The tides are turning, page-3

According to Shortman, we are shorted to around 19%. I'm not really sure why they're still hanging around, unless (as Mark F alluded to) they're trapped. Last Thursday 40%of the stock traded (around 1.1m) was shorted, trying to hold the price down (imo). It's great to see the price rising lately nevertheless, and i think we are going to see a continuation of the price rises in the future due to our pond inventory issues having been addressed/resolved.

On 27 February 2017, (from the earning call transcript) Richard Seville said:

- we are in a strong financial position with $US 30 million in the bank
- EBITDAX of 35.4 m and a gross margin of $US 5,660 per tonne - a 64% gross margin
- a group net profit of $7.4 million (first time)
- there will be a significant production increase into the first-half FY 2018. And as we have gone through this half, we’ll provide firm guidance on that later. But it will be significant production increase into the first-half next year.

An excerpt from the script...

"Our operational understanding has taken longer than anticipated, but there are no design impediments to prohibit nameplate being achieved. And we’ve got a good operating team on the ground which is fully motivated to achieve those objectives.

We’ve got a simplified growth strategy for Olaroz and for lithium in general. We will be expanding, obviously, subject to approval to double capacity to 35,000 tonnes of lithium carbonate production with commissioning at the end of next year. There will be a revised product mix though. So we will maintain the 17,500 tonnes per annum of battery grade material. And what we have done, moved into 17,500 tonnes of industrial grade of which 9,000 tonnes per annum will be used to feed the 10,000 tonnes per annum lithium hydroxide plant in Japan. That is the strategy.

That revised product mix leads to simplified expansion. It is a duplification of borates supply, duplification of ponds and a duplification of primary circuit, a circuit that as you know is running very well. The fast-track construction of the first module of the 10,000 tonnes lithium hydroxide plant in Japan will be fed by the Olaroz industrial grade product.

In terms of the market, strong lithium market fundamentals persist. We have got 33 current customers and a wide range of prospective ones that spread through Japan, South Korea, Europe, USA and China. We have strong demand for our products, both industrial and battery grade products. And our pricing is firming in this quarter to approximately US$10,000 per tonne, FOB basis."

https://seekingalpha.com/article/40...ille-q4-2016-results-earnings-call-transcript