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18:40
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Originally posted by nrcmedia
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niu...just curious about what your take is on Orocobre's approach to this whole Argentine project. Do you think you would be less of an apologist if ORE had just been straightforward about their progress starting back in 2014...and admitted the truth..that they had made some mistakes in the design work of the processing plant rather than announcing each subsequent quarter that they needed to add a cyclone, or an additional piece of equipment that they claimed was because of some natural phenomenon in the raw lithium chemistry rather than a miscalculation in the requirements to produce a higher grade of lithium carbonate, at what they claim is the prescribed plant capacity of 17,500 tons per year? It almost seems that the original planning was just a case of misdiagnoses of the issues that would have to be dealt with in the real world, and was complicated by 'unexpected' events in the 'ramp up'...which in my business experience would have just been diagnosed as bad planning and incompetent engineering. I mean after all...this is supposed to be an international mining company. Everyone can make mistakes...but continuing to make one excuse after another about these supposed obstacles to full production just seems like poor planning from the start. Each quarterly report is followed up with a rationalization of the missed targets and the positive spin put on under production and inferior grade carbonate. In fact...if the world market hadn't taken a turn to 'spectacular' pricing this past year or so.....ORE would be out raising more capital as we speak. It's an interesting turn of events that companies like Lithium Americas, who have nothing more than mining leases,and is at least 4-5 years away from producing anything, even with a partnership with SQM. Yet it is selling at ridiculous multiples. Don't you find those kind of evaluations distressing? Companies that are nothing more than smoke and mirrors get as much respect in the market as a producing company like ORE?
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I think it is a bit harsh to say that ORE "made mistakes". It was the first new brine plant built in 20 years, and ORE did not have access to the design of any of the existing brine plants (and there were probably differences in the brine chemistry that would have impacted the design to some extent anyway). No doubt they got the best chemical plant designers/engineers that they could, and hoped that it would all work to plan "out of the box", but reality is that teething problems were likely to occur, and did so.
