I believe thats spot on @arfbarf. Those dates may have slipped a...

I believe thats spot on @arfbarf. Those dates may have slipped a little though. Arcadium has 50% interest in Nemaska Lithium (Whabouchi mine/concentrator and Becancour refinery) with IQ the 50% (and IQ has confirmed their funding participation with Arcadium as has been noted). The mine seems on track for early 2025 ... so call it mid 2025 now (say within the year) and they have always talked about a "natural lag" between mine and refinery" - up to almost 2 years", noting that "integration is difficult" and trying to integrate from day one brings a lot of "execution risk", so maybe late 2026 commissioning for Becancour.




PG was quite emphatic about their plans for Nemaska (just as emphatic also on why some others are "delayed") on Q2 earnings call
"We are not changing our plans for the development of Nemaska Lithium, the 32,000 metric ton integrated spodumene to hydroxide project in Canada. The combination of our progress made to date and the strong customer commitments we have in place for the project give us confidence in continuing to push forward towards commercial production."

There is an investor day coming for Arcadium Sep 19th where they plan to take analysts to the chemical plant. He also said this in response to Q&A about why proceed with Nemaska and delay Galaxy (fka James Bay)

"... when you line them up and you look at the economics of the project, we think that a Nemaska project is unusual. Nothing’s unique, but it’s certainly unusual in our industry. Being a non-Chinese, fully integrated hydroxide plant, it has a fantastic environmental footprint with the hydroelectric power that it uses. It’s quite well advanced, quite a long way advanced, particularly the mine, but also even the Becancour chemical plant. And some of you guys will see the chemical plant on when we do the Investor Day, and we head up there. It’s also, frankly, backed by a customer who’s provided both capital and a contract that incentivizes both of us to bring that plant online on schedule.

So it has a bunch of characteristics to it. Although the fact that while it’s a big project, 50% are owned by somebody else, so we’re only responsible for half the capital. So it also has a near-term cash demand profile that’s more favorable as well."


It's those "customer commitments" underpinning Becancour that gives this project the greenlight in the present price climate. I believe their first customer is Ford.



And not to forget that GM prepaid US$198M (Aug 2022)




That's how to run a chemicals business, and why Becancour proceeds while others "stall" (or worse).