Ann: New short-term Offtake Agreement for initial ramp-up volumes, page-99

I agree with @anatol and other posters' opinion that these are very good news.

Sinomine wants 100,000 tonnes of SC6 till July 2025, even if they own Bikita Minerals in Zimbabwue with an expected, nameplate annual capacity of 270,000 tonnes SCX.X

https://zidainvest.com/bikita-minerals-commits-to-sustainable-growth/
“The Gravity separation plant is expected to produce 300 000 tons of petalite annually, while the Flotation plant is expected to produce 270 000 tons of high-quality chemical grade spodumene concentrate annually,” Gong detailed.
Who is Gong? Apparently this guy:
https://miningzimbabwe.com/provide-incentives-for-value-addition-offer-tax-holidays-to-improve-critical-mineral-sector-gong/

The mine plant was completed one year ago:
https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/sinomine-completes-300-mln-zimbabwe-lithium-projects-2023-07-10/

Some interesting points regarding Sinomine-Bikita:

- Plant nominal production might have been lowered from 300,000 t to 270,000 t, if both news are accurate (Reuters' is from 2023, the first one is dated on April 2024).
- The oversupply narrative doesn't hold. Either supply is lower than expected (very plausible, as Sinomine owns Bikita but is still securing extra, new supply from other sources) or demand is growing faster than expected supply (less plausible as there are no other news about this). Or maybe both.
- One year after declaring start of trial production at Bikita (July 2023), there are no news about reaching nameplate capacity. According to Gong, in April 2024 the plant was expecting to produce 270,000 t/year. That is, they were still not producing that numbers. Nothing new under the African sun.

On other topics, I like very much the agreement. You have to assume that the company is new to the market and has to test customer experience. That includes not only product quality, which can be assessed on plant, but also its delivery (freight, insurance, delivering times, unexpected issues with contractors...).

And last and foremost, we will cash in earlier than expected (commercial production). That is really good for a starting business.