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That seems an unnecessarily negative assessment, and deliberately so. The flow rates for helium and CO2 at Galactica point to a healthy income stream when the combined processing is on stream in the next month or so. The Rukwa project remains in appraisal stage as you say but they have already proven two out of three variables required (helium concentration and sustained flow rate). The remaining challenge is the recoverable gas water ratio (due to dilution), to which they have a plausible working hypothesis but it needs to be tested.

You already have that exact information for Galactica, all disaggregated, plus/minus the increase in spot price since December. It couldn’t be any clearer.

Obviously you don’t have that precise information for Rukwa because it’s still at appraisal stage and contingent for that reason.

We do know the ballpark costs of development as presented a year or two ago, based on 30-40 wells and modular production plant, and production scenarios were modelled for the feasibility study as summarised in the CPR. They have proved there’s a working helium system but the production scenarios remain contingent on proving that helium can be flowed to surface at a realistic ratio to the water, sufficient to show that the process could be operated commercially. They’re looking for a partner to share in the risk/reward of trying to prove that.

UT was 0.60 Bobby

If you check slide 19 on BNL's pre-roduction presentation (December), you'll see the helium output from the plant is assumed to be between 94-98% purity, with the possibility to supply 98%+ helium to a midstream liquefier for them to purify up to 99.9999% (Grade 6).

Of course they buy low grade helium. It goes one of two ways (a) into the lower grade lift market (helium balloons etc), or (b) to a midstream purification plant for refining into high grade helium and liquefaction. We already know that Galactica phase one produces lower grade helium because that was illustrated in the commercialisation schematic for the fundraising presentation, and because that was the mid pricing assumption for the business case. The longer term goal was to develop on site purification facilities to refine the output.

However, midstream offtakers of the scale that's been suggested would usually require a minimum stabilised monthly output to make the contract term worthwhile and dependable. That's a good sign as it might suggest they're very close to achieving an optimised and steady state of production. if the spot contract takes them to August then maybe that's an indication of when they hope to be proven for a longer contract?

Helium offtake sales are usually agreed on confidential terms, so you wouldn't expect to see the details published as it says clearly in the RNS. But BNL's Quarterly accounts to end June (published end July?) should give an indication of initial revenue and operating expenditure. Doesn't look likely they'll achieve steady state production for the new sales agreement this month, so will be another quarter or end of year for stabilised revenue indications to be published.

Linde is basically a German conglomerate these days, domiciled in Ireland, and AP’s third party midstream helium operations model fits the bill more obviously anyway.

Whale watching excursions still available from the Captain Ahab school of AI

From the RNS = "In accordance with standard industry practice for helium offtake agreements, the commercial terms, including the identity of the counterparty and the agreed price, are confidential between the parties."

It would be completely normal practice for spot price helium sales. As there's no established commodity market for helium the terms of sales contracts are almost always commercially sensitive and withheld from publication, as it says in the RNS. It's impossible to read anything more into it than face value at this stage and it fits with the information about stabilising and optimising the production for longer term agreements.

Agreed on the short term spot pricing strategy, which makes sense. ‘Initial’ seems to refer to production phase here though, while they continue to stabilise and optimise the gathering and processing systems. Offtakers usually want minimum guarantees on monthly volume stability as a condition of signing longer term contracts. They’ll also be cautious about baking in long term pricing commitments while the war is unresolved in case supply restrictions ease and price falls. So a short term pricing contract probably suits both parties at the moment.

It opens fine here but it’s an AI generated news story based on the ASX/RNS news release.

It’s a good move. The current market for helium is unsettled due to the war and supply shortages. Contracting at spot prices commands a higher price for whatever can be produced during the initial phase. A long term supply contract would be at lower prices per volume but also require a baseline of volume reliability. For the moment they can sell as many trailers they can turn around at a higher price than usual while they stabilise and get the CO2 production on stream.

But an AI summary of what? I’m looking for the source as there’s nothing published online about the meeting. Stan was apparently up for the 4am meeting and posted here just after it finished. I’m interested in how he accessed the presentation.

Could you post that link to your source for information on the proceedings of BNL's AGM please? You posted a brief AI summary bullet points and mentioned a management presentation. There was nothing in the ASX release, or the company website or social media, and the meeting was conducted in person in Western Australia. Did you attend or get some other kind of access?

That was the gist of my original query to Stan, as BNL have never before published a presentation or ASX news release from an AGM and haven’t this time. Apart from the first line, the Stan’s summary info looks like it was pasted from an LLM response so I assumed it might be AI summary of a meeting transcript or something. Source would certainly be appreciated.

All very good news indeed with confirmation of stable helium production and sales with CO2 timeline on schedule and imminent.

Stan - "you are missing out on the 'Managing Director’s AGM Presentation Slides', which are logged onto the asx news wires around 15 minutes before the meeting starts"

This never happened before previous AGMs but always a first time I guess.

The next BNL activity and cash report will be for Q2 (to end June). They usually report one month after, so end July. That should clearly show any first revenues and cash runway. Tomorrow’s AGM is maybe a chance for early indications or answers to shareholder questions but they’re unlikely to make any market moving announcements informally without a prior ASX release. I’d be looking more for confirmation of previously announced milestones, specifically whether CO2 production and increased helium production are still on track within Q2.