Its a valid conversation , Geeenius ...and its certainly worth posing to ASM direct , as its one that they might enlarge on and clarify in their coming Quarterly ...which , I might add ...is the only publication which gives shareholders any insight into whats going on . The Presentations at Forums are generally useless ( lacking any progress detail , just more motherhood statements ) ...but to Rowena's credit , a couple of her recent "Insight "interviews "have been impressive . Her position and "understated "actions since her appointment have been necessary , to bring ASM back into reality and not the dream world formally presented , of international expansion before the train was built , far less left the station !
I personally think we have both touched on the likely "problem "in using the new and patented KMP technology in the Nd/Pd process ...and that is , SCALE .
My understanding ( broad terms ) , that when scaled up , there would be dedicated furnaces and processing for individual products ie Titanium , Nd Pd ..then add in Niobium/ Zirconium/ Hafnium ---as and when the process stacked up and the demand and orders were there .
In other words ---operating to produce an ordered "run "of titatium alloy was fine .....but to complete that order , and shut the process down , prepare and start up for a run of Nd Pd would be complex/ time and labour consuming --and would warrant sizeable orders to undertake . Hence , having sufficient of the raw materials on standby , then having the orders in place , were the "ingredients "to make this work .....in lieu of having these separate dedicated furnaces and order runs .
As these flagged Offtake Agreements ( in the last two Quarterlies ) hopefully come to fruition ( and I am optimistic that they will ) , we will get either these dedicated material runs , or side by side operations working similtaneously !
I hope this ( as nothing more than an educated guess) makes sense . The wonderful thought of having Dubbo supplying the "clean feedstock "for these separate metals , on a regular and dedicated basis ...always made sense . Not only to South Korea to fulfill the South Korean and /or other Asian demands exChina --but having a "sister "operation at say Newcastle or Woollongong ( in Australia ) , to supply USA and then a further "sister : operation in the UK or more likely Europe ( Germany ? ) to supply their demands . A pipedream plan at present --but has to be UPFRONT in the Strategic Plan ?!Just adding these personal thoughts to the Fruitbowl , as pert of your very worthy question --and AIMHO .
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