News: ORE INSIGHT-Electric car revolution brightens outlook for a medley of metals, page-23

IMO its the fault of orocobre management not being transparent enough about the quality of their lithium they were selling. if they told the truth from the beginning, things would have been better (marketing wise).

Ok, so what did they tell us about what they were making and where they were selling it? A quick comb back through the announcements reveals regular reports on material being recovered from tanks within the purification circuit (ie not fully processed) and also the markets they were selling in to at various times (battery market sales did not start until Q1)

21/10/2016 Olaroz Operations Update
Production at the Olaroz Lithium Facility continued to increase in September with 256 tonnes of lithium carbonate produced. Of this total there was approximately 50 tonnes of saleable lithium carbonate recovered in the purification circuit under the changed operating conditions after the modifications to the cooling of the return solutions were made, as discussed below....

...The blocking of the heat exchanger plates results in inconsistent temperatures leading to the collection of solid lithium carbonate in the tanks after the absorption stage (the ~50 tonnes of product referred to earlier)...

...lithium carbonate solids were accumulating from the plant drainage in a large concrete environmental tank prior to discharge from the plant. Subsequent investigations have indicated a potential additional 150 tonnes of saleable lithium carbonate in this tank that will now be recovered and sold. The system will also be changed to stop lithium carbonate reporting to this tank over coming weeks...

30/10/2016 Quarterly Activities Report
All product that has been reported as produced is saleable product and has been sold or committed to a customer’s purchase order. As previously advised, samples have also been sent to a number of battery and industrial sector customers as the final stage of product qualification.

04/12/2015 Olaroz Operations Update
Production at the Olaroz Lithium Facility continued to increase in November with 365 tonnes of lithium carbonate produced, an increase of 49 tonnes on October. Of this production, 53 tonnes was recovered from within the purification circuit.

14/01/2016 Olaroz Operations Update
Production at the Olaroz Lithium Facility continued to increase in December with 427 tonnes of lithium carbonate produced, an increase of 62 tonnes on November, with production rates of 20 tonnes per day (tpd) being achieved towards the end of the month. Of the total tonnes produced 65 tonnes were recovered from within the purification circuit

22/01/2106 Quarterly Activities Report
All product that has been reported as produced is saleable product and has been sold or committed to a customer’s purchase order. As previously advised, samples have also been sent to a number of battery and industrial sector customers as the final stage of product qualification and some customers are still completing the final evaluation process. There are currently customer orders in hand from five (5) battery market customers that have completed the product approval process and placed commercial purchase orders

09/02/2016 Olaroz Operations Update
Production at the Olaroz Lithium Facility continued to increase in January, with 699 tonnes of lithium carbonate produced, an increase of 272 tonnes on December. Included in the 699 tonnes produced in January is 80 tonnes recovered from within the purification circuit....
...The sales orders to the first five (5) battery market customers who have completed the final evaluation process and placed commercial purchase orders are scheduled for dispatch in February and March. Some customers in the battery sector are still completing the final evaluation process.

12/04/2016 Olaroz Operations update
*Includes lithium carbonate tonnes recovered from within tanks in the purification circuit (187 Tonnes in the March Quarter)

18/04/2016 Quarterly Activities report
Commercial shipments of lithium carbonate continue to be dispatched from the Olaroz Lithium Facility to Europe, Asia and the USA. Normal production is sold as either battery, technical or industrial grade products and sold into the chemicals manufacturing, industrial and battery sectors. “In process” material (recovered from within tanks in the purification circuit) is sold to plants in China for further processing. Commercial dispatches of high purity product commenced to battery market customers during the quarter and additional customers will be supplied in Q2.

19/07/2016 Quarterly Activities report
In addition, changes to carbon dioxide injection points and diffusor design modification have resulted in the elimination of “in process” material and the achievement of more stable operating conditions throughout the circuit.


Those who have looked at the Customs data may be aware of the following shipments
15-031-ES01-000001-G 16/12/2015
15-031-INTE-001422-A 11/12/2015
16-031-EC07-000001-U 5/2/2016
All of these at anomalously very low price... (NB - not selling at high price)
Very helpfully, the in process material is described as "in proc"

It seems to me that there is not a lot hidden here.

How far should transparency go? Whatever is disclosed to investors is also disclosed to competitors - competitors who as "established players" are excused from any obligations to report in similar detail... It seems that, for some, nothing less than the corporate equivalent of running down the street naked and shouting "look at me" will be sufficient.

In my opinion, the transparency from ORE exceeds what we saw with GXY's Jiangsu start up and the outcome has been somewhat better. I await with interest to see the reporting of the start up of Mt Cattlin and Mt Marion.

As for Joe, it takes more than regular tweets on the state of the lithium market to make him independent - he is an active participant in the market (buying and selling product, consulting, etc) and, in my opinion, that makes the "independent" tag questionable. I have already commented on his fallibility today so I will comment no further on that.

You are being a bit unfair describing the commissioning process as taking three years - that may be valid in respect of the filling of the ponds and start up of the liming plant but the carbonate plant commissioning began in Sept 2014, if my reading of history is correct. Two years would be a fair number.

I do agree that a straight duplication of the existing Olaroz facility is the least technical risk development for stage 2. Market demand may make a hydroxide circuit very tempting though - it may be a worthwhile risk for a portion of the stage 2 output.