Replies to post #2784 on Sayona Mining Ltd (SYAXF)

[TradingCharts]

Australian producers looking to capture more of the value chain

These are numbers from 2019. Today the price of hard rock far exceeded these price predictions.

(Hope you all added)

There is one notable exception to this trend: the margin for lithium hydroxide that will be produced at Greenbushes, a hard-rock mine that produces a spodumene concentrate. Two lithium hydroxide conversion facilities are being constructed in Western Australia to convert a portion of this spodumene concentrate. The first of these facilities, located 250 kilometers north of Greenbushes at Kwinana, is due to be completed in 2019, so from this year onward, Greenbushes will be producing both spodumene concentrate and lithium hydroxide. The additional cost of converting the spodumene concentrate to lithium hydroxide is expected to be US$2,456/t LCE in 2019; however, this is outweighed by the value addition to the product, which will increase from US$4,587/t LCE for spodumene concentrate to US$17,274/t LCE for lithium hydroxide. The significant addition to the price over the additional cost is what will lead to a higher margin for hydroxide over concentrate at Greenbushes. The significant value addition that can be achieved at these conversion facilities is driving other hard-rock producers in Australia, such as Mineral Resources Ltd. at Wodgina, to consider constructing such facilities near their existing operations. These decisions, however, also have to take into account the significant capital expenditure involved in constructing these conversion plants.

[IAmTopG]

Thank you for sharing. Looks like with the conversion fee into final product, SYA could receive higher margin (hopefully)