Ann: Quarterly Activities and Cashflow Report 31 March 2022, page-25

Just as a continuation of the thought experiment.

To double our annual production of 190 000 tons would cost in the vicinity of 40-50 million (which will be pocket change for us shortly). That would double our profits.

If we go after a hydroxide plant, we would need anywhere from an absolute base minimum of a half billion to possibly 1 or even 1.5 billion dollars to pay for its construction depending on how much hydroxide it would produce annually.

How we could pay for this could either be out of our own pockets with saved money (so no divvies for a few years) or doing a deal with creditors or Tesla to get the ball rolling sooner (much more likely) and maybe paying some divvies but funnelling most of the money towards construction of the plant and further exploration and drilling.

If we assume that only half of the spodumene we mine would go into the hydroxide plant at first (because of contractual obligations for the first 4 years) that would mean roughly 27 000 tons of Hydroxide could be produced a year if we were able to convert another 190 000 tons a year by doubling production.

In 2019, it was costed to convert roughly 2456 USD to turn 7 tons of spodumene to hydroxide but I reckon you could easily round this up to 3000 USD a ton now just for conversion.

It costs us 441 USD per ton to mine spodumene and you need 7 tons so call the grand figure 6000-7000 USD per ton of hydroxide to produce.

At roughly 70 000 USD a ton for Hydroxide, your hydroxide plant before tax and royalties would be producing about 1.7 Billion USD per year. After these about 1.160 Billion USD per year.

And you have the normal spodumene operation of 190 000 tons on the other side currently valued at around 558 million USD a year (after all expenses and costs). So after tax and expenses profit of 1.75 Billion USD per year is in the realm of possibility, not factoring in further spodumene price increases.

Dividends would be a certainty at that point and the plant once running would easily pay itself off within a year.