Production in 2023, what gives?, page-6

OK. First of all the PFS  announcement says production will be by 2022. I read the PFS saying that if we go it ourselves by using debt and equity financing then we can meet production by 2022. However, the upside comes from the fact that JV partners who see this timeline say we need it earlier and we need more and are willing to spend the money & bring in our expertise to advance and make it a bigger project. Remember there is also every reason for battery makers/interested parties to speed up production so they will be doing their best to do so. This is a fight for survival for battery makers - if they don't produce batteries for EV they will become extinct and the battery makers with access to supply will take their place.

Now here is a bit of conjecture on my part so treat it as such:

CLQ already has Chinese interests present, AUZ recently did a deal with Korean company. What about the other major battery producing country - Japan? They are clearly interested to do a deal in a stable country as they don't want to be left out:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...tralia-canada-cobalt-developers-idUSKBN1GV0C2

Enter Sumitomo as one of the potential JV partner and would be the excellent fit for Ardea IMO:
- They have successfully built, commissioned and operated 2 HPAL plants (Coral Bay & Taganito) and would be able to leverage their expertise in this to shorten the construction/commissioning leadtime. Possibly also some savings on CAPEX/OPEX.
- They have a large balance sheet, have invested in Australian mines/smelters (Coal, Copper and Aluminium via JVs with Rio) and have offices here.
- Have a long term view, they were happy to invest in HPAL from the early 2000's and would be happy to take the upside of Scandium exposure given they are also big producers of aluminium alloys.
- They already their HPAL products to Japanese battery producers and have done so for a very long time. Remember the Japanese were the first to produce Li-Ion batteries...