TLG Ann: Talga Investor Webinar Recording - 31st May 2023, 6:58pm

[annb0t]

TLG Ann: Talga Investor Webinar Recording
Price Sensitive: N
Date: 31st May 2023, 6:58pm

>>> Read announcement: Google: TLG Market Announcements

 

[cosors]

 

[Semmel]

Life comentary:

~4:30: Shorting specifically mentioned by Mark (even though in passing as he sais its not his place to discuss this stuff), but at least it shows he is aware of it and has an eye on the share price. He seems slightly annoyed with the market reaction to Talgas performance as a company. Which in turn makes me very bullish as it supports the notion that the current valuation is not some sort of secret being known by large share holders but actually more like market shenanigans rather than a problem with the company. Or maybe Mark is blind to the problems of Talga, but that would be very hard to believe as anti hype as he usually is.

~7:30...8:30: Discusses refinary side. Good to hear that they applied for early works (which was kind of denied for the mine), but hopefully will be granted for the refinery. He doesnt mention the zink/merqury problem at all. Odd. Its not a problem until the court sais it is a problem, but I would kind of expect him to say at least that they have it on their radar and have a plan to handle it if it became a problem. Guess they will wait for June 21st to make any acknowledgement to that aspect. Coming back to the topic at ~25:00.. and Mark dances around the issue avoiding to name it. Guess it is what it is.

~10:30: Talga doesnt know what is appealed with the mining site either. Interesting. Well, the appelas might not be loged just yet as they have time until June 7th, i.e. one more week.

~ 12:00-13:20: Showing conceptional underground mine.. and reitterating that they are looking to expand the mine due to customer demand. Make it 400ktpa please! Of course, I guess we will have to wait until end of June at least to finish the approval process of the current mine before we get to see details of the exanded expansion. But the hint is very strongly in favor of an underground mine and I have the strong feeling that its gonna be much bigger than 100ktpa. in the summary at around ~26:00.. naming exactly that.. "much larger" and with experience from Vittangi permit process know how to approach the Niska expansion. Impatiently awaiting the plans.

~13:30: uuuhh.. Talga looking for funding from the US as well.. due to the high interest of the US into battery materials from Europe. Ok. Playing politics for a moment. This is brilliant! Please more moves like that Talga! Not only would that potentially give us funding for our project... more importantly, with funding come strings attached. And if the EU doesnt want to be robed by the US ( in Germany we would say "die butter vom Brot nehmen"), the EIB better get their act together before Talga gets funding from the US.. which would then make it very likely that Talga would export its product to the US... which in would be quite a bombshell for the local battery market. Game on! Also, Talga being recognized as major player for battery indipendence from China is music in my ears. Its is THE MOST important aspect why I started investing in Talga in the first place.

~15:45: Uhh, there is something new to me. The EIB is now leading a consortium of Banks for the funding process. Not just some internal funding option. Maybe this always was the case but its news to me. Not sure if this is a + or a -. And another aspect. He is saying going for funding by the EIB is much harder than trying to get customers carve out some Millions for project equity because you are then not so dependent on the customer demands. And not (in Marks words) "sterializing you future potential". Nicely put there. Trying to solve the more difficult problem as it has more positive impact potential. Interesting. Hope it pays off!

~17:00: No news on offtakes.. more shuffling behind the scenes. No read into this from me.

~18:00: Nothing new on the graphite market. I personally still think the demand is underestimated.

~20:00: Silicon. 800mAh/g .. I think we knew that before. at 500 cycles which is I believe new? As far as I know in the silicon anode world, that is a lot! But 500 cycles doesnt make a high class EV unfortunately (as this would limit it to 200'000 km of lifetime range assuming 400km range per charge), but maybe other applications. Maybe in low tear EVs where 200'000 km range is an acceptable compromise. Other examples might be batteries for power tools would fit in this area, as you could easily replace the battery. What other applications are there that require high energy density but not many cycles? Also swamped with customers? Ohh I surely hope so. As the Talnode-Si additive to any Anode is quite flexible, we could have lots of customers. Customer demand so strong that they are fast tracking the Si project. Very nice!

