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Let's hope all those "big mining wigs" within our BOD can get us into trading again paying more attention to changing lithium and economic climate we all are facing now.
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It appears that holders and the general observer out there is thinking
A40's fortunes are the result of the lithium market and prices - that is not true because if it were then Greenbushes and Mt Marion won't be making buckets load of money from their operations whereas low grade producers are being squeezed out of the market like what we are seeing here.
Just looking at the simple metrics -
A40 production cash costs excluding shipping are $774 / wmt vs
Mt Marion's cash costs including shipping = $594 / wmt or a difference of $180 / wmt without shipping on A40's costs
So essentially even with shipping cost built into Mt Marion's costings per wmt they are still cheaper than A40 without shipping costed.
Why is this so? The biggest difference between Bald Hill vs Mt Marion would be the grades with lower grades costing exponentially more to produce than higher grade deposits.
Bald Hill deposit is grading at 0.9% Li2CO vs Mt Marion 1.37% Li2Co
It cannot be clearer to anyone why low grade deposit mines cannot survive in times of a price wars when highly efficient producers are the price makers and the low grade producer being the price takers and ultimately may get squeezed out of the market.
Not saying A40 is going that way - but its just my view where things stands and the reason behind it.
I don't believe its the general Li market condition that's the making of A40's current predicaments - but more so the inherent nature of A40's business model based off its quality of deposit.