Further to my note above, EGR also informed us that prospective customers now only require smaller lower qualification volumes to satisfy themselves about the SPG product quality and reliability - presumably as a result of all the other proving and demonstration work done by EGR & by changing market realities. That is, the scale of the originally planned stage 1 plant of 5,000 tpa is larger than necessary. Only needing a product qualification facility therefore is a good step forward. It is a good thing, meaning the stage 1 plant, which probably did little more than cover costs, will be less expensive and quicker to establish. Further they have now got the government to pay half of it. Also Export Finance Australia were not going to provide the supporting debt financing arrangements for Stage 1, only Stage 2, which meant that EGR would have had to sole risk and equity fund Stage 1. So the smaller stage 1 product qualification facility, half paid for by the government, is a significant step forward. Further, it would seem that EFA would be comfortable now to provide project finance going straight into the bigger 25,000 tpa stage 2. So the cost, funding requirements and risk profile for EGR has been lowered for the BAM facility, which to me is important progress and good strategic move by EGR management. In the meantime it looks like BAM facilities are now being planned in Australia, e.g. in Newcastle.
Because of the increasingly aggressive and capricious behaviour of the leading autocracies, the western developed world is moving to increase the security of its supply chains for critical minerals and processes which includes batteries that currently comprise about 50% graphite largely sourced from China. I wouldn't be surprised to see EGR win similar government funding support from those leading countries in Western Europe and North America, who want safer and domestically sourced supply chains, as a result. As for timing, who knows? Pioneering in a new technology industry can't be easily programmed likely building another block of flats but even something simple and repeatable like that is still held up by indeterminable government approval processes.
Expand
(20min delay)