There was quite an
I dont think there was much in the details to decypher. Mark did a pretty good job in laying out the main points clearly. I dont think going through this for 2 hours (1h listening, at least one additional hour writing) is going to give you much. Youtube adds auto generated subtitles that can give you an edge if that helps (sometimes they are plain wrong though). The main points I remember from listening to it yesterday:
1. We are waiting for the court. We discussed this already
2. Nyobium stuff is too expensive for mass market, but it might work for special applications
3. Talnode-SI can use other graphite sources, but it sounds like they dont want to use other sources (speculation)
4. Mark favors expansion to the max of the resource without messing around with more steps would be the way to go after the initial Niska expansion. Watch the drill program.
5. The Tesla Model S car was made from the cut off corners of the 7T 20-sided graphite orb because the guy had a 6 axis milling machine. The articles in the background of his office are just cool things and have no meaning (of course he would say that!)
6. Cash burn of the last quarter was elevated (he didnt say why). So expect cas available for more than the stated 2.4 quarters.
There might be other points that I dont remember
There was quite a good, extensive summary by Edmorgrimm at the other forum. I assume it's okay for him to repost it here:
"LONG POST AHEAD.
So I watched the recording, and made the following summary. I like to do these as I feel it might not only help other shareholders, but also helps remind me of why I'm holding this stock which is currently my only negative position, and also the one I have sunk a significant amount of cash into, relative to my means.
Anything in "quotes" is straight from MT's mouth, or straight from the slides, the rest is paraphrased. Hopefully folk find it useful, a lot has already been mentioned on other threads, apologies for repeating what has been covered elsewhere.
- Point was made that global EV sales 2023 vs. 2022 were up 32%. The world continues down the road of electrification. It’s not all passenger cars, its trucks, busses, ferries etc, plus the stationary storage market. It’s a continued shift. Retail numbers may go up and down, but there’s a general uptrend in electrification, globally.
-MT reiterated that given recent events in the Suez, the Red Sea, increasing shipping costs, and geopolitical risks, the fact that TLG has direct road and rail access to Europe is a huge advantage.
-The refinery design has been altered to; reduce energy consumption by a quarter, reduce the footprint of the building (enabling greater room for future expansion), and the equipment design has been also been modified, to, quote “specifically [be] configured for various customers that were working with on the offtakes”.
-MT reiterated that a LOI had been signed with the Lulea Municipality for an option to expand the size of the refinery site. The desire to have the option to expand the site was “Driven by customer project demand”.
-Regarding financing, an application for 70 million EU grant has been applied for, as well as other types of state aid. TLG is “..in discussion with potential equity partners including automotive OEMs”. Interesting.
-MT spent a lot of time spruiking the recycling flow process that TLG’s tech is capable of achieving. Bit beyond me, but he’s clearly excited, and did stress it’s an extra revenue stream in the making.
-Graphene additives. New product a few years in the making was announced recently. Made in collaboration with “..our customer, who is a global leading player in what it makes, these rubber products.. very very large volume products. Not only that, the rubber market itself very large, everything from belts, to car tyres, to seals and gaskets and hoses. Large volume applications.” TLG’s graphene rubber additive can add strength, conductivity, flexibility or longevity, depending on the need. Small sales at the moment, but shows potential. Again, very interesting IMO.
-Aero lithium project. 'Partnership discussions
progressing’. I think the language here has changed from ‘discussions
ongoing’, would have to double check that.
-MT reiterated that the TLG mine appeals case has not been reviewed by the SC yet. Backlog blamed. TLG is requesting a ‘push up’ in the queue. TLG doing everything that can be done whilst being respectful of the fact that this is not a government department- it’s the highest court in Sweden. “We’re all frustrated, you can’t … you know… it’s hard for people to believe the process works this way. However, it is a process, it’s not due to a conflict of our project” .. “It’s excruciating for you, our shareholders, it’s excruciating for us .. but we just have to handle it in the most professional way we can.” MT seemed again, very confident the decision would be in TLG's favour.
-The planning injunction against the mine lodged by the local municipality seemed to have just annoyed MT. He was straightforward about going to the national government to circumvent the local govt who “..for personal or political reasons have tried delaying things and squeezing things”. MT seemed very comfortable with going to the national government to move forward, he did not seem worried in the slightest.
-Talnode Si. (50% silicone 50% graphite/graphene) sold as additive. Boosts energy density by 5x. Market for these additives large and growing. TLG has developed a commercially competitive product (competing with China).
-Expansion plans. The plans TLG had for the resource in northern Sweden of 19,000tn/year of anode (Stage 1) was the beginning. The Stage 2 plans in place to increase to 100,000tn/year (that were initially considered “wildly too big”) are now looking too small. MT asks would 500,000tn be enough? The market is growing into the millions of tonnes of anode required… It’s lucky that TLG’s resource is “..open at depth and along strike”. MT says they are now considering ‘Stage 3’, where they define the (giant) resource more accurately, and “..explore the potential of that more from the ground up, rather than from the market down”. The market will soon be requiring more than 3,000,000 tonnes for anode alone, aside from other graphite uses.
- Regarding continued growth (“We will grow for ten years”), MT stressed the desire to get cash back to shareholders, and definitely seek strategic partners for the kind of long-term, large scale expansion mentioned above, and not take the funds out of early cashflow. I have to say, this was nice to hear the MD be explicit about this.
- Question about TLG would protect itself from a takeover? MT stated that there are some built-in defence mechanisms and processes in place within the company around how to handle various takeover scenarios. Also, the share register has some ‘buffers’ there, MT himself and a number of other ‘friendly parties’; Mark Creasy (Yandal), Anthony Holman, Graham Morton, as well as institutional investors such as Pentwater Capital. These people/groups didn’t get into TLG business for what it looks like now, they got into it for what it will become.
-TLG is “of course” applying for Strategic Project status for the CRMA.
-US market listing? “Probably in time”. No urgency. When/if it makes commercial sense. Doesn’t add anything right now.
- The graphite car in the background is based on a Tesla. Nothing significant, other than to show off the quality of the graphite TLG has. He held up a number of other samples of graphite flake from China, Africa, and Ukraine. All looked like various shades of green/grey/brown rocks, TLG’s looked pure black.With the above reality check regarding the Tesla in mind, I
did notice the Ferrari book positioned prominently on the shelf behind MT. Ohhh how sweet would that be...
GLA."