Needed to end my post with the following: "That doesn't mean that AVZ will meet its costs by the way, but where there is a will there is a way, and where there is government support I'll leave it at that on who has the better chance to get to market ontime and on budget. There are risks always wherever you build btw. Sovereign risk is different to transport risk as well, with transport largely outside AVZ's control, but transport systems are going up in the DRC. Free carry strategies are preferred this side of the market."
My preference at the time, and it still remains, is AVZ needs to get a major European player onboard (as do any prospective lithium players). It always has been my preference to get a non-Chinese major stakeholder onboard. The Chinese play games IMO, i.e including when one thinks of binding contracts and how they may view them, and the best thing that can happen is Europes/USA enters the market to provide contestability and options for emerging lithium players overall.
With the Chinese building transport routes in the DRC, it would obviously be minority SH of some type in terms of AVZ. With the amount of gigafactories been built in China (and some owned by non-Chinese entities) China will remain the predominant buyer of spodumene for a while though as well, but Europe/USA getting its act together over the next two years (or not) will show how serious they are in seeking to also enjoy the fruits of the EV needs (and movements into home energy storage sectors where batteries can play a key to).
Time will tell. Need to take a break from all this posting on AVZ as well.
All IMO
AVZ Price at posting:
9.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
