Ann: September 2023 Quarterly Activities Presentation, page-45

$1.8bn free cash flow if Q1 is annualised?
Maybe the fuss would not have happened if you convincingly explained how you get to $1.8bn free cash flow.
I think my calculator is broken as I can only calculate as below:
"Cash margin from operations" are lited on p19 as $360m.
If you look at the slide though, you would recognise that this does not include a deduction for tax. There are also other cash items.
In the quarterly activity statement, p7, mentions "cash inflow from operating activities" as $257.9m. This includes a deduction for tax and gives us the cash from operations. There are however other costs as well, see p19 of presentation.
So being optimistic and ignoring these other costs, we can "wish" for 4 x $257.9m in annualised free cash(ignoring investment costs) = $1 031m.
Spot spodumene prices now are about 20% lower than the average for Q1.
When applied directly to the USD2240 and same sales as Q1, 144 200t, sales expectation, this is 20% x 2240 ÷ 0.65(exchange rate) x 144 200t that q2 revenue will be lower than Q1 = A$99.3. Adjusting for tax, Q2 is now looking like $257.9m - ($99.3 x (1 - 30% tax)) = $188.9m
Sales are likely to be higher than Q1 though.
Prices may well rise, but still has not stabilised. So all is just a picture seen by looking in the mirror now.
So H1 may see "cash inflow from operating activities" of $257.9m + $188.9m = $446.8m.
This is by looking in the mirror now and taking a few guesses in terms of price drop being same and Sales being the same as Q1. Q2 Sales will likely be higher along with production, maybe around 160 000t to match some previous quarterly performances.
This means there must be about $1.3534bn in cash produced from operations in H2. This looks unlikely at present.
Doubling this number, $446.8m, gets us to about $900m profit for FY24. Still a good number.
In reality we should say $257.9m + 3 x $188.9m(can only project with the numbers we know) = $824.6m. Still also a good number.

Anyway, what I'm getting at is that posting $1.8bn in free cash flow annualised is misleading unless you can guarantee the SC price is going to jump to about USD6000/t. If you know that for sure, then you should be all-in for PLS. I would be.
Please share how you get to $1.8bn free cash flow. Everyone should do their own calculations DYOR. Anyone can make a mistake or wrong guess.

The negative is that the hated Chines lithium carbonate futures prices for January 2024 are about 10% below the current spot price quotes. As we'd seen last year though, prices can move very quickly (up/down). What the next 6-9 months looks like for lithium prices is the multi-multi billion $$$ question.