I agree, they’re unlikely to change phase 1, it will delay everything massively. I could see a phase 1.5 being thrown into the mix, concurrent building that completes and comes online 9-12 months after first LCE.
As for offtakes, the contracts are not fixed pricing anymore so that is unlikely to be the cause of any delay in my opinion. They use a dynamic reference price +/- some % premium or discount, that’s what fastmarkets, global lithium etc do.
My assumption is that they’re working out the conditions, and it’s going to be a binding deal with some capital and not something that’s just going to expire silently as other offtakes have done with aspirational producers. There’s lots to work out for such a transaction, it’s not just the cost upfront, but the downstream revenues for a tier 1 manufacturer that will be contingent on making it a success — it’s a serious deal.
The signal was clear in the recent media announcements,it won’t happen Q1, a shame but oh well, what’s another few weeks in the scheme of things.
I expect Twitter to fire up any day now, the weather on-site is good, very little snowfall and temperatures warming.
Expand
