Member Info for clearspot

I am always wary of the word "imminent".

Good,
At last we all agree!

Happy Christmas to all the PI family that has been faithful for so long. This bi-annual Christmas message is shorter than you may wish, but does come from the heart. We are all trying our best to progress the scheme, but there are a few challenges that we probably underestimated, but we know that you all will understand!
We look forward to imminently wishing you Happy Christmas for 2024, but don't hold your breath. All the presents will be under the tree for you to enjoy, just hold on until we make some more substantial progress before issuing the next RNS.
Signing off now for a short while, speak to you all soon.
Love, from the management team.

In 3 to 5 years they may not exist if they cannot cover their debts in the short term. This is one ship you should steer clear of!

Can I assume that the Canadian investment holding that we were told about has now been realised?
If that is so, then I assume the profit they made from the sale was quite a tidy sum. Good idea to catch that profit before the stock market started to fall, but it would have been nice for the report to comment on this sale, apart from showing investments have fallen to £79k from £421k.
Otherwise a good report, lots going on, but plenty of scope to have updated us all over the last few months rather than hibernating. Can the BOD take this on board and provide updates more regularly?

Silent,
TW shorts are only 1%. Burn them all and it makes no difference.

Manfor,
If you intend to wait until 80p, then IMHO, you will be waiting in vain.

manfor,
if you intend to wait until they are £4, then IMHO you will be waiting in vain.

I got out at 30p and still lost 85%! I have no confidence that the judgement against them will be overturned, and that will be the final straw. That realisation was when I said goodbye.

By the way the markets have moved today one could suggest that the demise of Avonside is a win for Marley, and therefore Marshalls. Who said that Marley traded with Avonside? Perhaps they are just competitors?

and Caviar at 31p!

Helloooo, yes we are still here. Cannot resist a small top-up of 205716 at .3588.
Let' see what evolves, very confident of a good return, happy to wait until the Russians have to exit.
LOL

Yup, reinvest the 10% dividend and hold. Can't do better!

Don't get me wrong, I am here for the long term, with full confidence in the ability of our Mr Matt Bull-dozer.
Only wish he would stop dozing and get moving.

You miss the point Blu. We know its diesel, but that is the irony!

Why am I underwhelmed by the Rns that says they have mobilised a single bulldozer?
4 months since mining licence and that is all they have done? They had plenty of cash to mobilise a bulldozer a year ago, so not impressed. Will they tell us in 4 months that they have put some more petrol in it?

Tell that to Boris, you only get one chance to sign a Northern Ireland protocol.........................

A second item from Northern Graphite:
In the 1990s China dumped graphite on the market to earn foreign exchange which caused a significant decline in prices. Much like rare earths, this essentially killed the industry in the west and graphite prices remained low until about 2005 due to excess production capacity in China. Then the growth in China, the commodity super cycle and resultant demand from the steel industry caused graphite prices to increase until they reached record levels in 2012. Shortages were reported. Unfortunately for the graphite producers, high prices did not last long as a slowdown in the Chinese economy and declining steel demand quickly caused prices to fall back. No new mines were built in the west during this period.

Since that time prices have been sideways to down as the industry waits for steel demand to recover and for the lithium ion battery (“LiB”) market to get big enough to drive prices on its own as has happened with lithium and cobalt. LiBs were not a factor with respect to demand in 2012 but have been growing at 20%pa due to the proliferation of handheld devices such as cell phones, camera, laptops, power tools, etc. Electric vehicles and grid storage are huge markets which are still in their infancy. LiBs already account for 25% of flake graphite demand and manufacturing plants under construction are expected to triple demand by 2021. This will require flake graphite production to double in that period of time

Currently, China produces 70 to 80% of the world’s graphite and 100 per cent of the natural graphite used in LiBs. Because of this dependence on China, as well as the importance of graphite to the economy, both the EU and the US have declared graphite a supply critical mineral.

"A critical mineral" !!
I am in this for the ride!!

Extract from a research document from Northern Graphite:
The anode in Li ion batteries (LiBs") is made out of graphite. A graphite anode is one of the things that make it a LiB and there are no substitutes. LiBs are smaller, lighter and more powerful than traditional batteries and have a flat voltage profile meaning they provide almost full power until discharged. They also have no memory effect and a very low rate of discharge when not in use. Almost all portable consumer devices such as laptops, cell phones, MP3 players and cameras use Li ion batteries and they are now rapidly moving into power tools and bigger devices. This has lead to 20% annual growth in the LiB market.

This growth rate is expected to continue as hybrid electric vehicles (“HEV”), plug in electric vehicles (“PEV”) and all electric vehicles (“EV”), and grid storage applications, are huge markets that are all in their infancy. This has significant implications for the LiB and graphite markets. The batteries are large and the potential demand for graphite very significant. By weight, graphite is the largest component in LiBs and they contain 10-15 times more graphite than lithium. Because of losses in the manufacturing process, it actually takes over 30 times as much graphite to make the batteries.

There is up to 10 kgs of graphite in the average HEV and up to 70 kgs in an EV. There is far more in a Tesla Model S. Every million EVs, which is about 1% of the new car market, require in the order of 75,000 tonnes of natural graphite to make the batteries which represents a potential ten per cent increase in flake graphite demand. Because of the small size of the flake graphite market, even modest, conservative EV adoption rates will have a big effect on demand. LiB manufacturing capacity currently under construction would require flake graphite production to more than double by 2025.

The anode material used in LiBs, called spherical graphite ("SPG"), is manufactured from either flake graphite concentrates produced by graphite mines or from synthetic graphite. Only flake graphite which can be economically rounded and upgraded to 99.95% purity can be used. The manufacturing process includes micronization, rounding, purification and heat treatment. The process is expensive and wastes up to 70% of the flake graphite feed. As a result, uncoated spherical graphite currently sells for up to USD3,000/tonne or over three times the price of large flake graphite. Coated spherical graphite sells for USD$4,000 to $12,000 per tonne depending on quality and end market.

Almost all Li ion battery manufacturing currently takes place in China because of the ready availability of graphite, weak environmental standards and low costs. Secure, cost competitive and environmentally sustainable source of graphite are needed in the west.

That is where the direction is going.

Then you could sell the whole package for 5% royalty!