You are right in my opinion. With the latest innovations, Carbonate has absolutely come back to the party as a battery weapon of choice and that option provides us with the best bang for buck and nearest achievable goal in value adding. But SYA no doubt wants to steam ahead with downstream in the form of Carbonate and i'm pretty certain the technical study delay would definitely have been a desire of the PLL side of the venture. Not just from a NAL perspective, but they now find themselves in a period of stunted growth with the prospect of building a Hydroxide refinery in Tennessee that could potentially NOT be the chemical that takes the next step in the EV uprising?
The question that our leadership needs to be asked now is what has the recent Lithium price slide and lack of income/growth done to our Chemical refining pipeline? There is no doubt that we are probably no longer going to be a refiner in 2026 and probably fair enough. But if contractually we have propsed to move downstream by the end of FY2026 and we are locked into that initiative with the Canadian government, then it almost requires that the Canadian government should/would/could come to the party in the form assistance or grants that could assist NAL in maintaining that schedule.
Nemaska is leading the chemicals race with a Hydroxide product currently scheduled to be in the market before NAL Carbonate but there could also be a silver lining in perhaps NOT leading that race, the technical study may prove to be a wise choice in chosing the right path and there is still a way we could WIN that race, not only with the first chemical available out of Canada, but also the RIGHT chemical produced from the company with the BIGGEST resource base in NA with the potential 100+MT 1.3% Moblan PLUS what seems to be a suddenly increasing quality deposit at NAL to fuel the refinery.
We are only a Lithium price surge away from being back to a premier Lithium producing outfit and the only hurdle is a period of stunted growth which we will need to combat with big steps taken quickly. Money in the bank helps this. Non-forecasted sales can expedite the plans also.
These are all motions that would certainly provide confidence in SYA if the BOD can deliver some guidance or divulge some of the new plans or timelines at the AGM that would give us investors a spring in their step. Or even of they can divulge that they are on the same page.
(20min delay)