Running discussion on SP, page-53192

Hi Pasboz,

Yes of course its possible to construct a 10mtpa plant upfront and have it just sitting there for when we are ready ; there's very little that's impossible in the processing plant business provided you have the cash and you have a management that's very experienced at monitoring, controlling and instinctively, through experience; sees the challenges / issues rapidly forming on the horizon and being comfortable at sidestepping or breaking them down; the CATH cash is a great stepping stone; but its also a heavy Chinese foot on the deck and we don't think we have a management commercially savvy enough in dealing with a appreciating garaged polished Ferrari, when there's a couple of hoon Chinese boyracers just wishing for that door to come down and those who lent the cash , being more than happy to drop the hammer, recall the debt and reel in the project.

So when would the garage door to this 10mtpa plant open up and the key get turned? IMO , even taking in the road improving, in reckon that Manono chokes out at 4mtpa and opex issues relating to haulage would be 'incoming'. There's no problem extracting , theres no problem loading , no problem processing; AVZ could do multiples of 10mtpa is they had the plant ; 10mtpa is mining terms isnt huge; problems get served at the gate; hence why a hydroxide is critical for the clearing of the output deck from a 10mtpa plant . the volume from a 10mtpa plant is impossible to catered for by road to the rail node imho .

We all remember not too long ago when many here were totally anti any further accumulating chinese involvement ; it was all cheers for the Europeans, saudi's whom were coming around the corner with flags flying ...... everyone knows the potential issues with have too many chinese passengers on board....well; when the bus arrived... there were no yanks, saudis nor Europeans on board..they were all still in bed, most likely waiting on a mining license ann...instead we had a bus full of chinese and yes we were all cheering on the Chinese again .

Rising lithium tide is raising all boats , Hydroxide plant plans in various locations across the globe is near common chat these days; ive zero doubt that Manono will have a Hydroxide plant sitting on or close to it; that was clear as day from early on, but management apparently didn't actually agree with that not too many moons ago ; not required !

Anyway ; personally id love to see a hydroxide plant at Manono. Would i like to see a 10mtpa plant built at Manono and left idle through the mining infancy period which is the period when all that can go wrong will go wrong they get on their feet.....100% no, personally i think AVZ would be commercially eaten alive, they'd be gravestoned beside AJM.

Preference for me would be for a western entity to climb on board and level things up a bit, we've topped out on what id consider to be a safe blend of chinese involvement ; needs some western flavours to balance and counter any Chinese stiff hands.

Loving the shareprice movement , but increasingly nervous for AVZ management from this point on; unchartered territory and i reckon Nigel will stubbornly push on without taking much advise from others.

Excuse the grammer and fat finger spelling