So I had a chance to have a good listen to the webinar last night (wild Friday night on baby duty). There was a heap of good information, titbits and reassurance in there. I’ve transcribed the parts that I found most exciting/relevant for those that don’t have the time or inclination to watch the whole thing. All emphasis/bold is my own doing, Mark plays a pretty straight bat, but they are all his words if they are in quotation marks. Anything in [brackets] I have added for context.
Production: “…we currently have got a scoping study to go over 100,000 tons of anode production per year, but I would say that … you know.. we’re continuously reviewing that in light of
demand from our customers which is far in excess of that, both within Europe and
globally as well..”Financing and debt/equity: “Project financing has been very successful, to be honest. The 60/40 debt/equity plan has gone really well ... We had an
excess of demand for the debt. The European Investment Bank corner stoning with 150 million Euros there, and we have completed the Consortium which.. we can’t name yet until all the final terms are signed off on.. which is in some ways related to the mining permit.. and other progress as well, but yeah,
we’ve certainly got in excess of what was out target there” ... “Equity, we’ve got multiple areas we’re looking at, from state aid, to strategic partners, customers, and other groups, as well as institutional investors interested in participating in the building of this project. So yeah.. when we say ‘equity’, we mean there’s a whole range of different.. we just mean ‘non-debt’, and the details of that will come out when finalised”
Intellectual Property: “..importantly for both battery cell makers, but, also for the OEMs is the fact that we own our own technology, we’re not licensing anyone else’s stuff. We have a very active intellectual property process of identifying IP within the company … patents that are very useful and valuable in other ways, and
there’s some valuation that’s going on right now as other companies are interested in licensing our tech for things”Potential Investors: “
I’ve just come back from taking some pretty significant um potential shareholders and strategic investors and um, partners up to the site in Sweden, so I was in the Arctic with them a few days ago…” [Could this perhaps be related to the SP appreciation above the announced SPP price this week?]
Product validation: “We’re talking here about [our] materials being validated by
many, many, many companies … we’re part way through the qualification processes with, or in fact some we’ve ended the qualification process, and
we’re in commercial negotiations with about different products for different parts of the world”
[In reference to the above slide]: “What you see here is a whole bunch of [battery] cell makers building gigafactories in Europe, and uh, nearly 100% of the materials going into those factories is via China .. [in terms of supply] these factories are empty, they have nothing to put in them except Chinese material, and this is why the Chinese permitting restriction [beginning Dec 1 2023] was so effective in scaring the heebies out of the automakers … [they were] really shaken up by that news,
and the phone just started ringing hot straight away”
Talnode Si: With the pilot plant running, and engineering and feasibility studies underway for going commercial which we are waiting to reveal details on .. because we’ve applied for pretty substantial financial support from state groups and also from customers that we’re talking to about playing a role in and deciding where the plant goes. We don’t want to talk too much about it until we’ve got it all lined up”
Mining Permit Appeals: “… it’s just important to recognise that these are natural processes for them [the Swedes].. you’re allowed this process, and so of course anyone that’s got an objection to the project will utilise that to their benefit, just to hold things up- rather than with a belief that they’re actually going to win.. but that’s their process and we’ve got to respect that”
All in all, while there wasn’t a heap of new information, there were some subtle changes in tone/language that got me excited. The way Mark spoke about everything from the international team(s) TLG have assembled, the R&D work in Cambridge, the Talnode Si progression, discussions with OEMs and other anode producers, the IRA, the reasoning behind the SPP, and lots of other things, all just reeked of a calm, assured confidence. I genuinely believe that once appeals are squished, things will flow rapidly. TLG is an absolute gem. IMO. GLA.
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(20min delay)