The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring Jeremy Skillington, CEO of Poolbeg Pharma has just been released. Listen here.
Not invested here, but I do invest (and have done for many years) in royalty and streaming companies. My interest here goes only so far as to wonder which royalty co might be negotiating with Caracal.
Someone posted whether royalty co's get paid quarterly by the operator. That's generally the set up. The royalty company will usually get quarterly payment of their entitlement (say 1.5%) net of smelting charges. A stream is usually on a by-product of the main metal extracted - ie, the royalty and streamer might have a stream on the gold from a copper/gold asset where the gold is a by-product of the primary copper extraction. It's highly unlikely to be a stream on the primary metal as, ultimately, the royalty and streaming co needs the operator in a healthy financial shape to continue to provide revenue - and any significant incumbrance would be unwise. A life of mine royalty makes a lot more sense.
Given GCAT's relatively small production the likely candidates from the listed royalty and streaming space would be Elemental Altus - who have a significant African footprint. Osisko could be a candidate too - they have a royalty on the nearby West Kenya project operated by Shanta, though their main focus is usually the Americas.
Plenty of potential funders in the private space too, however.
Yes, graphite is an important constituent in battery anodes - and will undoubtedly result in an increased demand. My concern centres more around where it's sourced from and substitution options.
In the case of graphite as you know, the vast majority comes from China. Taking my non-mining hat off, that sort of supply imbalance generally results in a concerted effort (in this case from the West) to manufacture that particular 'problem' constituent out of future battery chemistries.
But the even more important aspect with graphite is the synthetic graphite option. Benchmark Mineral Intelligence estimate that by 2025 two thirds of the EV battery anode market could be served by synthetic graphite. So from the point of view of the West, the solution for the graphite supply imbalance is most likely here.. (see link below)
https://www.reuters.com/world/china/synthetic-graphite-ev-batteries-can-west-crack-chinas-code-2023-09-12/
I think we need to be careful with picking up assets at the top of the market - relatively speaking. Cash - in the form of equity raising, is coming pretty easy to uranium companies at the moment, so royalty deals are likely to be less accretive in that sort of environment. Additionally, I can't imagine there's many old timers to approach that are sitting on legacy royalty claims in the uranium space.
As far as graphite is concerned - personally I'm not convinced, and I'm reasonably sure TRR would prefer to get exposure to metals that are traded on a recognised exchange - LME or alike.
I don't think royalty co's can go wrong with good quality copper exposure, and that's where if like to see them focus their efforts.
In my mind I've written off the Sonora deal MS, so any positives there are a bonus imv. I'm pleased with the lithium exposure that Trident offers. I'd like to see further copper deals, as well as some nickel exposure. I'm always happy with gold - though I'm sure that with the offtake portfolio Adam and team will probably be looking elsewhere - especially in a rising gold environment and plenty of competition from precious metals royalty peers.
I assume Orion continues to sell down and put pressure on the share price. I've added recently and will continue to do so here and there on further weakness.
Https://www.theglobeandmail.com/business/international-business/article-lithium-americas-reportedly-in-talks-with-us-energy-department-for-1/
.."The Biden administration is negotiating terms of an agreement that would fund more than half of the cost of the Thacker Pass project, the report said..."
Hi Albus. Bake announced that they'd extracted first ore from the Eastern Deeps (second deposit), and that would ramp up over H2.
To clarify my earlier post - I do hold ECOR, but I'm on the lookout to add. It's a year of transition for Ecora, and that's showing in the weak valuation. I've got a lot of confidence in this long term - with West Musgrave, Santo Domingo, Piaui all significantly contributing alongside Voiseys Bay
Indeed, a poor H1 was always on the cards. Disappointing from Voiseys Bay - where Vale continue to have problems. Long term this one will be absolutely fine, but problems persist in the near term. I'm a buyer £1.10 and below for a long term hold
It's fantastic news. For TRR, Thacker Pass is a company making asset. For one asset to be potentially contributing $30-40m per year for many decades positions that royalty as one of the top deals in the industry. It's akin to Osisko's royalty over Canadian Malartic - where CM cornerstones Osisko's portfolio with a similar revenue profile.
Yes I'm somewhat surprised, though admittedly no RNS was released. I note that LAC haven't announced anything yet either, so maybe Trident will do so if/when LAC put something out to the market.
Either way - we all know how important this news, and the development of TP, is to TRR.
Https://apnews.com/article/nevada-thacker-pass-lithium-mine-4ad772a6940eb8edd507b50a179202f2
Some interesting images of the WM development thus far in the tweet below.
Tweet dated May 2023, so 2 months closer to commissioning now...
https://twitter.com/KeithvdKraan/status/1656963238410743808?t=16pFAQmipT9KREcGpA7WbA&s=19
Added a little more today. I'd love Marc and team to be a little more vocal, but the quality of assets coming online for ECOR over the next few years are as good as any in the industry - so happy to sit, collect the dividend and wait for the likes of West Musgrave and Santo Domingo to really transform the cashflow profile
Https://apnews.com/article/nevada-lithium-mine-court-appeal-15bd07e0ec03230d81349ff172c790dd
Nice interview with QuotedData today:
https://youtu.be/wpg5Xzsy2-Y