I emailed Nigel Ferguson yesterday and obviously he could not tell me anything specific.
What I got though was that AVZ recognize their position of strength where they have the largest lithium resource and lithium is in huge demand and that AVZ will not be selling out their shareholders early. In other words they have the advantage and they will demand a premium which tells me they are strongly committed to going mining and maximising shareholder wealth!
My suspicion on the downturn in the lithium market is one, the profit taking, and two the Shanghai lockdown where production has slowed and in some cases stopped. This is reflected when you look at the Chinese lithium companies share prices and has nothing to do with AVZ.
The good news is that
this is only temporary.
Lithium demand is not going away and is going up exponentially and with that the lithium price. This is because there was little exploration and development of lithium mines when lithium prices tanked, emission mandates and therefore the retooling of auto makers to electric vehicles and energy storage requiring lithium, and also the shelving of major projects decreasing supply like Rio's Jadar in Serbia which was supposed to solve a significant portion of lithium demand in Europe; no chance of that with AVZ having the lowest carbon footprint!
I have come way with even a harder conviction of the fundamentals of AVZ and look forward to the many company making short term re-rating catalysts-
PRESS HEREAIMO
