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Probably mentioned in the past, but it wouldn't hurt being reminded. From Eskoms Research Direction report 2019-2024 released in April. "Technological advances in renewable energies and battery storage, particularly vanadium redox flow batteries, could reduce demand for fossil fuels, while making the grid more suitable for adoption of intermittent sources such as renewables in the medium and long-term. The added advantage (and opportunity) of vanadium redox flow batteries is the potential for localisation and creating an industry around the technology."
More positive news on batteries in general. The Exponential Roadmap states "Solar and wind energy have reached a tipping point and are now cheaper than fossil fuels in many places. Tumbling costs and rapid innovation of low-emissions technology including battery storage and electric vehicles makes a very rapid transformation almost inevitable" .
Also "With increasing production from intermittent power sources and a need to substitute gas turbines and other fossil-fuel power for balancing the grid, batteries are a key component of a decarbonised energy system. Batteries are already today balancing grids at low cost, while also making the growth of decentralised power and even 24/7 off-grid solar electricity possible. A key issue is cost, but batteries are becoming cheaper to produce as demand from the automotive industry has increased the scale of production. Bloomberg New Energy Finance estimates that global battery capacity will grow exponentially, doubling every 28 months from 2016 to 2030.13 This would mean a capacity in 2030 of 125 GW/305 GWh."
Although its lithium a key point made is "South Australia’s Tesla battery has paid back a third of its cost in the first year through services provided to the local grid."
https://exponentialroadmap.org/
Contrary to my doubts, Investopedia states the following:- "If a stock is dramatically undervalued, the issuing company can repurchase some of its shares at this reduced price and then re-issue them once the market has corrected, thereby increasing its equity capital without issuing any additional shares. "
The moneys better spent completing the Vanchem purchase, getting Vanchem back online, getting the electrolyte production facility completed and electrolyte production started, than locking it away in a share buyback to temporarily appease nervous PI shareholders.
A good reason could be the closure of the 6m share short - they may have hit their target, and are now getting worried because there is not enough volume to get out., and no share issue/funds raise to clear their short. Generally news does not leak with BMN.
"If March production is so fantastic and sustainable, pb940, why is the 2019 Vametco guidance so low?! The guidance certainly ain't 3240mtv for 2019 - not even close."
1. 24 days planned maintenance during 2019.
2. Plan on 90% of capacity - not 100% - March may have been a 100% capacity.
BBN - The full article is on the Bushveld Minerals website, on the Media | Bushveld Press page - Its titled Bushveld Vametco On an Expansion Path, dated March 25.
A PDF is downloadable - https://bit.ly/2ZzC7mY
With regards to Pahse 3 , the March Modern Mining article stated: Looking beyond Phase 2, Vametco is planning
a Phase 3 expansion, which will see additional targeted investment in the kiln and the leaching and crushing circuits to bring capacity up to 5 000 t/a (the limit of what can probably be achieved with present kiln). The company says detailed design work and capital estimation will commence with a view to construction starting
in 2020, which would probably see Phase 3 starting its ramp up in 2021.
To back up BBN's phase 2 statement, the March Modern Mining article stated:- Since taking over the Vametco operation, Bushveld has increased the capacity of the plant in two phases, with Phase 2 – the addition of a new milling circuit – having been completed in June last year to bring the operational capacity up to 3 750 t/a. In practice, Vametco has experienced difficulties in ramping up to this nameplate capacity. As a result, a diagnostic review was recently undertaken (with the assistance of an external consultant). This identified a strategy – which is currently being implemented through a ‘Transformation Programme’ – which will allow a sustainable production of 3 400 t/a to be achieved, representing 90 % of the nameplate capacity
Maybe the MM's thought that there was going to be a placing due to BMN's expansion plans. It just hasn't happened because the Vanadium price went up, and consequently BMN's income went up, removing the need for a placing - and the MM's are still waiting for a placing. Generally the appointment of a new broker flags placing!
I guess the share price will drop friday due to loads of people manually selling, and go up on Monday due to repurchases by those manual sellers. Surely If you conduct the Bed & ISA next week, the CGT losses can be applied in 2019/2020 instead of 2018/19?
Any of the following could happen before September:-
1. Increased production reported
2. vanadium price turns around and increases again
3. Brownfield acquisition
4.P/E ratio re-rate due to 2018 accounts being published