Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
FM's ability to tell this story is increasingly becoming a problem. It has opened the door for the chinese to come in, on good terms for them, and copy and paste Glencore at Largo. Fund a processing plant at Mokopane and get an offtake.
Without evidence to the contrary Largo are moving ahead of Bushveld Energy, christ the speed at which BE are doing things even FAR will start to move ahead! Pleased to see BE getting separate updates but only if they end up being quarterly as a bare minimum. The silence on BE, Lemur and failure to report fundamental details such as having a partner on the eskom tender are simply not acceptable. A failure to control cost is also a threat because part of the whole vertically integrated model is helped by being a low cost producer - with just a 5$ swing between V price and cost is not good enough. FM needs to start communicating better, the market gets Largo because it is told with enthusiasm and is a simply story to understand - we mine V, sell it to the steel industry but see a massive move towards VRFB so we are going after it big time. that is the story largo are telling and that is as simple as is needed at BE/BMN. stop with the smoke and mirrors, stop with the silence.
Did Libero ever get a response to his email?
Be have positioned themselves to be at the centre of the VRFB sector. With the amount of money going into the infrastructure around green tech over the next 2-3 years, they really need to step up to the plate otherwise lithium will get an unassailable lead and become the go to tech and then other tech will come in also like hydrogen etc.
communication is key FM - if the owners of the business don't know what you do how will the customers? I found it rather dispiriting that FM responded to BBN's recent blog on the matter as it looked like BBN gave a far better explanation of what BMN/BE is aiming for then FM has mustered up in 5 years. simplify
notice MN is speaking - be nice to see him bring back some deals. he must be bored of saying the same thing for the last 4 years with absolutely nothing to show for it.
not really relevant to bushveld as it appears the lemur coal project has been canned. must be so given we have had no news on it for a year.
Good to see ramaphosa getting airtime in the climate. Now sort out your cabinet and get your sunrise green industry firing up. Was looking at the large twitter feed today. Regular, simple , informative - not very hard fm just copy what they are doing - takes 5 minutes to inform your shareholders
in the last few months largo have started selling their iron ore (which we also have), have set up a vrfb arm (we have had one for over 5 years) and now set out to list on the nasdaq. There is no excuse for BMN not to do all of this and actually start delivering value to shareholders. A monthly update should be the starting point - how much have we sold and to where - simple stuff to do. Comms is an unmitigated disaster with this business and they know this having been told umpteen times. It needs to change quickly and they need to follow the rules by updating us on anything that has a material impact on the business such as the vametco refurb works being completed and our enerox sales in 2020, we own 25% of it we need to know what and where we have been selling. To have our value so far off our peers at Largo and more closely aligned with a tinpot outfit at FAR is shocking and FM should be alert to this. MN and Mike Oldacre need to step up to the plate and start delivering for BE.
dont doubt it muppet but FM does not make life easy. I wonder how he feels when he sits in vanitec meetings when across the room is largo, valued 4 fold on us with no commensurate increase in production and a company late to the party on vrfbs. Does not look very good and however good he is as a strategic thinker, his ability to halt the SP decline is proving an unfortunate mark on his reputation
they probably wont even tell us the strike has finished and instead stick it as footnote in the Q2 report sometime in August
classic bushveld, dont tell us about the maintenance work at vametco being completed on time and all the other good news but happy to RNS a strike. The comms is at an all time low with this company. the disconnect between fair value is absolutely astonishing - what will be the RNS that moves us up....
at the weekend about batteries. Japanese focus and about the guy who invented lithium batteries. he quotes 'Basically, when a new innovation is born, you need two breakthroughs. One is in basic research, the other is actually mass producing it. A breakthrough is not real until you have both.' Akira Yoshino.
VRFB tech is there, it works, the chinese who are the market leaders in green tech, by a long long way, are installing at pace. There are many companies in this space now, aiding the mass producing element whilst china, US, Saudi etc are further investing in research. Add in the leasing model and groups like enerox going for mass, supported by the mining community (bushveld) and you have the ingredients to really put VRFB in prime position. The mass producing element is key here and is coming fast simply because the market wants it and in china they want it on a scale never seen before.
great email from libero to the management today. very well put and i hope he shares the response or more importantly FM understands that the owners of the business are feeling let down. Libero's email is only the tip of the iceberg in terms of communication.
on more positive news, great to see the FT are knowledgeable about vanadium batteries, just getting mainstream press on it is fantastic. time for FM and co to capitalise on this and tell us how BE adds value.
Why does MN not talk about vrfb in that article
Not sure was just an idea. Food for thought at least but should be just one of a myriad of news items coming up in q2
As must is london listed rather than aim could bmn reverse into must for an easy and quick main listing allowing it to list on jse- just thinking out loud
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=27wg6a31VH0
quite an interesting interview from largo on crux from 2020.
Interesting how he says that V **** is not suitable for VRFB's as they need the purer V. This may indicate why our V is increasingly going to china who are building VRFB's at significant scale. If you take a positive view it is that china like what we do and want our product. if largo have entered the VRFB market it is because they are getting demand from end users (china, US?) so see an opportunity for a premium product. This does reinforce that BMN/BE are very much in this market and an active player known by the key names. With a 5 year head start on Largo and running broadly in tandem with VRB (who have now, publicly at least become the main player), BE are in this market big time and will take significant share.
The market in Africa may well end up being absolutely enormous, it starts from a much less developed grid so the mini grid is a winner on paper and MN is presenting and has contacts across the continent. We will see where Enerox comes in and who has partnered up with BE on it - that may be our mick davis moment! anyone got any ideas on potential partners?
Fortune set up BE as was convinced that battery storage was a market to get into. He was right as the chinese are going big here and with their 5 year plans seemingly hell bent on VRFB that is a massive market and even if we simply benefit from an increase in V demand then that is great. This has been a huge week in VRFB with the SA news and also one of mining's most prominent figures getting a big contract in china and setting up a $1bn gigafactory. The VRFB has quite clearly landed as a deliverable and viable prospect. China will lead this space whilst the west undertakes competitions like our government to find good batteries! mind boggles.
SA is much like the UK where public sector ineptitude slows progress to a snails pace. however, this week has seen a major obstacle lifted. the future is looking very bright there. As we all know i am an advocate of PR not simply just to raise the SP but actually inform the business owners what is being planned.
if you look at the vanitec member, a fair few don't even produce V like TNG so are of limited benefit. VRB and Largo have seen a reassn to enter this market and enter it big. With MN the chairman, he is absolutely instrumental in this sector.
green is big, if FM can move away from the story is 'half told' (itself a stretch) into setting up a proper strategic vision with revenue profiles and contracts then the market is quite simply enormous and although we are somewhat behind VRB, if VRB partner with us in SA, then we have the same stimulus as mick davis has just done at FAR.
said it before AVCT are rubbish at PR also and went for months with an increasingly irate board and then it moved and moved big. BMN will follow once they get it straight what they want to achieve and what they are up to. Expecting this year to be a major year.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fX4pIRRzB9Q
crux investor interview
33:00 onwards and check out FM's laugh at 34:25 when he cannot talk about what he has planned for the world to recognise the BE/BMN story
https://africa.energyandmines.com/speakers-2/
peter oldacre of Be speaking alongside colin hamilton of BMO, who i believe are still our broker, although are never visible
FM will not appreciate the bb grief he is getting so there must be a reason as he could of just thrown out a placating update email as he does respect us.
but why be subject to a market blackout?
Takeover? major investment by VRB? why would robert friedland not want a slice when he is the de facto leader of this sector now and has and is making a major investment in vanadium. he could control the SP , MM's cannot independently without a big backer.