TLG - Media, page-13112

Hi Gvan,

you are one of the most regular contributors of helpful and insightful information on Talga and the environment, and on the whole your last post is accurate, but I would like to put it into perspective.

It is correct that Mark Thompson expressed in the last webinar in May that from his point of view the permits for the anode plant are more important and time-critical than the permits for the mine, where in theory it is also okay to get them later. In principle, this sounds logical, because the construction of the anode factory is significantly more time-consuming and costly, while it would presumably also not be a problem if we did not receive approval regarding the mining rights for another year. However, this only applies to the aspect that we do not need graphite until the factory is up and running, and that we have also already been allowed to mine and stockpile a good amount of graphite with existing permits. Nevertheless, I have a feeling of unease that there is still no clarity here. Not so much because as a shareholder I would like to have as few risks and open questions as possible and this usually helps the share price - much more because I don't believe that we can make progress in the area of financing and possible offtakes as long as the permits for graphite mining have not been confirmed beyond doubt.

Basically, I've been wondering for quite some time anyway what Talga's current schedule looks like. Unfortunately, the slide in the presentation was removed more than a year ago if I recall it correctly, submitted questions in the quarterly meetings for a update regarding this are largely ignored and I personally can hardly imagine that the schedule communicated back then is still close to realistic. At the time I think there was talk of generating significant revenue by the end of 2024, but that was before the October 2022 webinar where Mark was hopeful of having permitting, funding and offtakes sorted out by spring 2023, and meanwhile we are already heading into the fall, meaning we continue to be up in the air on many issues. And we haven't touched other trends yet such as low prices in natural as well as synthetic graphite, cost increase due to inflation, progress of companies with graphite-free anodes and so on which do not make it easier to confirm DFS numbers which were solid in themselves. As usual, as a stakeholder of Talga you need a very long breath (especially if you have invested in Talga only at the beginning of 2021 and have not been able to make any profits since then).

I hope this won't be interpreted as downramping or anything like that, it's just the perspective of someone who tends to focus on critical aspects. Nevertheless, I still hope of course that we will have fully ramped up production in the course of 2025, that future expansions might be a bit faster and easier, that we will benefit from EU funding or even from the IRA if necessary, that we will conclude an offtake agreement with Tesla, VW, Stellantis and Mercedes Benz at the same time, and that we can indeed surprise with Talnode-Si that may make our market value rise a lot faster than expected.