plant tour

Ok just back from plant tour. Firstly was great for ESI to put this on and give a full presentation of both the Coldry and Matmor processes. All the directors that i spoke to and other ESI workers at the plant and were all very friendly and willing to answer question and have a chat. They also put on a nice light lunch and drinks (not the alcoholic ones by the way) lol. there were about 40 people including ESI people.

Ok where do i start. Firstly by looking at the Coldry process it is a no brainer that this technology will be huge and the process is so simple but so effective in turning that dirty brown coal into these long black pellets that are both efficient and are produced at a nice cheap cost with some great margins when sold. They explained that the whole process of buying the coal and putting through the Coldry process leads to a cost around the $30 > $35 range. Coal has been selling at $100 > $120 so this pelleted coal being sold at a price near them prices will be a no brainer for countries of the likes of China, India, Korea and Vietnam to step up to building these plants around the world and producing black coal equivalent at them prices. In turn ESI could have Coldry plants worldwide earning a nice royalty stream and paying dividends down the track. Not forgetting the Vic government brown coal export plans and Coldry is in the right place at the right time.

I spoke to a number of directors including Ian Mcewin, Michael Davies and Ashley Moore. Firstly Ian was very easy to chat to and from my perspective came across as someone who was keen as a director and shareholder to see ESI grow and go all the way after the troubled times in the past. On speaking to Ashley Moore he is very enthusiastic about both the technologies and said they are in the best financial and strategic position they have ever been in with Monash Capital committing the funds to pay for the DFT and accelerate and derisk the process. I asked when they believe the DFT would be completed and they said that it had been targeted for towards the end of year but with Monash on board that should be accelerated after the meeting next friday to approve the Monash issue. Next Friday all approved then the game changes and ESI move forward with the partner to both pay for the DFT but also have a big part in the future of building 1st plant but also in future deals. I also asked Ashley how many other technologies were out there and where ESI sat in comparison. He believed Coldy was in the top few out of 50 or so worldwide but Coldry being only 1 of few being in late stage with pilot plant and with the cost of production and efficiency to top it off. Then of course there is Matmor which Ashley stated would be a perfect fit for India and that ESI are looking for the right partner with experience and the $$ to take Matmor forward to develop.

Ok what more can i say. There was a mix of investors and others. All were wearing badges and stating where from. I didn't speak to all of them but we had a few Asians along with company names on their badges. Also chatted to a girl working with state government in researching new technologies and they allocated funding/grants to these companies. I asked her opinion of the Coldry process and she said it ranks highly among competing technologies and is 1 of the few at the pilot stage ready to move forward after DFT. I said how bout give ESI some big $$ grants. LOL. We also had someone from the university of Athens and other universities. Not sure who everyone was and maybe others who went may have spoken to different people so can give their take on who they spoke to.

I walked away very happy with my position in ESI and believe we are in for 1 big year. Think next friday is a big day for ESI and the past issues are long gone and ESI will be moving forward rapidly.