Making a cut here.. need to work. Will watch Q&A later.

 

[JNRB]

Haven't had a chance to watch it yet, so thanks for the summary!

 

[Semmel]

Ok continuing.. Q&A..

~30:00-34:00: Talnode-Si is a substance comprised of 50% silicon and is the additive that is blended into the battery anode. You could use it as anode but wouldn't be very good. But what happens in reality is, that the customer mixes Talnode-Si to its graphite anode and targets the overall Si content to something like 10%. (i.e. 80% graphite anode, 20% Talnode-Si making 90% graphite, 10% Silicon). More silicon, shorter cycle life. Its a trade off at the end of the day. There is no need to go 100% silicon, which would have a terrible cycle life.

~34:00: Opinion on chinese synthetic manufacturer: customers are blending natural and synthetic anyway. He doesnt sees as a super competitive situation, it could also be a benefit as improves customer access to battery raw materials in Europe. Very interesting take from Mark. I like it. Though it does have the potential to become a competitor at some point. At this stage, I agree with him as the market is far larger than the supply in Europe and less emission is always good. Very diplomatic take! (what else could he have said?)

~37:00: Nothing really new on the take on synthetic vs natural graphite. Nice history lesson though.

~40:00: Sodium Ion tech.. Talga has done some work on Sodium Ion with partners I didnt understand, some 5 years ago. Results not public. Marks take: quite a bit more dirty than you would expect. Will not be a big factor for a long time to come. No carbon anode, bit might have some "hard carbon" (???) in some parts of the battery to increase conductivity. Not a big factor in Talgas plans. Mark doesnt think the tech has a bright future.

~43:00: Offtakes. You qualify Anode for a project (i.e. an EV model) and when chanes made to the EV timing, has impact on supply chain, like Talga. He pretty much describes that things changed on the customer side, which induced timing changes on talgas side.

~45:00: 3C market, that is consumer electronics, power tools, etc.. battery powered devices. Its smaller tonnage but might be higher price because EV manufacturers drive prices down through volumes and guarantees. Might be a factor later, after initial offtakes with large customers.

~47:00: Infrastructure at Lulea industrial park. Mark: coming along. Stuff is happening. Talga is first mover.

~48:30: Labor availability. Low unemployment. Talga is fairly new there, and fact that Talga is making battery materials rather than copper or iron/steel, talga is quite attractive for population. Getting good responds to job postings.

~50:30: update on graphene product: History lesson. Recognizes needs to do big update, might happen in the future. Took resources away from graphene for anode (nothing new). Some revenue in the coming quarterly report for anode samples and some for graphene as well. (looking forwards!) still small but not nothing. Paper, cardboard, coatings, additives for rubber and conrete... being done slowly. Claims they know how to do things and being refined

(I call bullshit on this one. If the person that has the experience leaves, the experience leaves with that person. And 5 years in the past without much progress is a long time. The knowledge and experience might just leave, or be forgotten if things are not worked on actively and with purpose)

~54:30: Milestones in the next 12 months:
* Breaking ground on refinery
* Breaking ground on the mine
* Wants to bring his family and specifically his dad to Sweden
* Also wants to show locations to shareholders (weeeeeee) But my family probably wouldnt be interested..



Thx Talga for making these webinars!

 

[anbuck]

Opinion on chinese synthetic manufacturer: customers are blending natural and synthetic anyway. He doesnt sees as a super competitive situation, it could also be a benefit as improves customer access to battery raw materials in Europe. Very interesting take from Mark. I like it. Though it does have the potential to become a competitor at some point. At this stage, I agree with him as the market is far larger than the supply in Europe and less emission is always good. Very diplomatic take! (what else could he have said?)

I took his statement of "what can I say... very little" as well as his follow on comments about this not being a competitor to mean that there may actually be a deal brewing where a European customer wants a low emission blended anode and Talga would take synthetic anode from the Chinese company and blend it with Talnode-C.

