Spot on - the only party that Mark mentioned was getting 'desperate' was some of the potential customers/offtakers trying to secure supply!
Mark could have done deals like Syrah months ago that were 'subject to final qualification, permit approval and final investment decision', but he has deliberately held off as he knew that would improve Talga's negotiating position on price terms. You could see the confidence that he showed on the offtake front that the final qualification is proceeding well behind the scenes and he made the comment that he wants to be selective with which customers they do a deal with, as it will likely remain in place for many years/decades to come.
Plenty of other takeaways, but one thing I picked up is he is well aware of timeframes to production and not being held up waiting for permits in Q1 2023. He referred to ordering long lead items was already planned for and therefore the funding for that will have to be secured sometime soon. It sounds like a lot of the debt financing from the Swedish Gov't and other export credit agencies won't be available until the permits come through in Q1, therefore, I am wondering if Mitsui or another player is still in the picture to provide this equity funding in the near term. We know the Mitsui MOU expires at the end of this month - so maybe there is still a chance they are going to be involved or another party provides this funding injection at the project level. This would explain Mark's comfort level with where things are tracking with regards to financing and reinforcing that "
he wants to avoid dilution and we are not going to stuff this up at this late stage"!!
Would have loved to heard more on:
- Potential $$ value of the cathode additive opportunity to replace carbon black;
- Plans for the Cobalt, Copper & Iron Ore tenements - are they going to sell them, spin them off or develop them in the future;
- Mark briefly mentioned expanding outside of Europe - would love to hear more on those plans. Very likely to be the USA and could potentially strike a similar deal as Syrah.
(20min delay)