General Discussion Topics, page-80496

Was just watching an interview with Phil Thick...figured would learn a little about the other companies that are influncing the lithium market while we wait for the end of year/New year announcements...long term holder just putting in my time...

This is an interview held in 2018 but still relevent. Phil Thick was interesting to listen to- interesting journey.
Phil Thick talks lithium (businessnews.com.au)

Interesting notes from this interview and some side information that I looked up while listening - (Though I live in a household of engineers I have not received an engineering degree by osmosisso some of the following notes are no news to our Engineers on HC- please correct me if I understood any of this wrongly)

* Tianqi (51%) entered in a JV in 2021 with IGO (49%)- China at the time own 46% of lithium production
* He talked about the Kwinana Lithium hydroxide refinery - stating what has already been said here that hydroxide is what the battery factories are looking for- rather than carbonate. He stated that hard rock produces hydroxide directly; whereas brine has to go to carbonate and then hydroxide.
I understand that the NAL plant was already carbonate- and can ony assume that time and cost was the reason for not changing it to hydroxide.
* He stated that (2018) others were looking at downstream processing. - looked further into this...

• PLS in 2021 finalises an agreement with POSCO for hydroxide production Pilbara Minerals finalises deal with POSCO for S.Korea lithium facility | Reuters . In 2019 CATL buys 8.5% stake in Pibara - China's CATL buys into beaten down Australian lithium miner Pilbara | Reuters - of interest is "The move by Contemporary Amperex Technology Co (CATL) is the latest example of automotive battery makers taking stakes in mines to secure access to key battery ingredients such as lithium, nickel and cobalt ahead of an expected demand boom." This was an article in 2019- baffles the mind when presently - the financial institution are downgrading lithium when this has been known all along.
• MIN - Mineral Resources and Jiangxi Ganfeng Lithium Co. Ltd. each own a 43.1% stake in Mount Marion, while Neometals has a 13.8% interest. Neometals has Eli process to convert spod to hydroxide and have been actively promoting this process as seen in a presentation to the EU NMT: ELi Process - EU Project Presentation - Mineral Resources Limited (ASX:MIN) - Listcorp.

Found it interesting that you would bunch these three together (PLS; MIN; and Tianqi/IGO) since SB informed us that BarrenJoey was promoting these three companies. If so - could be the culprit of the shorts and with a good reason as they place a target for their next move. Of the three - PLS is getting heavy pockets- recently announincing a dividend. Would they be added to Wallaby's sinking boat cartoon of sharks roaming Sayona? In order for them to enter the Canadian market would they have to buy out CATL? Can they do this? Canadian goverment has divested some Chinese companies from owning in Canadian mines. This is all conjecture - just enjoying the research into what was said in the past and what is coming to fruition.

Happy Thanksgiving to our American friends.