Good interview, well worth listening to re Lithium supply/demand.
I can see the market having a light bulb moment in the near future, and all of a sudden realise prices aren't coming down.
On a different subject a few more notes from the GM much of it already mentioned.
Mike said they are "on the brink" of updating the reserve & resource figures
Started mining N’Tiola 6 weeks ago
Finished dewatering, still repatriating tailings
Close to finalising debt finance with Ganfeng
Goulamina close to being lowest cost quartile, close because Greenbushes takes up that whole quartile, but outside
Greenbushes, Goulamina will be one of the lowest cost producers.
My comment, this very often is overlooked, low cost = high profit, and if/when a downturn does eventually come - only the low cost producers will stay in business
Roads 7m wide,70% complete, aim to finish in July before wet season, was previously bush tracks
Step out hole 50m outside of previous drilling to south, outside resource area, 68m pegmatite, still to receive assays
Simon said when he was at Galaxy, Mt Catlin we’d get excited with 3m
Project completion 2 years from now, hope to take months off that
Ganfeng were going to start converter construction next year, now this year, eager to accelerate project
news flow, drilling but unlikely to update resource/reserve this year, gen market updates
drilling to prove up resource to measured category, many previous holes finished in mineral, so will drill some holes down to 300m, or till it exhausts
extra rigs available, but limited by Geologists, 1 RC +1 diamond rig at Goula, talking about bringing in more if needed
we only stopped at 100 resource / 50 reserve because thats all we needed for a long mine life, it’s open laterally & at depth
Simon made the point it’s good to have the govt as a partner, what happens in countries where govt doesn’t have a stake it becomes very adversarial
will look at moving for the govt take extra 10% during the year, almost a certainty they’ll want the extra 10%, market price but don’t expect a cheque, expect duty/tax offsets etc
stage 2 offtake available, no hurry. Ganfeng completely open to all possibilities, could partner ganfeng to build a converter, or selling into N America/Europe.
These regions don’t have spodumene, are planning chemical factories so will need supply, Ganfeng are aware of this
Any investment in another country gives you the opportunity to offset development costs (against tax)
