For a Behemoth ' Premier ' Global Lithium player and the US markets , it's nothing really.
And it's interesting timing because if you look back , no one has ever really done badly out of an Albemarle market offer raising. So will be no problem digesting that amount;
More interesting is apart from what they are actually stating , what else might they have their sight set on with this US$1.7 - 2.1 billion for ....... ( A$2.6 - $3.2 odd billion ).
And for the record and just on another point , it wasn't hard to figure out something was definitely up with Frontier Lithium , but the the whole Mitsubishi was never spoken about by Management as being the ' Marlin ' but more a speculative idea raised by myself several times including over 8 months ago and more recently when we Appointed Mr Dow. with his connections to the BHP / Mitsubishi coal JV.
However this JV which Mitsubishi had been endeavoring to exit pending various approvals etc....and the fact they were looking with interest at various battery metals projects including Lithium had been raised by myself several times and is not NEW information. If you remember from the various articles put up in the forum , their Chief operations Director stated they would definitely be looking at an project that had the Chemicals already established and running along side of the concentrate as it made no sense in their view.
So Mitsubishi with its C$25 million deal for 7.5% of Frontier is definitely NOT done here in its battery metals pursuits.
And isn't it funny that the mere announcement of the deal apart from the preemptive market run up in its SP , that once the announcement dropped it values Frontier almost immediately the implied value less approximately 20% ......, whereas when Sayona did the deal for its 60% stake in Moblan for $125 million PLUS spent another near $100 million on it could never muster a valuation even close to to that circa A$220 million for its 60% stake. Else if it did , that puts NAL at only a current valuation of around A$210 - 215 million with over a hundred million in the bank and a further $100 million or thereabouts spent on that ' PRODUCING ' project as well.....
So yeah , it just goes to show that in order to reflect the true value in your project other than putting in your own capital , is that you have to have a deal brokered with a heavy hitting metals player with deep pockets and strong balance sheet.
Our turn will come , but Mitsubishi was but only ONE potential partner and could very well still be in the mix on account of Mr Lucas Dow's connections.
The good thing is that my own idea is still very much in the mix which may end up bringing them ( Mitsubishi ) or someone else into our tent as well.
At the end of the day , what's good for Ontario Lithium is good for Quebec Lithium and good for CANADA lithium supply chain as well - So I'm not concerned rally that our deal hasn't come to the front yet as it is clearly far more complicated given Sayona and the NAL producing operations is further along the development curve and as well as having the existing corporate structure that already has Piedmont as a minority 25% partner with clearly NOT the deep pockets that are needed ....
(20min delay)