Hi Split,I seldom post here, but I am a long term SYAXF holder....

Hi Split,
I seldom post here, but I am a long term SYAXF holder. I check this site often and appreciate the contributions from you and many others here. I don’t remember if you mentioned anything about the existing carbonate plant at NAL when you visited the site. I was wondering if the existing plant is in ready to go shape or if it needs work/retrofit, I was also curious about its capacity. I had read that the previous owner produced 3.8k tons of carbonate from it, but I can’t find the capacity of the existing plant. Is it 5k ton/yr, 10k ton/yr (unlikely) or something else? Can you share what you know about this carbonate plant in terms of readiness to produce, capacity and anything else that may be pertinent? Thank you.

I am curious because it seems that assuming that the Spodumene plant is able to ramp up in say 12 months to close to 200k ton/yr, then it may be more profitable to produce some carbonate with the existing carbonate plant than to sell the excess Spodumene that Piedmont doesn’t get or want. Assuming 5k tons/yr of carbonate being roughly equivalent to 40k tons or Spodumene, the carbonate could bring over $100M/yr more revenue than the Spodumene at today’s prices. I realize that there are costs to, startup and other factors involved that may complicate, delay or even stop this approach on its tracks, but it seems like a good way to get much needed extra cash for at least a few years while Sayona plans a larger refinery. I am thinking that it could be done as an auction type process like Pilbara does with its excess Spodumene. Do you have any thoughts about this or did you get the impression from your visit to the site the company that Sayona may be considering this approach or something similar?

Thank you in advance to you and others that may want ti chime in.