Ann: Sayona Doubles Quebec Lithium Resource Base, page-323

SB ... I think the JORC rules are you can only convert "Measured Resources" to Proven Reserves and "Indicated Resources" to "Probable Reserves" based on "Modifying Factors". Economics looms large in that process.

This forum loves comparisons with PLL (), so if you look at their BFS (Dec'2021) it went ahead with ~50% conversion of Indicated Resource to Probable Reserve (at a 0.4% CoG ... using high selling price) and LoM of just 11 yrs (initially) and then "other" ore.

Margins are key.
So if $977 is the ASP used then SYQ (not SYA) is selling SC6 with 50% at US$1,054 and 50% at $900 and if cost is US445 then
EBITDA Margin = (977-445)/977 = 54.5%

Clearly that is way conservative in TODAY's price environment. Assuming say US$2,000 holds as an overall 5yr ASP which boosts margins to 77.75% and for modelling purposes (NAL only) producing 200,000 tpy SC then SYQ OP ~ US$310M (& $232M to SYA). And most of that is Net Income (as in not much Interest and Depreciation)

That's attractive. Now how is that Margin impacted IF (or when) SYQ decides a better business is to vertically integrate and produce LiOH instead of SC6 (yes I know that SYQ is "committed to this and penalties apply if not ... but do you know what the quantum of the penalty is?). Takes lots of capital to get to that point from the nearly there SC6 producer that SYQ is about to become. Maybe EBITDA holds up maybe it doesn't. How about Net Income .. that drops significantly I'm thinking and is dependent on capital structure and level of asset ownership.

In general stocks with the best margins and widest moats make the better investment. So far so good.