PART 13Now, the current board are long time hard rock...

PART 13

Now, the current board are long time hard rock guys.

Institutionalized hard rock guys...

Stuck in their ways and probably risk averse to tryinganything new at this stage, including chemicals.

James is 60 and Buckler is 74.

The faceless man, hiding in the shadows, pulling thestrings.... make no mistake, this is his company, and no governance reviews,board restructures or compliance requirements, are going to tear him away fromSayona.

The old man, hiding in a dark room, counting his moneyand his shares, not wanting to relinquish an iota of power, and not receptiveto anything new.... kind of reminds me of Scrooge from the Dickens classic, ora modern-day Monty Burns...

You can’t teach an old dog new tricks.....the sayinggoes....

And Jim, by all accounts is a nice guy.... operationallybrilliant......but his Buckler's boy, in the Buckler shadow....part of theBuckler universe.

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As for Sylvain, I have a strong feeling he wants to seethis through, wants to make it happen and be the one of the first chemical guysin North America.

And you need this, you need a champion.

A pillar of strength to champion the cause....
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We had Brett and Sylvain....and now it’s justSylvain....and I hope that his experience, ability, reputation, and dynamicdrive are enough to steamroll this project through to success.

NAL needs it...we need it....
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A quick side note- Brett told me when he interviewed him,Sylvain was on a treadmill, racking up his 5 kilometres for the day, becausethe interview was scheduled at the same time he allocates to his exercise.

Now most people would just give upon the treadmill and do the interview.... not Sylvain...everywhere, everything...all the time....a human dynamo....

Brett had to insist he got off so they could talkproperly!!!

Shows you the calibre of the man and his work ethic....it’s hard not to be impressed!
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So, we said our goodbyes to Sylvain's baby, the carbonateplant, went via the workshop and the store and headed through a massive rollerdoor outside.

We walked around the right side of the building theheaded to the back where we could see the ROM pad and the five stockpiles ofgraded ore.

On our left, toward the middle of the back of thebuilding, we saw the chute where our concentrate comes out. Opposite thisdispensing area was a digger, which then scoops it up and takes it to theloading shed.

As we kept walking around the back of the building, wewere heading toward the rock crushing area with its 3 stages of crushing, theoptical ore sorter and various belt conveyors, transporting the ore around to thevarious stages.

We couldn't get too close, but we could understand what was going on.
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We also saw the early works of this new structure theyare building for the ore enclosure.

Some foundations, heaps of concrete and reo bars andsteel everywhere, and you could understand what they were trying to do.

Remember, they want to produce excess crushed ore feed tothe mill and stockpile, so if they have a breakdown, they can feed thestockpiled ore and keep the process going.
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As we headed past this area there was a huge shed.

They stockpile the final concentrate in there and SGSlabs test it before loading on the trucks for transportation to the Val Dorrailyards.

There was a truck in there being loaded and being preppedfor its next load.
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So even though the plant was not producing, they arestill shipping...the beauty of stockpiling...

They always test the concentrate in the shed beforeloading, so they know exactly what they have and can certify what is beingloaded on the trucks.

It also stops them being ripped off by an unscrupulous buyer at the other end.

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We had a little chat, discussed the differences betweenDMT and WMT, had more or less a final look and headed back to the truck.

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Back into the Lightning, and headed on our short trip, back to the admin building.

Up the stairs, back into conference room, and remove allthe safety gear, as we prepare to head off.

It was getting on a bit by this stage, so there was alittle small talk in the room.

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We were all buzzing with the experience and seeing first-handwhere all our money, where all investors’ money had gone.

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It’s very easy to lose focus when you are at arm’s lengthin Australia, and suffer CR after CR after CR... dilution, dilution,dilution.....there seemed to be no end at one stage.

But when you see Hard tangible assets, a living breathingproducing mine like a small town, self-sufficiently operating, and then youfactor in we have no debt and can ride out.

these low cycles of the lithium market, you understandthe strategy and it hits home...... it makes sense...

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I am not saying all this fund raising was done at idealtimes or the process was handled perfectly....

But here we are and look at what we have.

While most others are still raising capital for studiesand permits and preliminary works.....with such a long road ahead ofthem.....we have a real mine and production facility.

Bloody Awesome!

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S: Guys, we better get moving you have your flight back.I can take you past the Solurail Rail yards where our product is loaded. Wouldyou like to see that?

L: Of course, mate, let’s have a look.
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Back downstairs, into the Lightning, and we drive slowlyaway from NAL, to head back to Val Dor.

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We pass a few trucks and farm vehicles headed on our roadback to the highway.

There are still working farms around NAL, and too behonest, once you get a few hundred metres from the gate, you wouldn’t know amine existed up the road.

No noise, no dust, hell even when we were there and theyhad a scheduled blast, we didn’t feel or hear anything. Its way down in thepit, so I can see how it stays isolated.

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Back on the highway now and head toward Val Dor.

A little more discussion in the truck, can’t remember ifwe were bashing JB or not, but Sylvain turns and says-

S: Guys, would you like me to get James to contact you?
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Collectively we kind of murmurs ah.... yeah.....
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He kind of took us by surprise.

It was a out of the blue, and we stumble a little.

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S: You know, listening to you guys, I think you are morealigned with James than you think. Would you like it if I got him to reach outto you?

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Now, I have been trying to talk to this guy for ages. Ihave sent him a fairly scathing email, which no doubt did not help my cause,but yeah, I want to speak to him.

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And it was quite unanimous, we agreed.... yes, pleasehave James reach out to us...let’s set up some comms.

More on this later
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