I've just posted this in the AGM thread but thought it was worth a Double post here as well incase some haven't looked at the AGM thread.
@KingKong166 thanks for adding your thoughts. One or two new things peaked my interest also and if i had written this last night whilst it was still in my mind i would have been able to elaborate a little more but ill give it a shot as they were things i've never heard.
RECYCLINGFirstly to expand on the gas or electricty for the plants kong, They were originally designed to use gas but when they saw what was happening with the european market they redesigned. They are now completely agnostic and can use either electricity from the grid or from gas. What ever is most economical, there is no downside. So stelco having access to some of the cheapest gas prices in the world will no doubt be gas but hilchenbach will likely be grid powered.
To carry on from that point but also on a slight tangent They also had to redesign the plants ( done since the last agm i believe) to have a new first stage of discharge. That is because there has been far more demand for full sized battery packs from autos than predicted at this stage which makes it to volatile so they need to be discharged first due to the higher power capacity's than individual cells.
A question from the audience was asked about this and the reply was that in the design they will feed back the energy drained from these packs back into the grid. So people will literally be supplying some of the power to us for free to dismantle and recycle ttheir own battery packs, adding to the green credentials..
As far as the payment for the plants Mercedes are paying for that plant. and Steelco pays for theirs. The only time at which we pay for any of the stelco plant is if/when (The detail here is important) either NMT
OR Primobius decides to take up the option to JV with Stelco. I could be wrong but the way Chris answered this seemed like he chose his words very carefully.
We are funded through to the End of this financial year, Depending on the FID's that are on the table there may be a cap raise of some sort after that. They wanted to make clear It would be the companies first in 10 years (dont quote me on the time it was this or longer). At this stage however those FID's would have led the company to be substantially derisked and should be any easy decision to go forward due to the economics of the project.
There was a Question asked by a member of the audience in regards to competition and how the company feels about it. Chris answered by conceded there competition from Redwood, Licycle and northvault as well as some other minor players but basically said there will be more than enough stock for everyone and didn't seemed phased by it and noted that competition breeds innovation.
The most important thing that i noted out of his reply though and something that i have never heard him say before in any interview (this is not verbatim), was that if they need to they could take action about patent infringement. He didn't say they are planning on doing so but to even mention it was the first I'd heard of it and im not sure if he let it slip on purpose or not, Either way i just thought it was worth noting.
ELI PROCESSThat is most of the recycling stuff that I thought was worth noting.
Quickly the Bondalti Chemical process for ELi is going well. I believe we own that 70/30 with min res.
I knew it was supposed to be for increasing purity but also reduces the carbon footprint. (probably common knowledge that i hadn't picked up on as i confess to not knowing that project as well as some of the others).
VANADIUMNot too much new to add here but some of the key takeaways which are worth repeating is that it will be one of the highest purity 99.5% grades of vanadium available globally with costs in the lowest Quartile. I've mentioned this before but chris brought it up quickly again, The process also sequesters carbon. I should have asked the question whether or not we can sell this for carbon credits as going forward this is going to be big business, especially in Europe. I wish I could remember the exact context but Chris also made mention of the use of vanadium in the Aerospace industry. ( im not sure if this was a nod and a wink to a potential offtake partner that might be in the works or maybe I was just reading too much into it.)
Also that we have the option to take on a second supply for 4 million tonnes (twice the size of the SSAB stockpile), Which i believe there was a throw away line that this also had links to Mercedes. So for those that question us giving them the royaltie free plant (which they pay for the construction of anyway) there is clearly more to this story that we dont know.
BARAMBIELastly there were a few questions on barrambie. The first provided a bit of a timeline for the possible spin out of barrambie (which i still think will happen similar to WIN). There would be no decision made until there is an offtake partner signed on (Jiuxing likely due to the succesful test work they have already completed) and the shipping contracts from the mine to geraldton for export sorted. So it is not likely to be done this financial year.
One thing that i didn't know is that the Barrambie deposit is still open at depth and the deposit is actually folded into a U shape Geologically and NMT also has the rights to the land at the other end of this fold. I really need to look at some old announcements to find out more info on this. Either way there point being that there is still major upside possible here but under current circumstances it is unlikely we will chase it for now as it is not the main focus of the company. Should the economics change for what ever reason its nice to know its there in the background.
Apologies if I've missed anything and don't quote me directly on details as I was making dinner whilst watching the stream but hopefully someone gets some benefit out of it in case the meeting isn't released by NMT.
Either way the next year possibly two will be transformational for the company and im very happy to say this is my largest holding.
Good luck all
