@lesvAJM always achieved sub 60% recovery rates. So Ken is...

@lesv
AJM always achieved sub 60% recovery rates. So Ken is saying the improvement reflects PLS's superior production technical skills.

Ken said Plant 2 will now be known as the South Pit.

Ken said the restart of the South Pit will be staged because some of the improvement works will involve ordering long lead items. "Not huge amount of time though", he said.

Dale said they were only handed the keys to the South Pit in late Jan21.

Dale mentioned the labour market in WA is very tight. No effect on PLS yet. He said WA is busy, mining is busy.


Brian talked of the move to provisional pricing and as @GARETH78 said, some payment is still to come for the Mar21 quarter. @Ajlasx mentioned he appreciated the transparency over the lower prices achieved for Jan and Feb shipments. PLS do under promise and overachieve unlike others. I'm looking in your direction AJM, ORE and GXY.

Ken said there was still some lag in Spod pricing, some 1 to 2 months, so he is expecting higher pricing. As noted in the Quarterly, an Apr21 pricing has been set at USD655pt.

Ken said the GLX Digital sales service is now established and awaiting a cargo to sell.


While shipments were seemingly adjusted to accommodate their sales guidance, there had been a fire at Port Headland docks which PLS use, which delayed shipping. Otherwise they would have shipped over 80kt by quarter end. So nothing suss there.


Brian elaborated on increased costs being a function of the rising AUD and freight rates. He mentioned freighting costs are reducing in the current quarter, as @Papa_1993 alluded to.

Dale mentioned that they avoided land clearing in previous quarters to conserve cash. Accordingly the current quarter included increased land clearing costs.


Brian spoke of pricing now being set at shipping time. Clearly we have moved to a sellers market. Previously were Annual contract reviews, referencing average pricing for the previous 9 months.


Dale mentioned we achieved record quarterly production of 78kt and the Plant was running at full capacity during Feb21 and Mar21.


With regard to the POSCO JV Ken said, "genuinely positively disposed but need more work in relation to the information received from POSCO".

He said he expected commissioning by 2024. POSCO have always stated that would be achieved in CY2023. They are starting construction in H1CY21. Perhaps Ken meant FY2024, which begins 1Jul23?

Ken stated he will be making a decision on the POSCO JV in the current quarter.


Ken began the presentation by saying he was pleased with progress in every regard and closed with, really pleased.

The Macquarie Bank rep tried to tell Ken that our average Lithia grade is 5.5%, to which Ken laughed. He did however say our previous quarter rated in the high 5.90s. However sometime before that he stated, the focus is now on Lithia units rather than achieving 6% grade.