Punters are selling out. Funds are buying and new punters are buying.
The company is still on track to meet all its targets. Below from their last quarterly report December 31st 2017.
This is what they achieved last quarter. There is talk about NVX being a lithium play, this is not correct.
NVX is a graphite investment where they purify the graphite to such a level they will be selling it to Lithium battery manufacturers for $US8,000-$US20,000 per tonne instead of mining graphite and selling it for $US800-1000 per tonne.
Both are commodity inputs into Lithium batteries but NVX's high graphite anode extends the life of Lithium batteries for cars, defense force equipment and machinery by 30% or more. Dr Buiel's research is about to come to fruition see below.
As Lithium price falls, it allows the battery manufacturers to spend more on NVX's Graphite anode.
Graphite Anode Development
The December 2017 Quarter
This quarter was focused on continued refinement of product and production process,
design, procurement and installation of a pilot processing facilityin Tennessee, and preparation for higher commercial tonnage trials.
The product development work verified and expanded on the intellectual property
acquired from Coulometrics and provides PUREgraphite with compelling hard performance data when engaging the market.
PUREgraphite is manufacturing anode materials that demonstrate extremely high levels of electrochemical efficiency, consistently above “best in class” reference EV cells commercially available in the market today and in line with our expectations.
Our PUREgraphite team based in Chattanooga Tennessee USA currently includes our
CEO, Dr Edward Buiel, five engineers, five technicians, and part-time support staff.
During the December Quarter, our facility in Chattanooga was upgraded to accommodate the pilot plant including a significant electrical upgrade to run furnaces and milling equipment, along with a security upgrade to better protect the facility and our intellectual property.
Pre-shipment inspection and testing was undertaken on critical pilot plant equipment
with manufacturers to ensure it met our requirements before dispatch to Tennessee.
The pilot plant equipment was shipped, received and installed during the quarter.
The pilot plant enables the business to manufacture its anode material products
(including all process steps under one roof) in sufficient quantities to support comprehensive customer qualification programs going forward. End-to-end capability at Tennessee now includes capability to crush, mill, shape and blend precursor materials, perform thermal purification, undertake multiple particle coatings and heat treatments, manufacture high quality electrodes and battery cells and perform comprehensive battery cell testing and benchmarking.
Our pilot plant will be used to manufacture and customize product samples for customer
qualification programs (up to 50 kg per day) while also accelerating our internal product
development programs.
Testing of suppliers and service providers was another active work stream during the
quarter and this continues through the next two quarters.
We maintain our target of establishing a 1,000 tpa production capability by 30 June 2018 that will incorporate a combination of internal production and some outsourced components.
We are also making good progress in assessing options, developing plans, assessing sites and service providers to rapidly scale the business up to 100 ktpa of anode material production.
Battery testing business
The December 2017 Quarter
BTS has had one of its strongest sales quarters since formation of the business. Strong sales growth was experienced from both existing customers and many new customers, including a number of leading global brand names.
Demand for our newly-released larger testing system is strong. The first two units were shipped to two very large global battery-makers in Asia, with both companies now seeking to buy more units based on the performance of the systems received.
During the quarter BTS relocated to expanded premises approximately five times larger,
to accommodate planned growth and diversification of this business.
The staffing for the BTS business has also been increased to facilitate higher production levels to meet higher customer demand.The business also recruited its first full time sales and marketing representative who commenced in January.
Work continues to refine new battery cell testing technologies. The first prototype for
our non-destructive chemical analysis equipment has performed well and we have
commenced design and build of a second prototype. This prototyping and development
is ongoing, and we aim to finish development in 2018 for commercialization in 2019.
G
NVX Price at posting:
70.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
(20min delay)