CXO - Core Lithium

[rcw1]

Good morning
3 minute chart.

Reported via New Corp Media Outlets:

Deterioration in market conditions is weighing on Northern Territory-focused Core Lithium.

Early works on its proposed B33 underground mine, near its Finniss operation in Northern Territory, are suspended and the group is considering other options, including prioritising ore mining and possible temporary curtailment of mining operations, besides other cost-saving measures.

The price of spodumene concentrate has declined more than 80 per cent year to date, including by more than 40 per cent since the end of October.Core says it is continuing to focus on "factors within its control", including reducing costs, enhancing the mine plan, timing growth projects, and optimising our assets. The company has now been producing concentrates for ten months, but the current decline in the spodumene price has led to reviewing a range of options to lower costs and increase productivity. The group has significant run-of-mine stockpile and will continue processing ore and making spodumene concentrate during the wet season. It produced 10,350 tonnes of concentrate and 16,374 tonnes of fines in October, shipping 10,188 tonnes of concentrate and 16,246 tonnes of fines in November.

Another shipment of spodumene concentrate is due to be made in December. Future sales of the fines material will be subject to market conditions. Chief executive Gareth Manderson said his team "are working at pace on all options to optimise our business and position it as well as possible in the current lithium pricing environment".

Further an announcement attached ..

 

[frugal.rock]

Life lately has really taught me to focus on things within my control by making all the things that are out of my control go wrong or to be extremely difficult to work around.
My average buy price on CXO is $0.99 which is just absolutely awesome.

I enter it in the yearly comp out of hope of breaking even in perhaps 5 years. In 10 years, I might double my money. Groan.

 

[frugal.rock]

Grimace

@debtfree

 

[Sean K]

Grimace View attachment 169586
@debtfree
View attachment 169587

Got 12 months for it to come around...

Lithium has made and lost fortunes over the past 2 years. What goes parabolic up, must go parabolic down. I think Sun Tzu said that.

 

[frugal.rock]

Sure it wasn't some Shitzu?

 

[TimeISmoney]

 

[frugal.rock]

Oh dear, are they still stuck in 2023…?

25 January 2024

ASX: CXO Announcement

2023 Exploration Program Update
Highlights

• A three-phase exploration program was undertaken in 2023 and is now complete.

• Phase 1: Focused on infill and resource definition drilling at BP33 and Carlton.

o BP33 drill results include 90.17m @ 1.80% Li2O from 568.83m (hole NMRD085). This hole exceeded expectations and is yet to be included in the BP33 resource model.

• Phase 2: Encouraging results have been received from infill and extensional drilling at the Lees-Booths, and Penfolds prospects and are now being interpreted and incorporated into updated resource estimations.

o At Lees-Booths, detailed interpretation of the drilling results is underway, with early analysis highlighting strike and down dip extensions (to the northeast) to known mineralised pegmatite bodies.

o Some of the deeper intersections at Penfolds are up to 100m below the bottom of the current mineral resource and confirm a steep westerly dip to the pegmatite system.

• Phase 3: Testing of new priority targets generated in 2023 from geophysical and geochemical surveying commenced in the December quarter – drill results are pending.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

to think, people were excited once.

Lithium’s cloudy future​

By Glenn Dyer | More Articles by Glenn Dyer

It was a sorry set of half-year figures from Core Lithium (ASX:CXO) last week, confirming that the company’s future remains very clouded. The interim report came the same day as the CEO stepped down, part of Core’s slimming-down-to-survive mode.

The report reveals multiple challenges (headwinds) ahead, besides the low prices and slowing demand for the key battery metal.
There’s the big interim loss, made bigger by a huge impairment and provision for bad deals (or ‘onerous contracts’) with Chinese customers for its spodumene.
Core Lithium revealed first-half revenue of $134.8 million, but there was a 75% decline in its spodumene concentrate realized price to $US2,098 per tonne and its decision to suspend production.

Core Lithium reports an interim loss of $167.6 million, with an impairment loss of $119.6 million recorded regarding non-financial assets such as the value of stripping activity assets and mine properties as a result of suspending mining at the Grants open pit during operational review earlier this year.

With Pilbara Minerals revealing a price of $US1,200 a tonne for its spodumene in its pre-auction deal for 5,000 tonnes of spodumene, Core Lithium faces even larger financial pressures. But seeing Core said its average selling price was $US2,098 a tonne for 6% spodumene equivalent, the Pilbara auction price indicates a lot more financial pressure for the company.

Core reaffirmed its revised guidance for FY 2024 production of 90,000 tonnes to 95,000 tonnes of 4.77% spodumene concentrate production and sales of 80,000 tonnes to 90,000 tonnes. That is well short of the contracted amounts and the price in the Pilbara pre-sale will only make life tougher.

In 2019, the company entered into a binding offtake agreement covering 75,000 tonnes of spodumene concentrate a year over four years to Sichuan Yahua, followed by another agreement with the same volume with Ganfeng in 2021, which, ideally, contracted 80% sales of Finniss' stage 1 production over the first 4 years of the mine's life.

