Top 20 just came out and the accumulation continues...
Notable movements are:
- Netwealth Investments adding another ~11.4m shares, moving them up 4 spots to no.10 on the list. Has been very aggressive buying by them, coming into the Top 20 and now Top 10 in the space of 2-3 weeks.
- McCusker Holdings snapping up another 2.5m shares, moving them up 2 spots to no.16.
Top 20 now up to 42.20% SOI. You can check it out here http://norwestenergy.com.au/company/capital-structure/
Some may recall I recently said "watch this space" with regards to further significant investment in domestic processing of deemed critical minerals and metals. Well indeed it is happening. Cue LYC announcing today a further $500m capex to expand their rare earths Mt Weld mine in WA. This is on top of their recent $500m capex investment for their downstream processing plant in WA.
This is all fantastic news for WA and AUS, as we become a globally significant player in these critical minerals and metals - excellent export revenue. Don't forget we have our own JV partner MIN proposing investing billions to build a lithium hydroxide plant in WA... lots of gas needed for that plant.
How is this relevant for NWE? Well, the energy use (electricity and gas) is very intensive for all mineral / metals processing. For anyone interested, look up the roasting process for lithium or rare earths... temperatures of up to 1,000C is required... essentially giant ovens baking 24/7 to produce final battery / end user grade product. To help put in context the scale of such an industrial oven, check this pic out below... a rotary kiln which is one of the largest in the southern hemisphere, at 110 metres long and 6 metres in diameter. Pretty impressive.
So IMO, as we already have some 60% of gas consumption in WA that is used for mining or mineral processing. This I can only see increasing as the energy requirements for these huge processing plants in AUS, predominantly WA, will increase significantly. So the positive fundamentals are there IMO, for a sustained demand of gas for decades to come, not only for domestic use but as has been previously posted, the significant demand for export LNG. I continue to believe NWE is incredibly well positioned to play a major part in this strategic shift.
ps - just saw the news that the Greens will support the Govt emissions target and the climate bill will pass... with the Greens accepting that the Govt won't ban any new coal and gas projects. That's the removal of a significant risk for many new gas projects looking to be developed in the near term - ala NWE's LD.
GLTA
