Member Info for Alfacomp

faramog - the point about getting off of AIM is not to do because we believe the main market to be a 'golden bullet' it is because there is clear evidence that the AIM market makers can exert their control over the share price to persistently short the listed stocks in order to extract value for themselves. On the main market they do not have the same rules bent in their direction. This is why many investors and funds refuse to invest in any company on AIM. Moving up to the main market will allow us to get our faces in front of a very much wider investing audience, who currently have no idea that we or flow batteries even exist.

luderitz - the Market Makers simply do what Market Makers on AIM do - they sell short when there is buying pressure secure in the knowledge that they can usually screw enough shares out of disgruntled shareholders 4 weeks later. It has nothing to do with Bushveld.

for those unfamiliar with the term it and its complementary forwardation (also known as contango) is defined here:- https://www.investopedia.com/terms/b/backwardation.asp

It is simply the situation of a futures price being lower than a current price. The alternative is that futures price are higher than the current price.

Can we assume that the futures market can accurately predict the future - well fans of all sorts of perfect market theories will no doubt say yes, but that is because they assume at the start that the market has perfect flows of information, which it evidently doesn't. If following the futures market was such a good guide then it would be very easy to become a billionaire - simply buy up all those commodities that are predicted to rise, and sell short all those that are predicted to fall.

So according to the LME futures market (https://www.lme.com/en-GB/Metals/Non-ferrous/Tin#tabIndex=0 ) it thinks the price will somehow fall by $2,000 dollars in the next 3 months - what it does not explain is how this is proposed to happen. They may simply assume that the $23K Tin business will resume as normal but they could turn out to be wrong, in which case anyone getting $25K for the tin they are selling now but assuming they are going to be able to buy at $23K may be in a bit of a pickle.

If you look at how quickly tin stocks have been reducing ( https://www.westmetall.com/en/markdaten.php?action=diagram&field=LME_Sn_cash ) you will see that anyone betting that prices are going to be $2K per tonne lower in 3 months time is taking a very big gamble.

It's graphite not graphene they are wanting to mine

Oh and how far away from our Imaloto project is their site ?

I suggest that you take another longer walk

RazorShultz - because all the reactants are in intimate physical contact, unlike a normal fire which needs oxygen to burn and which can therefore be put out by blocking the air. It is the same thing with explosives.

somtam - we did hear quite a bit last night - the key thing is that they are 100% committed to transitioning their energy system, even in the midst of a global pandemic in which it would be very easy to say 'this is too hard to do right now' - instead we actually see Ramaphosa reiterating his commitment to decarbonising South Africa, and further than that, doing so using as much local content as possible. He sees decarbonisation as a massive opportunity for South African mining and manufacturing and will not let anything else get in the way of that any longer.

Also Zuma is toast.

Thanks for summarising Floyd - I had a quick look at Lionel's Big Picture https://www.thebushveldperspective.com/blog/public-articles-1/post/lionels-big-picture-428 and there doesn't seem to be a question that addresses 'what is South Africa doing to support energy storage?' so perhaps this thread might be a useful addition to that summary article.

Is it being able to decide when to sell, or is it being able to decide when to buy ?

Now, when apparently we can only summon up 13 brave trades over the course of 2 hours, is clearly the time to be building a position in what is clearly going to be a major Tin, Tantalum and Lithium producer. There's not even any doubt about it any more so it's one of the simplest investment I've ever seen - and then to top it all the price of Tin starts shooting up to decade long highs.

How much longer do people think they will have the chance to buy at less than 5p ?

beginerman - you're struggling to make a negative out of this one now. I can understand that it may be difficult to be cooped up inside all the time - maybe go for a long walk.

ohhh Fishy where do you think the energy transition is going to happen the strongest - in a country that has already decarbonised, or one that has ignored the issue for years and now realises it has to run to catch up ?

daitom - if watching the trades is causing you anguish I suggest that you do something else instead firm in the knowledge of the fundamentals.

1. 1440 MWh as currently being tendered for by Eskom
2. 513 Megawatts - potentially >2000 MWh of battery storage as specified in the IRP 2019
3. 2000 MW of Risk Mitigation RMEIPPP projects currently being tendered for by the South African government
4. 5000 MW from relaxation of self-generation limits, yielding potentially >1500 MWh of battery storage as per the Vametco minigrid ratio 3.5MWp PV + 1MW/4MWh VRFB

just in South Africa

Indeed Sanchez it reminds me of all those people who were complaining years ago about how our website wasn't as good as some other people's - was it our website that allowed us to buy Lemur, then Brits, then Vametco, then Vanchem, then create Invinity then rescue Enerox. I don't think so.

daitom - what makes you think Lifa communications designed that document ?

or they are already doing as much as they can bassguy

The people who are being forced to pay $1000 more per tonne than they did last week clearly consider it critical

In recapping the Bushveld minigrid I briefly reviewed this article:- https://www.globalminingreview.com/environment-sustainability/11112020/bushveld-minerals-ltd-provides-vametco-mini-grid-update/

The sentence that jumped out a little stronger than previously was this :- "Appointment of Abengoa, a technology solutions provider, to manage the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) of the project, including the integration of the solar and energy storage systems. This will be Abengoa’s fourth project in South Africa using solar plus storage, having previously commissioned 250 MW with storage."

Our partner is tier 1.

What is not included in that number is the 5000MW (estimated) generation resources that could be brought to bear if mines, factories and cities were allowed to self-generate more than 1MW without requiring a license from NERSA - the talk is of this limit needing to be raised to c. 50MW to unleash that potential.

The question is how much of these (likely renewable because it is the cheapest) projects are going to include both generation AND storage. Bushveld's minigrid will be 3.5MWp (peak generation) with 1MW/4MWh VRFB - if this could be establish as the benchmark for such projects then we could be looking at over 5000 MWh VRFB storage (times lets say 30% for only finite uptake) = 1500MWh for VRFB minigrids in South Africa alone.

The 11800 MW is laid out here:- https://businesstech.co.za/news/energy/435891/south-africa-to-tender-12000-mw-of-new-independent-electricity-sources-including-wind-solar-and-gas/

It includes 513 MW of Storage