But due to problems and delays, the company only achieved the first concentrate production in February 2023, and produced 67,803 tonnes of spodumene concentrate and 64,000 tonnes of lithium fines material sold as a ~1% lithia product in the whole calendar year 2023.

As well the half-year report cut the FY2024 production guidance to 90,000 to 95,000 tonnes of concentrate, when it should have been much more – close to double that if the two Chinese buyers took all their contracted tonnages.
But from the interim report, Core Lithium will have difficulties in meeting these contractual obligations.

If it can’t meet the contracts, Core Lithium will have to pay its customers the difference between the agreed price and the price of customers' actual payment for the replacement supply of spodumene concentrate.

That’s why the company provided $27 million for onerous contracts.
The key is the size of the difference between the contract price and the replacement cost for the two Chinese (and any other) customers. If the difference is negative – the replacement cost is lower than the contract price, should the buyers pay Core Lithium?

Core Lithium said it had $124 million on hand at the end of 2023 – after more than two months of low-level operations and the costs of sorting out staff, job cuts, and the onerous contracts, that has to be smaller. Normally, the easiest way of handling Core’s problems is for the losses – actual and potential, plus the value of the supply contracts, to be turned into equity and the customers take control. But seeing the main customers are Chinese companies, that is highly unlikely.

 

[frugal.rock]

Chin up

Ah Hoy and Prospects
Eat your heart out @Captain_Chaza
@debtfree

22 March 2024
ASX: CXO
Announcement

Core delivers excellent exploration results

Highlights

• Final assays received from 2023 drilling program
• Exceptional new drilling results at the Ah Hoy and Seadog prospects, including:

o NMRD095 70m @ 1.40% Li2O from 514m at Ah Hoy o FRC473 78m @ 1.30% Li2O from 270m (to EOH) at Seadog

• New large-scale, regional targets generated at Finniss by greenfields geophysical and geochemical surveys and scout drilling
• Encouraging results from initial Shoobridge geochemical survey
• Updated mineral resource models expected to be announced next month

Might get back one day.
Patience is a virtue apparently.

 

[Chipp]

CXO with 8.3% shorts , wont take much to trigger a run , its a hail mary but Lithium cannot fall much further and any spike and its of to the ' squeeze ' races . CXO previously the trade of my life so got a soft spot for it and hope it makes a comeback . My last trade a sell was actually april fools day '22 and id held for around 18 months

 

[frugal.rock]

Being a dog and lying down wriggling around a bit
@debtfree

 

[Miner]

Market welcomed the announcement of the new CEO with another drop in price. With lithium demand graph, shutting the operation. nothing is going to assist CXL

 

[frugal.rock]

Hopefully Mr Brown can boogie the price up.
May update.

 

[Miner]

Hopefully Mr Brown can boogie the price up.
May update.

View attachment 177746

Would Browny be better than caramel

 

[TimeISmoney]

I didn't think CXO would do well in the future, it just had too many things going against it.

 

[debtfree]

June update for 2024 Comp for a missing @frugal.rock

Latest announcement from AXE below.

 

[rcw1]

Good evening

Mining operations were paused in January 2024 and processing of stockpiles was completed in June 2024.

Announcement on 25/09/24 (attached) ; update to the Ore Reserves at its wholly owned Finniss Lithium Project in the Northern Territory. Finniss is located within the Bynoe Pegmatite Field and is ~88km by road from the Darwin Port:

• Significant 223% growth in the BP33 Ore Reserve to 8.7Mt @ 1.38% Li2O provides a strong foundation for restart studies currently underway
• Grants Open Pit Update: Reduced to 0.6Mt at 1.40% Li2O, reflecting mining depletion and operational adjustments
• Updated modifying factors, including cost and lithium market assumptions, have resulted in no Ore Reserves reported for several smaller deposits, including Carlton and Hang Gong
• Finniss Ore Reserves now 9.3Mt @ 1.38% Li2O which align with the restart study areas of focus (BP33 and Grants) and, based on the Ore Reserve assumptions, underpin a simpler project with a notional operating life of 9.5 years at the rate of the existing 1Mtpa Finniss process infrastructure

On 18 September 2024 (see attached) update on exploration activities at its 100%-owned Shoobridge Project also in the Northern Territory. Shoobridge is located ~160km by road south of the Finniss lithium processing plant.

Shoobridge drilling program completed, targeting lithium and known gold targets.

• Assay results have been received for 21 of 28 RC drill holes completed at the Shoobridge Project, highlighting the gold prospectivity at the Mount Shoobridge prospect;
• Shallow gold mineralisation intersected, including a standout intercept of 2m @ 12.9g/t Au from 54m (SBRC0019);
• Lithium mineralisation of up to 1.41% Li2O at Barretts and tin mineralisation of up to 3.52% SnO2 at China Hill further underscore the project's multi-commodity potential;
• Expanded drilling program planned, along with a review of historical drill data, targeting a maiden gold JORC (2012) Mineral Resource Estimate, with the best gold targets still to be drilled.

Weekly Chart

Not holding.
Have traded.

Kind regards

rcw1

 

[Dona Ferentes]

peak mountain range