I'd go further to say that shipping any graphite in its mined and original processed form from Tanz to various locations across the world is inefficient. Setting up micronising and mechanical shaping facilities in Tanz as part of their EV hub, makes total sense, doesn't it, Balduran? Why waste money building PSG plants across Europe, Asia, Aust and the US when just purification plants can be built? Ultra-purification is, afterall, an independent process. What a cost reduction in CAPEX for our downstream operations. Duplication of micronisation & spheronisation facilities just does not make sense. If OEMs are wanting to be partnerships in upstream down, then what EGR has communicated to the market makes total sense (albiet not effectively communicated).
Whilst the cost of shipping a (micronised and spheronised) product that is about the tenth of the volume of original product may not be a large portion of OPEX, there is also the emissions reduction to take into account and savings in CAPEX by locating that part of the downstream process in Tanz. The benefits for Tanz are also apparent... and why shouldn't that country share in some of the value-add revenue? Who is to say that the M&S plant won't be a JV involving a number of graphite producers who supply their graphite to it. Maybe the likes of Posco is heading this move towards a tech hub in Tanz. Perhaps EGR's SPG tech is the favoured choice by Posco but they have plans for a massive supply chain that involves not just TanzGraphite but the graphite from several other companies.
Epanko never cancelled out Kwinana, but certainly the developments and change of plans emerging as a result of what is happening in Tanz, caused management to change tack. I think a purification plant in Kwinana is still in play but definitely on the backburner for the time being. The money spent thus far on the engineering plans and on the approvals process for Kwinana is not a total loss. The engineering plans will serve us in our Tanz and overseas purification facilities... plus if and when a purification plant in Kwinana eventuates.
Sorry if I reiterated much of what you posted, Balduran. I just think that some posters are not understanding the efficiencies and the reason why EGR seemingly jumped ship when in fact a change of plans may have been initiated by bigger players in the picture that we don't see and can't be privy to at this stage. LTH are definitely working their positions to optimise the growing opportunity here to get set before the dominoes start to fall and the picture unfolds.
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