 

[WheresTheMonkey]

But 500 cycles doesnt make a high class EV unfortunately (as this would limit it to 200'000 km of lifetime range assuming 400km range per charge), but maybe other applications. Maybe in low tear EVs where 200'000 km range is an acceptable compromise.

Mmmmmm...............you think that's not OK ?

Australians do around 15,000 kms per year ( I average 18,000) . Europeans travel far less at 11,300kms but you Germans do 13,600, the Italians 8,464 , the Irish 16,400.

But if we take the average 200,000/11,300 = 17.7 years.

Are you going to go 17 years before updating your car ?

Mate I would need to do all my driving at night to save my embarrassment if I was spotted in daylight by a friend driving a 17 year old car

Even if we allow say 33% extra power consumption for a BMW, being driven by a bit of a rev head lets say, then that's still 13.3 years.

I'd still be driving at night from year 5 onwards

 

[Semmel]

Mmmmmm...............you think that's not OK ?

Australians do around 15,000 kms per year ( I average 18,000) . Europeans travel far less at 11,300kms but you Germans do 13,600, the Italians 8,464 , the Irish 16,400.

But if we take the average 200,000/11,300 = 17.7 years.

Are you going to go 17 years before updating your car ?

Mate I would need to do all my driving at night to save my embarrassment if I was spotted in daylight by a friend driving a 17 year old car

Even if we allow say 33% extra power consumption for a BMW, being driven by a bit of a rev head lets say, then that's still 13.3 years.

I'd still be driving at night from year 5 onwards

Sure, you are correct. Most people will not reach 200,000km. But its also not about me or you, but what the mass of the people would accept. And even if reaching end of life, the battery is not dead at that point, just reduced in capacity. But still, if we are talking premium EVs, people will not buy it, when its limited in that way. For a small, non-premium EV, the story might be different. Its my assessment what the EV market would be, not my personal requirements..

Enjoy your nightly drives.. dont forget to fix the head lamps every 10 years or so

 

[WheresTheMonkey]

Sure, you are correct. Most people will not reach 200,000km. But its also not about me or you, but what the mass of the people would accept. And even if reaching end of life, the battery is not dead at that point, just reduced in capacity. But still, if we are talking premium EVs, people will not buy it, when its limited in that way. For a small, non-premium EV, the story might be different. Its my assessment what the EV market would be, not my personal requirements..

Enjoy your nightly drives.. dont forget to fix the head lamps every 10 years or so

This is me driving Semmel's embarrassing car

@Semmel in his cheap EV

 

[Semmel]

~15:45: Uhh, there is something new to me. The EIB is now leading a consortium of Banks for the funding process. Not just some internal funding option. Maybe this always was the case but its news to me. Not sure if this is a + or a -.

Ok, i thought about that line a bit. I think it's a +. A big one. Why? Because you don't build a consortium, only to say at the end "naaaaa... Not going to fund you". That means, it's a foregoing conclusion that we will get funding from that consortium. Because it's in their best interest to close a deal as well.

But there is also a drawback. As with any consortium, the process is decision by committee, which takes more time. Also, the approach will be more conservative as with a single partner because no one wants to appear dum in front of the others. So they will make extra sure they are in the right track. Which again, takes more time. And I can't see a consortium to come to a decision before we don't have all the permits in the bag. There is always going to be one who wants to wait for the courts decision. So all of them will be waiting.

June 21st can't come soon enough.

 

[beserk]

~54:30: Milestones in the next 12 months:
....
* Wants to bring his family and specifically his dad to Sweden
* Also wants to show to shareholders (weeeeeee) But my family probably wouldnt be interested..

beserk says

I will show Mark and Dad all the good fishing spots along the rapids of the mighty Torne river from Nunasvaara to junction with Vittangi river or for something different start out from the Northern end of graphite strike by the Vittangi river and fish your way down to Vittangi village and confluence with Torne river.

This is where our summer house still stands but it has been neglected for some time. I don' t have the time. Must change. And it will.
Would make an excellent base for fishing expeditions. And it was built for that purpose.

-beserk