Ann: Financial Report for 30 June 2019, page-48

Ok, we're getting into the really interesting stuff now. In contrast to the sneers of the trolls, phoneys, or the simply bemused, a short-term capitulation event is no terrifying thing for those who want to hold this stock for 5 or 10 years and beyond. In the grand scheme, those who really believe in the seismic shift into lithium-based battery technology for transport and energy storage are quite content to begin, or to continue, to accumulate at these levels and lower. The ideal period to hold a stock is forever, according to some old dude. If you aren't willing to hold a stock for 10 years don't think about holding it for 10 minutes, says his silly old pal. If, and it's only an if because it's clearly not everyone, one believes in the proposed and purported vast transition in the way the human world generates, captures, stores and applies energy - these moments will be looked back upon as times of opportunity. There is a great body of evidence that the transition is happening, but yes, it could be thwarted and we might lurch backwards towards fossil fuels, or in a new direction into some other - as yet unplanned - technology array. Hey, maybe it turns out to be graphene instead, perhaps other chemistries. None of us actually know. All we can do is place our chips, but for me right now, lithium looks the clear winner in the immediate decades ahead. And it's years and decades in which investors here must think, not in months and quarters.

So, look at where we are. The build-out of an entire new supply chain which must rise to service a global and multi-decade need, assuming it all goes that way, in a world where volatility is ramping. There will be bumps, in fact there will be crashes and casulaties. Geopolitically, the world is wrestling itself into new power structures. Tectonic plates are colliding, and frictions abound. Everyone is positioning for a future which they have no line-of-sight into anymore, and that unnerves them. Markets are reflecting this, readings are off the traditional charts, and things which used to make sense no longer do. We are a planet befuddled, and subsequently spooked. Yet, much maintains it's course. Closer to home, the sector is trying to locate itself. A glut in processed spodumene is upon us. Prices are dropping. Funding is scare. Gigafactories are where? Market clarity is where? Deals and commitments are tentative and wracked with doubt. Blood on the streets, ay? But, just look at how difficult it is proving for everyone to get lithium out of the earth in mass quantities and without hugely problematic issues arising. On that point, a reckoning is coming.

Breathe, and find peace with all that noise, and you'll see that everything continues to trundle towards the same electrified future. Demand to move away from fossil fuels to the next generation is increasing, not flagging. Gigafactories are developing, and their numbers growing. Same goes for converters. Slowly but surely we are bringing the supply-chains into line. However it is so early. You'll need patience. In some ways we're buying sea-front real estate on our tropical island in the sun, except we're doing it while the volcano is still spurting out magma to sizzle solid in the ocean. It's a gamble. Everyone should be aware. You can lose every cent here. That's a reality. But assuming the lithium bulls are right in the end, that's only half the battle. You need patience. If things turn out to plan, it'll only be the patient, as ever, who will be rewarded.

"Come writers and critics
Who prophesize with your pen
And keep your eyes wide
The chance won't come again
And don't speak too soon
For the wheel's still in spin
And there's no tellin' who
That it's namin'
For the loser now
Will be later to win
For the times they are a-changin' "

- Bob