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Off we go.

Target now must be to achieve the 100,000 tonne offtakes between US and china in order to meet the requirement to merge stage 1 and 2.

I think the sticky point is the right of first refusal the DFC would have on project funding. You would expect other clauses also securing product supply. That doesn't fit with the increased comms on China interest. It may not be in BRES best interest to proceed with the DFC and i suspect until all options have been considered, this will be on hold. If BRES pick another route it must be pretty good to turn down the DFC, so this doesn't worry me at all.

Unusually Mike has not done an interview on the back of Bulk sample results which i would expect would be a great opportunity to discuss and talk about china. The lack of an interview suggests to me there is more that he cant say than what he can.

DFS is really about proving up the commercials of the project in order to achieve a positive decision to mine ahead of completing finance.

Bulk sample testing was a key milestone to prove up the product. With this flow sheet and plant optimization work carried out in order to optimize the plant design.

During the process recoveries and grades were improved from the pre feasibility study improving the commercials. So already they have added vale to the $482m NPV in the pre feasibility study.

SPG results are due confirming battery grade. This will further enhance the financials as it confirms the commercialization of the product reducing risk.

OEM testing final validation of testing by end users. We know following the bulk sample there is product being sent to several interested parties.

Signing offtake agreements is part of the DFS. Having proven the quality of the product proving up that you have customers ready and waiting enhances the financials as it reduces the risk. Potential for upfront payments, or even equity partners at this stage can bridge short term financing gaps and ultimately full project finance. With competition for supply, i expect offtake partners will want to secure contracts quickly.

They are looking at processing options in and out of country.

Options to increase the scale of the project having only drilled 1-2%.

They have already done work on sustainability and environmental assessments.

There seems to be a lack of knowledge about what the DFS is and an idea that lack of news on the DFC grant means things are standing still. All this progress the company have been talking about is part of the DFS. There is a lot more to it but much of which is an extension of the work already carried out in the PFS.

Mike Ralston talked about a larger project with DFC involved. Whether they will be or China steps in, they have previously stated that if offtake agreements can be signed for 100ktn per annum rather than the initial 50ktn estimated, they will amalgamate stage 1 and 2 of the project achieving capex savings. With the level of interest this has attracted it's certainly possible that there are grounds to move the project forward more ambitiously than planned.

It might not seem like it but there is a lot going on and a lot of progress made, and we are now at the stage where a couple of more developments will reveal a lot and move this forward quickly. Bres still own 100% of the project and the dilution to get here is very minimal compared to other companies achieving similar success.

Because that's the timetable the company have given - Admittedly they are always behind their timetables. They have already delivered on milestones in the DFS and other key parts are well under way. The urgency to get things moving will shift at some point.

100% - dont forget the plan is to complete DFS by end of this year. Offtakes is a key part of that and will likely provide funding. Decision to go ahead and mine should be early next year with the required project funding.

All the groundwork is done here. Only SPG results confirming battery grade is required.

This is not about proving up the asset any more. They have done that and have generated significant interest in a resource that is at the very start of its growth phase and soon to be under pressure for supply. They somehow failed to build any growth in the valuation of the company in doing so which is an anomaly.

I am sure they could get someone to write them a cheque for Orom cross today for several times the current market cap if they wanted.

BRES have options here. This project and the product is clearly highly sought after. They have now completed all the necessary drilling and bulk samples required. They could have raised more and spent more to prove up more resource but the added dilution at this stage was not good value.

SPG results are overdue confirming battery grade. This is the last piece required to prove up a high quality product.

From there we have the issue of funding, firstly to complete the DFS and then to finance the build and production. Important to understand the DFS has already past some key milestones.

DFC was an unexpected angle. No word on this since the initial RNS. My take on this is there are 3 possible scenarios. All going as announced and delays, something bigger going on with US china link or bres have the potential for a better option with china. If they walk away from the DFC grant, how good must the alternative be?! It may be more favourable to go with an industry expert from china.

The level of interest from other parties is such a luxury for bres. They are not at the mercy of trying to find a deal out of desperation to get this off the ground. They have choice and they are in a strong position to negotiate as the product is in demand and they are putting themselves to the top of the shopping list for potential suppliers.

I suspect that fairly soon they will announce some finance that will take the market by storm. An offtake agreement could well come with a prepayment in excess of the current mcap.

It may be frustrating that we still await clarity on partners and funding, but i believe they are holding on for the best deal giving away as little dilution as possible. They will show their hand soon.

All roads point to funding and supply into the US. China have the tech to process to battery grade. US want to onboard this and so do Blencowe, which takes China out of the equation. What i really like about this is that if the growth in Graphite does falls behind projected levels based on EV sales, either in timeframes or market size, tie in with DFC and major US EV manufacturer would ensure Blencowe supply is eaten up first so sensitivity to the graphite growth projections would be minimized.

DFC are a US Gov agency with a 2023 budget of $7.68bn

Working with the department for Energy focusing on clean energy supply chains, which includes Electric Vehicles at the heart of the future direction

There is a supply chain issue concerning certain key critical resources, including Graphite, of which there is between 5 and 10 times the amount of lithium in a lithium ion battery. Graphite is also non replaceable in the anode (except for synthetic graphite which has other environmental concerns)

The only other graphite company DFC/DoE are working with is Syrah, who have received $322m in commitments for loans and grants.

Syrah have an offtake agreement with Tesla.

