There are a few things that concern me in this announcement, the importance of what in NOT mentioned and the hidden things that are not explained.
I feel disapointed that given that I only wrote an email to David recently, specificaly regarding the progress of the demonstration plant, that there is a rather significant change from his reponse as compared to the detail in the "About Latrobe Magnesium" at the bottom of the last page in the announcement today..
Over time I have often found anomolies or hidden information in the "About Latrobe Magnesium" that deserved to be market sensitive news that I believe could require disclosue under the the continuous disclosure obligations.. When I say hidden, I mean disguised as 'status quo' rather than a project update relating to schedule changes.
ASX Listing Rule 3.1Listing Rule 3.1 requires that the Company must immediately notify ASX of any information the Company becomes aware of concerning itself that a reasonable person would expect to have a material effect on the price or value of the Company’s securities. This information is referred to as “Price Sensitive Information”. The Material effect must be assessed having regard to all the relevant background information, including past announcements that have been made by the Company and other generally available information. Information is likely to be material if it may affect security values or influence investment decisions,
and information in which security holders, investors and ASX have a legitimate interest.
My example:
Quote from email response received from David Paterson on
21 Mar 2023 at 2:44 pm"Asyou can see with only $10M, which mainly is construction will be completed by30 June 2023, there is no significant delays. Given COVID, supply chaindisruptions and reduced manufacturing capacity, this is an excellent resultfrom our management team."
"Dry commissioning is Stage 2 of a 5 stage commissioning process. You then do Stage 3 Wet Commissioning, Stage 4 Load Commissioning and then Stage 5 Full Commissioning. These stages will be taking place in the 3rd quarter finished by the end of September." (Missing from the Half Yearly Report)
Quote from LATROBE MAGNESIUM SELECTS MALAYSIA FOR ITS 100,000TPA MAGNESIUM PLANT 27th March 2023 (6 days later)
"Construction has commenced on its initial 1,000 tonne per annum magnesium plant with commissioning targeted to commence end of Q3 2023."
Another 3 month delay for the demonstration plant which I believe translates to (Targeted) December and then of course, next year . We will see.
In the big picture, not a major issue but from a communication perspective mmmmm
..................................
Missing and related information
Personally, I think it very slack to have a Price Sensitive announcement that does not make the correct and very important connections with other project information of highly relevant and interconnected project progress or outcomes.
Why was the following not included? (Rhetorical question)
"LATROBE MAGNESIUM SIGNS BINDING MoU WITH SLN FOR SUPPLY OF FERRO NICKEL SLAG FOR 100,000 TPA PLANT"
"12 September 2022, Sydney Australia: Latrobe Magnesium Limited (ASX: LMG) is pleased to announce the signing of a binding MoU with Société Le Nickel (SLN), for the supply of 450,000 tonnes per annum of ferro-nickel slag for 20 years for its 100,000tpa magnesium plant as its feedstock."
"LMG will need in the order 600,000tpa of ferro nickel per annum to produce 100,000tpa of magnesium. SLN with its present port facilities can handle the loading of 450,000 tpa and it is considering expanding these facilities for its own reasons. As and when the proposed expansion is undertaken, SLN has advised LMG that they will be able to cater for an additional 150,000 tpa of ferro-nickel slag. In the event SLN do not expand its port facilities, LMG will source additional supply from another ferro-nickel producer. There are some 20 plus ferro-nickel slag producers in the areas of Indonesia or Philippines."
Why was a map not included depicting the choice of location? (Rhetorical question) Here is one to help people with a visualisation.
If you look at logistic for air travel and shipping, the ferrro nickel slag supply from New Caledonia to Malaysis is not bad in the scope of things but the supplies from Indonesia or the Philippines (Massive stockpiles) would have made far greater sense. There will be some hanging questions there as far as I am concerned.
I do think the following are encouraging:
"Discussions with Ministry officials and authorities in the Sarawak Government, particularly the Bintulu Development Authority, are sufficiently advanced to agree on a 40 hectare site location. Latrobe Magnesium will immediately commence the land application process to secure the land."
"LMG has received favourable reactions in discussions with financiers in relation to funding the project in Sarawak."
I'm Looking forward to the full PFS to answer some questions and of course, the future predicted financial returns.
Onwards McDuff..............
Ken