ' 2 ' plant in no more than 2 years.....which would be 2024 or later anyway.
So these points are interesting when you start to dissect them further. So in the perfect world , he will have HALF his SC6 tonnage available in 2023 for a FIRST plant that won't be completed until 2024.
He also says that he will be announcing the LIOH ' 2 ' site location within I think a month or so. So he obviously already knows where its going to be .....and it already appears to be ' Costed ' right. So 2 years from announcing funding in 2nd quarter would be 2nd quarter 2024. I like also how he virtually confirmed their ( Piedmont's ) $20 million towards the $80 million start-up capex Brett has spoken about previously and I had already indicated as the possibility of allocated funds from their recent capital raising - So with those sorts of figures of start-up capital , the combined DFS can only really be ' Stellar ' right. If that is all that is required.
There is the Carbonate required Capex which was stated could also be up for completed studies and discussion in the next few months which would be a HUGE boost to the Sayona numbers. And that is the thing if we just stay with the Sayona potential for the moment , and coming back to the like for like comparison to the ' Leverage ' that KP is claiming .
If Sayona were to ' DOUBLE ' or more the Moblan JORC with the current drilling program - Then Sayona together with its remaining 50% of the ' uncommitted ' Abitibi HUB SC6 has virtually the same quantity and hopefully the same HIGH quality and low cost - low strip combined product that Piedmont has for its so called FIRST LIOH ' 2 ' plant . And I don't have to tell you all the literal multiple of $Billions of potential returns to Sayona for only a similar outlay of around $500 - $600 million for its own FIRST Hydroxide Plant further up the value chain and located in Quebec as against the U.S as KP has indicated.
Coming back to Piedmont again , and their timeline then does not allow for much more margin of error in delays across NOT just their own project that they are trying to get across the line , but also their interest in Sayona Quebec as well as their Ghana projects. So not much ' wriggle ' room to stuff up their 1 and 2 year plans for SC6 PLUS their ambition to build-out their first LIOH ' 2 ' plant.
So it really does become a bit of a competition for ' Capital ' funding and Grants and concession funding. And this is why I feel as though Piedmont will more than likely go their separate way on their FIRST LIOH ' 2 ' plant , and Sayona may or may not tie-up or go it alone on their FIRST LIOH ' 2 ' plant after they upgrade their Carbonate capabilities in the Abitibi.
In the meantime we continue to go for more Spod Tonnage which KP has already indicated is mainly available in Quebec and also in Ontario. So either of Piedmont or Sayona can go for more Spod bearing prospectivity in Quebec , but Sayona definitely seems to be FAR ahead of Piedmont in this regard. And whether Piedmont
After considering ALL the information that could be extracted from the TWO recent conference call and podcast , you can see that is is Piedmont who is first trying to ' Leverage ' the financing aspects and FIRST mover on the Hydroxide plans , leaving Sayona to continue to prove up its TONNAGES and NAL carbonate options before ' leveraging ' its own Hydroxide conversion plans.....whether with Piedmont or without.
So based on all this , I am convinced that the site that Piedmont will selcet will be in Buffalo NY and not all that far away from GM's stator module component of its EV electric motors manufacturing and assembly plant in Lockport NY and also not far away from Tesla's Solar operation Gigafactory in RiverBend.
I would have though RiverBend an options as well seeing as it falls within 30 miles from the New York Power Authorities Hydro Electric Power Project in nearby Lewiston , but they are far to into their ' Green ' and lighter environmentally friendly Industries.
Besides , as you can all see with respects to the fast tracking of potential LIOH ' 2 ' chemical conversion plant , Lockport is already home to the very precarious and high intensity Chemical producing entity in VanDeMark Group , so approvals should be relatively easier given the composition of their existing Industries in this area.
You will also note the ' Rail ' link in Piedmont's Illustration slide of their LIOH ' 2 ' plant in their presentation . So i would suggest that this would support again the Buffalo NY district on account of the preexisting vast rail networks spattered across this region and the fact that KP states their will be NO mine infrastructure costs involved in this FIRST plant.
I guess the question then becomes where will Sayona's chosen location be , and will it be a JV with someone else that I.Q is clearly trying to encouraged into the Investment picture.
In either case , you could see that Brett was a little bit uncomfortable with the fact that KP was dominating the Q&A and fielding all the questions in regards to the Hydroxide queries by I.Q.
(20min delay)