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people need some patience - FM will give us a one liner to sum up everything the company is doing in the Q1 update released sometime in late Q2!
The v projects in Australia regularly signs mou and off takes but never get anywhere close to actually producing the stuff hence why primary production is so limited to the 4 main mines. Why have bmn never signed off takes for our kit? Good to see the Japanese getting behind vrfb with interest in the electrolyte plant.
hope so as was planned for 2019 and did not happen
delayed in 2020
2021 ? could do with some communication from the BOD on it.
Hope so mogwhy given he did say he had hundreds of leads in 2018 when they did a long briefing on it. The time really is now - the investment community is hot for battery storage and if the BE business plan actually delivers more value that the mining side and 5-6 revenue generating avenues then we are sitting on an absolute monster. The business strategy has been in place since 2016 - the delivery has to happen now.
The FT article this weekend mentioned two mining magnates - Friedland and Mick David. Friednland we know has a private VRFB company and Mick Davis mentioned how "Vanadium allows for significant energy storage which is non-degradable" and how it is an "important metal for South Africa because there are large deposits of vanadium here." in a recent SA power conference (thanks libero for the source). These sort of people being associated with vanadium is nothing but good.
The US via IES is seeing good growth in VRFB, china will not look at anything other than VRFB and Africa via its SADC leader south africa has an opportunity like never before to actually deliver meaningful change to their energy system and the lives of its people.
is the Elon musk of VRFB. His company VRB Energy is big in China selling and building VRFB units with PV arrays including one for the country's largest steel supplier. https://vrbenergy.com/
The website is very good and really is how BE should be marketing themselves but for reasons that are not at all clear, they choose not to.
https://ivanhoecapitalacquisition.com/ is a fund mentioned in the FT at the weekend that is run by Friedland and focuses on the electrification of the green sector. Notably he does not want investments in lithium as very much a proponent of vanadium.
VRB are on vanitec, largo are on vanitec, IES on vanitec - chaired by mikhail nikomarov. The sector is growing at speed and there is no doubt that BE are central to this and must be getting contracts as if they were not then Largo would not be entering the sector especially with such a short LOM.
For whatever reason communication is poor/non existent - maybe to avoid giving the seller any help, maybe NDA's but the newsflow is being set up and with vanadium now seen as environmentally better (along with performance attributes being superior) the opportunity to really lead in the green battery storage sector is there for the taking.
i take comfort in that largo, as a member of vanitec, felt the market is there in VRFB's and no doubt have learnt much from MN. If BE were struggling to get orders, they would not have set up the Largo VRFB. still many answered questions on how BE will work but feel all the tactical moves have been played and now just awaiting a moment where it all pops.
the IES update also said that the UK government explicitly doe snot want lithium long duration batteries - has anyone got any further info on that?
china produce lithium but don't use lithium batteries at scale because they are unsafe. China has made a significant move towards vanadium batteries in its 5 year plan. china is expected to produce 6% GDP growth this year largely from investment in infrastructure which the whole world will do as it is a proven way to create economic growth and jobs. The US has an antiquated power grid which has contributed to major forest fires. Will they risk lithium storage, known for the fire risk, when for example the NYFD don't allow lithium batteries at scale. will the move to renewables and battery storage create demand for VRFB's globally - yes. will lithum also gain traction - yes. This is a multi billion sector now and will be growing exponentially as the world electrifies. Can SA take a global lead? yes - but they will need to position themselves with a first mover advantage and for us as investors it is a case of understanding whether over a 5 years period FM and NM have been able to do that, which given they are backed by the government's IDC would suggest they have gained traction. Now is all about delivery. They have delivered vametco and vanchem and are delivering production increase. Now BE's turn to take centre stage.
South Africa as the lead nation in the SADC have a fantastic opportunity to create an industry in VRFB's - public sector lethargy like in the UK is a hindrance to success. If they grasp the opportunity then we can expect Enerox to lead on the continent and if that creates value like IES has done for BMN the that would be great news. With a doubling of our capacity from 2018 happening this year and then doubling again a few years later, a patient holder can make a decent return simply on the V price fundamentals and then anything in green tech is a very nice bonus. Markets are tough right now but newsflow should start soon.
you are spot on loudspeaker, AIM is getting worse and will eventually die because of it. One hopes that FM is serious on a JSE listing (and main market - ever so slightly better than AIM), and then we should hope that the SA's really buy into the story. You can tell that FM has such little enthusiasm now for engaging with AIM and does the bare minimum PR with proactive (i suspect when they ask rather than BMN hunting it out). In a PR centric market like AIM we find ourselves in a tricky situation where good news get no response, jam tomorrow gets no response and bad news gets hammered. 2021 needs to see change and it is up to BMN to enact that.
why mess about shorting and trying to control the price when you could just buy from the supposed seller to get your entry. Does not add up. FM is bored stiff of AIM and so this should expedite the move to a dual listing and a move to a main market. Hopeful of news on this front in the coming months.
they are taking down posts that have grammatical errors!
It is not about wanting or needing something new everyday it is about a change in the story telling to give us a belief that things are moving ahead and that BE will start to contribute earnings. Your point about crytpo does raise an interesting RNS point as ARB (not invested) do provide a monthly update which would not go amiss as my tongue in cheek comment recently about hearing about Abengoa in the Q1 update in May looks rather like it may come around.
The point is though Alfa it is nothing new. The opportunity to spell out some more detail on BE was missed. As i said even something about tenders being submitted would be good otherwise it is just vague comments about general take-up in the market.
I agree bassguy, having him read off a screen about the last Q of 2020 is not that inspiring. That was 3 months ago - need more excitement about how much V we are selling at the moment, how the V prices is providing a boost to balance sheet. same old interview just rehashed. Q1 2020 lockdown commentary is pointless, that is a year old. We need inspiring content to galvanise the market. How about some comments on BE submitting tenders and awaiting results etc.
On the plus side the china buying more and net importer is good but we know that. Give us a guide on the future newsflow. Talking the game on BE for 5 years and showing a 250% return on invinity when the BMN share price is languishing to put it mildly is an own goal. We know everything he has told us. how about tell us how many V tons invinity have been supplied with. The story really is compelling but the way it is told is poor.
China set out a goal of being carbon neutral by 2060. It is anticipated that the detail of how to do this will come in 2021 so a potentially big inflection point given that the most recent chinese 5 year plan put VRFB as their energy storage medium of choice. This then links in quite nicely to a relationship with Rongke and then the chinese influence in africa. lots of strategic moves happening - hoping FM can divulge a bit soon
For SA they really need to be thinking, as the most developed nation and leader of the SADC, how they can enact significant economic growth out of green tech. The World Bank tender is absolutely enormous. There is a huge political angle here hence the messing about,as we see in britain. An update from Fortune would not go amiss on anything - not fussed what subject he chooses, plenty of them around.
In the states they turn off the power to avoid wildfires starting in areas prone to fire such as the napa valley. The overall power grid in the states is antiquated. The opportunity for energy storage is huge. As we know some states in the US like NY will not allow lithium batteries because their fire risk is deemed too high by the fire authorities there. Biden's 1.9trn investment programme needs and will include energy storage. With invinity leading from the front in the states we can benefit.
jvetch,
the competition commission in SA would prevent such a move hence why glencore, despite wanting to corner the vanadium market, were never in the running to buy vametco or vanchem because they have rhovan. however, they are no longer the sole customer of largo so have lost significant supply so may be on the look out elsewhere for V assets