I actually say our recoveries got worse in October, and have only JUST finally improved a wee bit in November, according to the AGM Presentation (assuming we keep-up that production through the rest of the month). The good news is, for the first time in a long time, we DO seem to be moving in the correct direction, when it comes to actually mining.
As one poster who indicated I was passing false information (for criticizing the lack of improvement with GM in the hot seat) stated, October recoveries were "improved" from 50% to 55%, but what was lost in that (on him and his cheerleader fans) is that we were producing SC5.5 in March, and were still producing SC5.3 in September, but our October output was only SC4.5. If you increase the recovery rate by 10%, but the lithium content goes down 15.1% (from 5.3 to 4.5), our net result is we are making 6.6% LESS for the same amount of ore processed. Even though we are still only producing SC4.6, in November, with a recovery rate up to 59%, at least we are finally ahead of where we were, if only by 2.4%.
My position and sentiment should tell anyone what I think of CXO, but unfortunately I do think we have one rather large anchor around our collective necks, and it is GM. The CR was more than unfortunate, it was a kneecapping. I appreciate that it was Mr. English, not Gareth, who made the RIDICULOUS FY25 prediction, including the ridiculous FY24 prediction with a quarter with zero production due to a weather prediction (made even more ridiculous by the fact that this is going to be an El Nino year, so the Darwin Area will likely see less rain than usual), but GM has done nothing to "correct" that bad information. Knowing his past at Rio Tinto, it seems pretty clear that GM is happy to leave the bar (and our share price) set low, so that he can give himself a big bonus and more stock options when he does his basic job and it looks good by comparison to those predictions. If he was sharp and cared about SHs, he'd hire the metallurgists that sorted PLS' teething problems, revise the FY24 estimates upwards (to accommodate four quarters of production rather than three) and at least discuss possible midstream/downstream possibilities, even if only in the future.
One of the reasons that I am so bullish on CXO, even with what I consider to be inadequate management, is that the big find by Lithium Plus (the Lei Resource), literally only a few hundred meters on their side of our property line, which is also very similar in thickness and nature to BP33, AND very close to our Ah Hoy and Penfold Resources, leads me to believe that there is actually one very large resource, most of which is on our side of the property line, and our resource will eventually expand significantly, even if it will take some time to perform the necessary expansion drilling in those areas. In my opinion, smart management would drill at least a few holes in between Ah Hoy, Penfolds and the Lei Resource, to get an idea of what is there, since there is at least a reasonable chance that it may be a more promising area than Carlton or the other areas to the North that are currently the focus of our drilling program.
Finally, I have another reason to be bullish, because I believe that the Grant Pit recoveries will improve with time, specifically with regards to the unusually high fines issue. If you go back and look at some of our 2022 and early 2023 presentations, like the CR Presentation, you will note that there have been a few statements about the fact that the Grant Pit upper ore body was more significantly weathered than anticipated. If, as can be inferred from the various "weathered ore" statements, the Grants Pit ore body is less weathered as we get deeper into it, we can expect less fines production and better recovery rates as we get deeper into the pit, even before any production improvements that we make.
The future looks bright, but I believe it would be even brighter with competent management.
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