DFC/DoE are interested in full scale battery metal production with SPG processing away from China. Mike has also mentioned taking the technology to the ground at Orom Cross.

The further you dig into DFC and the graphite supply squeeze, the better this partnership looks. It certainly explains the confidence of the BOD with funding and shows how the comments regarding growing significant shareholder value and avoiding dilution are very much achievable with the DFC onboard.

BRES have over £6m warrants available at an average of around 7p.

With the DFC agreement signing, confirmation of SPG to battery grade can offer share price growth to make warrants attractive to warrant holders, funding the company without further dilution and seeing us through to project level funding.

I fully expect only minimal further dilution if all plays out to plan.

https://www.energy.gov/policy/articles/americas-strategy-secure-supply-chain-robust-clean-energy-transition

They have 83m warrants at an average of 7.5p. circa £6m. Priority for funding is in my opinion to drive share price up and get the warrants away. DFC grant release and/or US results confirming battery grade end product can get it there, failing that maybe an upgraded NPV to x2 as Mike discussed.

Some key things coming up:

US Testing results confirming ability to upgrade to battery grade graphite

Signing of DFC grant with first option for funding

Enhanced project design to build a bigger project to increase the NPV by >2x of the latest pre feasibility study result due to the capital support potential from DFC

Process and results of the 100tn bulk sample

Completion of DFS

Decision to mine and funding

Sorry shocking typos there on phone but get the message!

Thats not what he said. He said that at the moment giving away a part of the project is not necessary at this stage and there are more attractive options. Clearly a corporate equity raise on worse terms than a project level deal does not fit that narrative. They have newsflow coming up that can improve the value of the project so it seems like they are going to pish this as far forward to create more value before any for of funding. The fact they didnt do an equity raise on news like they have previously is a hood sign for me as they clearly feel it has more levs before doing so. They are looking at options that can deliver the best return. To say project level funding is available but not they think they can progress further without dilution at this level is a hugely bullish statement.

Its refreshing to see a company continue to reaffirm their desire to retain as much value rather than prioritise short term money in the bank to pay their salaries for another 2 years.

see confirmatory RNS on RCGH if you want confirmation its's nothing to do with ROQ

https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/RCGH/change-of-auditor-4ah8gv8z2ym1uf0.html

One PI buying in shifts it up 5%. Good sign for when the company deliver a reason for larger scale investment to come on board.

Fully expect this to end the year above at least 9p and for them to get the warrants away at the average 7-7.5p to fund the company for 2023.
All eyes on the project funding partner news due before year end. Funding has been holding this back. Clear plan if you bother to watch recent presentations and read recent news. Funding is the game changer, which seems to be coming right in time for the anticipated acceleration of the graphite shortfall.

Ask RAB if it's a spike - strategic investor bought at 5p before last 2 significant pieces of news.....

59p is a fully diluted share price target based on derisked assumptions of equity given up.

The asset value per share based on $482m npv and fully diluted shareholding would be about £2 per share.

So 59p target would equate to about 25% of the project on only 2% of the resource.

The purpose of the pilot plant was to prove up the ability of the resource to deliver and obtain off take partners and funding for a full scale production mine. With the partner they can do this using existing infrastructure and effectively skip out the pilot stage and move straight to a fully fledged profitable mine. Interesting the 2% resource that is currently covered, as a large Chinese partner could facilitate opening up the wider resource much earlier.

One of the main thins is it sounds like now Blencowe are looking to work with the Chinese how already have an active market demand about to outstrip supply, so instead of competing with the chinese and looking for alternate routes to market, Blencowe are tapping in to the advanced market that already exists.

This is without doubt an acceleration of the project. It looks very much like they have mapped out a plan with this partner which will unfold based on successful milestones. It's a large commitment for sampling that shows the keen interest of the partner.

To abandon the pilot plant based on China interest, Blencowe must be very confident of progression with this partner. The only thing that could make this better is if the partner had put some money upfront now to obtain some exclusivity whilst this plays out.

Only option atm really.

Nickel project relied on getting the warrants away, and therefore the share price to be north of 7p.

It's clear when the Nickel acquisition was agreed they expected a sp much higher than 3p based on completion of stage 1 (still to be announced) and Orom Cross JORC update and PFS. They state in the acquisition they expected to fund stage 2 out of warrants exercised. There's over £6m of warrants at average 7.5p. So they clearly expected what they had would be worth more than 8p per share by the time they get to stage 2 and that these warrants would be the next source of funding. And to be fair, what they have delivered it should be above 8p. But for some reason it's lagging at 3p. It seems to me that people just can't understand how BRES can raise the funding. But the funding isn't driven by BRES balance sheet, it's driven by the quality of the asset, and the PFS has proved the value for investors. The best thing they can do is deliver on this Pilot plant funding which cannot fail to provide a rerate and then get the warrants away. Big few months ahead and it's all about partnership and customer interest in the Graphite.

£2m raised at 5p in Nov - pre nickel acquisition, pre JORC pre PFS upgrade, pre RAB investment also at 5p. You see a lot of resource stocks decline after a fundraise after burning cash for little progress, but in this case, BRES have delivered on value added milestones and are ready to move towards the Pilot plant and production. It's not unreasonable to expect that they have added value from the capital they raised based on the milestones achieved. Yet it is valued as an early stage exploration company, not an early stage production company. Gap in MCAP to the NPV of £6m - $482m - they have to figure out how to start ensuring the market is ready to price some of this upside in.