Ann: Olaroz production update, page-73

I agree with keeping RS on, obviously he has built a wealth of invaluable knowledge and large holding riding the coat tails of the lithium boom, and he or someone at ORE has perfectly executed the Toyota deal. Although I also am not convinced CEO is the correct position for him, or maybe it is and he just needs a haircut and an extra person added to assist with compliance, less optimism and more accuracy and informing the market.... none of us are perfect and we are all constrained by the wonderful phenomenon of time!
ORE is still a relatively simple business from an operations point of view with permanent crews at only 2 locations, and no need to chase work/sales/projects etc. when compared to other billion dollar companies where CEOs are overseeing 100's or thousands of different work sites and daily acquisitions/contract negotiations etc. The hard work for ORE has been done with exploration, financing and regulatory approvals out of the way. Personally I don't see any reason for energy or $'s to be going into expansion or growth past phase 2, in the next 10 years. So the board and management positions should take a heavy focus on production and sales Also I haven't checked what the ST incentives targets are for directors, but with guidance being missed I suspect we will save ~$500k-$1m in performance bonuses this year.
Also what is the 900t of inventory buffering other than customers requirements? We have ample cash so there is no need need to rely on inventory to pay the bills, it will just be sold for the best price/blend whether today tomorrow or in a few weeks, but from memory we are constrained to a relatively short shelf life for lithium so the inventory is really just a reflection of contracts and pricing flexibility.

Lastly the $25m contingency cannot be treated as funding for the crystaliser. The contingency is to allow for supply and install risk of the current design not to add extra parts to the system to increase productivity and it really pissed me off that Richard bought into this suggestion. $12m is a piss in the ocean over the 40 year design life, and providing increased operating costs are actually immaterial it begs the question why it wasn't purchased last year when they were too scared to announce plant faults/inefficiencies and capital expenditure. Very easy to justify based on short term increased pricing and strong demand. Install it yesterday I say!