OK, disappointing the announcement was not relating to Sayona obviously, it's Ford getting $640m ish for a CAM (cathode active material) plant in Becancour, which is still brilliant news for our Canadian battery ecosystem however and shows the government are not unwilling to splash the cash.
Now, Ford as we know have invested into Nemaska and intend to buy the hydroxide Nemaska plan to produce from a refinery in Becancour.
Well let's make logical hypothetical comparisons here to our closest competitor Nemaska:
GM have with POSCO as we know been given similar funding also a few months back to also build a CAM plant in Becancour, under their joint venture Ultium CAM brand.
https://www.gm.ca/en/home/company/canada/ultium-cam.html
Where are they getting their battery grade lithium from for this though...?
Who is the only other producer of scale in Quebec already producing?
GM have invested heavily ($650m) into Lithium Americas Thacker Pass project in Nevada as is well known, to supply them with lithium carbonate, along with the deal with Livent for South American brine from 2025 however I don't see either of those as a supply link to a CAM facility in Quebec, that would not make geographical sense and they have other Ultium plants planned or under construction across the US etc.
The logical conclusion to me, especially after seeing some the connections and references in the Carrefour mandates recently linking GM with Sayona in those, is that we will produce the refined product to supply their CAM plant in Becancour just as Nemaska are now supplying Ford with their hydroxide. It makes total sense. A complete competitor mirror image aupply chain from rock to CAM with the two producers (by 2025 for Nemaska) of lithium in Quebec.
So it further compounds the competition/comparison now with this incoming announcent regarding Ford building a CAM plant too as we know their upstream intentions already, whereas GMs downstream plans are already known but their upstream is not yet clear.... (cough Sayona cough). Interesting.
So yeah, I think our Marlin will be GM/POSCO personally, the direct comparison now to how this is playing out with Ford and Nemaska is just too parrallel.
Remember when POSCO visited NAL...? Oh yeah, and that little trip to Korea with the pastel jacket-gate saga...?
POSCO is the other half of Ultium CAM with GM, the technical cathode know how side, the side that would say, be needing to know the technical specifications of our lithium a fair way out type side...
Just makes total sense to me now. That's why the rail contract with Solurail is to Trois Rivieres too, it's across the River from Becancour as we know and have hypothesised before.
It would all just tie in perfectly now with GM/POSCO if Ford are doing the exact same with Nemaska.
Remember that SYA presentation slide a while back that had us talking at the time, where it said "ship to customers in Cleveland Ohio". Well where does GM have it's huge battery plant? Ah yes, just outside Cleveland in Lordstown, where it has the Ultium Cells LLC gigafactory in partnership with LGES.
So, our refined lithium either cabonate from NAL or hydroxide from Amos, could feed GM/POSCO Ultium CAM plant in Becancour to then easily ship CAM down the St Lawrence to the GM/LGES Ultium Cells gigafactory in Lordstown Ohio.
Obviously could be wrong but that sounds like a plan to me....
....But VW is still there and a very big fish indeed.
Their EV factory in St Thomas, Ontario will require considerable battery material, their battery division PowerCo has not made any announcements as yet as to where this is coming from, but Sayona again should likely be a front runner. There could be a competition situation going on now with VW upsetting the setup we were hypothetically arranging with GM...
That's my thoughts on where we are at with a strategic offtake and partnership.
Our announcement will come in due course, this Canadian battery ecosystem is only just beginning and is developing by the day and is very exciting, be under no illusion that we are right in the middle of it and major players want our lithium. It would seem not today though sadly for our news.
Expand
(20min delay)