Partnership for a Turnaround - Mar 31 2022

Yes, Mar 31 2022 ... this is not "new" information but we are not far off from the 1 year anniversary of this "Panel Discussion". Plus a new thread just to make it easier for commentary. I did wander off to other side and check what was noted at the time (starting search from Mar 31, 2022). What was that again about getting things wrong over and over said just recently...

Moderated by (naturally) Investissement Quebec - Amyot Choquette - (I've met with him, nice guy) - and of course our panellists are Keith Phillips and Brett Lynch. Now before listening, you have got to understand that these are "staged questions". Amyot knows the answers (he was part of IQ team that sold the asset to SYQ). Keith knows Brett's answers and Brett knows Keith's. The stage is for clients of the Hosts.

What is useful I think, is to relisten (carefully) and begin to understand some of the context ... much of it "misconstrued elsewhere" and especially so with all of the added public video information.

Some of the early parts of the panel ... such as how did the two companies come up with this partnership are mildly interesting but underscores the fact that as a long time banker KP has a lot of "reach".

Much more interesting is the discussion by BL on how the SYQ JV is going to be successful where others have failed. This is especially interesting given where we are now - with a sorted ore stockpile - and Authier not yet permitted. And of course the entire discussion on downstream and hydroxide needs to be carefully listened too.


https://youtube/D6WAT9v7048?t=2


So from the transcript I'll highlight for example:

Amyot: So maybe Keith, that being said, where do you see Sayona Quebec in five years and how do you see Piedmont's continued involvement in Sayona Quebec.

Keith: " ... We see North American Lithium as really step one ... There's a lot of spodumene in Quebec and Sayona Quebec has the biggest resource in terms of tonnage ... and we're very happy to be partnered with Sayona, we got a first mover advantage. The first company to put something in production. Sayona Quebec will be that with NAL ... There'll be some opportunities to grow there as well, but then the next question is how do we go downstream and produce value added product. So spodumene concentrate is the first challenge - to get that up and running."

No Surprises so far right. Now Keith is speaking the PLL PoV. He continues with and the highlighting is mine

"Ultimately we want to be in the business of producing lithium hydroxide. That's the lithium salt that you need in long-range vehicles which we think will dominate the north American market. We're going to do that in north Carolina with one project. We're going to do it at a second plant fed principally from Ghana, also probably in North or South Carolina, but we very much look forward to doing it in Quebec."

So this is stating publicly PLL's hydroxide vision for North America (not just USA, not just Canada). He wants to produce Hydroxide in Quebec, just as BL wants to produce Hydroxide at Moblan (Northern Hub)

"We don't have any formal arrangement with Sayona to do it together. We may or may not do it together. We'll figure that out and due course, but we have a good working relationship ... we think we can build a very big business, converting our own resources, but also potentially converting other resources that have already been found in Quebec, will undoubtedly be found, over the next several years. It's a big province. There'll be a lot of exploration activity. I would expect there'll be some other big resources found. We want to be one of one of the groups that converts that material into battery quality material to be used in cathode and batteries in Quebec and elsewhere in North America."

And there you have it - no formal arrangement to do Hydroxide together and "we'll figure that out in due course". That of course leaves a bit of a question mark over Carbonate.

Amyot: "I guess Piedmont is, well focused in hydroxide production ... and we know that the North American Lithium has the capacity, I guess, to eventually produce lithium carbonate,... how do you see I guess, the lithium carbonate in North America. Do you see a future here or it's mostly outside of North America."

(KP) No, there's a future ...there'll be demand for both hydroxide and carbonate. There'll be shortages of both. In our facilities, the two we plan to build, we could pivot from hydroxide to carbonate. We don't intend to. We think hydroxide is the right thing if you're building a green field project based on spodumene. We think hydroxide probably makes the most sense. That's what Nemaska has intended to do up in Quebec and what you'll generally see. Brine projects tend to be more naturally suitable to produce carbonate because they have to produce carbonate sort of as a first step...So, there's certainly an opportunity and if the asset at La Corne, if the carbonate refinery there, is sort of capable of producing that, the quality required and that's something that will be looked at with Sayona and Piedmont over the next several months. That's an option for sure

There is a mountain of work left to be done for SYQ. Got to get over the first challenge - producing spodumene in a yield efficient fashion and doing that reliably and profitably.