Now that the tenements issue appears to have been sorted, we think, just the paperwork needs to be signed off.
@collinsstreet has been a little less cryptic in his musings of late. Given his track record and the musings and the research of others, time to speculate even further on future announcements.
Next big off take agreement, "a game changer" as described by CS, the smart money seems to be on VW but I wonder if VW's involvement will be via SK Innovation, their preferred EV supplier going forward, could it be SK that actually purchases the LiOH from KDR, it makes more sense to me.
KDR is currently working on finance, who better than Deutsche Bank to provide the funding, I cannot see any Australian bank stepping up to the plate given their concerns about Lithium not being traded on the LME, it seems they need their security blanket so to speak.
Interesting posts by @Haplo recently with regards renewed interest in getting a battery plant established in WA, who better than SK, I wonder if these links are starting to get more involved with a Germany link?
According to the last Deutsche Bank presentation the "DFS" and "Decision to mine and build concentrator" are due before the end of 2018.
Mine and concentrator construction are due to commence in 2019, early 2019 by the looks of the timeline.
Much speculation about KDR not making it to production before being taken over, it is interesting to note that in numerous presentations KDR has stated that it wanted to be independent of the Chinese conversion market, so cannot see a Chinese company being acceptable as a suitor unless the money is ridiculous and the FIRB approves, very unlikely. Would SQM be allowed to purchase KDR?
What about Bounty/Texas and Prince of Wales, we must be due for a drilling update on these tenements. These are a real wild card as they are outside the scope of the JV with SQM. If they are significant deposits how does KDR play the game, a much larger concentrator would be needed. Should be double the capacity than currently planned for as demand for LiOH seems to be increasing at a rate most pundits have not initially anticipated. Given that Mitsui is prepared to buy surplus spodumene there would be a market for any extra from Texas/Bounty and Prince of Wales without needing to go through the refinery, would be great if it did. What will the DFS tell us?
So may more questions than answers, hopefully key answers are coming shortly.
So my musings
SK Innovations to sign a significant off take agreement with KDR on behalf of VW and Deutsche bank to fund the refinery with the support of VW.
SK Innnovations to be the battery maker being wooed by WA and Australian goverments.
DFS to commit to an increased capacity for the concentrator from 300,000 t pa to 450,000 tpa for 66,000 tpa of LiOH
Mine and concentrator construction to begin mid February.
Just my thoughts.
Rainy day today so have to do something.
Regards
Rayda
PS please correct any mistakes
