RUI Explorers Conference in PerthI attended this conference in...

RUI Explorers Conference in Perth

I attended this conference in Perth last week. Among the presenters were the CEOs of three Perth based graphite companies, Andrew Worland of International Graphite, Sean Gregory of Sarytogan Graphite and Mark Thompson of Talga Group.

I managed to catch up with the three presenters and quizzed them among other things on three subjects : China Export Licensing, synthetic graphite, and their views on Syrah.

China Export Licensing

Mark Thompson a few months ago stated that he thought the export licensing was “just a shot across the bows”. He said after discussions with BTR, Shanshan and other companies he now concedes the situation is more serious. BTR reported being able to get licenses, Shanshan was having problems, some didn’t want to comment. Posco in Korea doesn’t seem to have had their supply impeded.

Sean Gregory’s take was that the ultimate aim is to make it difficult for Europe and the USA to produce EVs at all with the view that China will dominate the EV market. Coincidentally in the Wall Street Journal on the weekend there was similar sentiment :

International Graphite is actually currently sourcing graphite (in small quantities) from China to feed their pilot spheroidising plant in Collie prior to their Springdale mine coming onstream so it will be interesting to see how they fare in the future.

Synthetic Graphite

Sean Gregory has the optimistic view that overall the percentage of synthetic in Chinese anodes is going to decrease from 85% to around 40% driven by cost, ESG concerns and customer preferences.

Talga is planning to produce anodes in Sweden and from his perspective synthetic will not play a big part due to European customer preferences. Interestingly Mark Thompson said that the synthetic he will use he is sourcing from Italy, from a company currently producing it for the industrial segment of the market.

Syrah Resources.

There were views expressed about Syrah’s travails which I am not going to repeat because it was hard to differentiate company hype, from enthusiastic bagging of a competitor, from credible information. A few points to ponder and follow up on, but nothing that dissuaded me from my view that no other graphite miner in the battery anode space is going to get financed until Syrah is successful.

If anyone is interested here are the links to the three presentations.

International Graphite

https://internationalgraphite.mymedia.delivery/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/20240214_IG6_RIU-Presentation_LR_Final.pdf

Sarytogan Graphite

https://sarytogangraphite.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/240211-Sarytogan-Graphite-Investor-Presentation-February-2024-RevC.pdf

Talga Group

https://talgagroup.eu-central-1.linodeobjects.com/app/uploads/2024/02/15173120/20240215RIUPresentation_ASX.pdf