TLG - Talga Group

[basilio]

2022 Financial accounts out today. Pretty sobering risk analysis statements on financing the commercialisation of their Talnode C anodes.

Nothing is certain * . Bedding down the investment capital to develop the production of commercial quantities of their Anodes is not in the bag.

On the other hand IMV the commercial and environmental need for massive European battery technology should be the spur to ensure that these funds are ulyimatley provided. The interest of National Government funding bodies is critical.

Full Year Statutory Accounts (PDF 1,291.2 KB)

 

[Dona Ferentes]

From a Stockhead piece:

But (graphite) has often been suggested as one of the materials that could be substituted out as battery chemistries change, with a focus on solid state and silicone anode battery types.

Talga’s Mark Thompson says it will not be an overall threat to battery graphite demand.

“In the words of another famous Australian, tell them they’re dreaming,” he said.

Thompson says even established, approved chemical producers working with known anode technology can take two years to qualify their product for a new model. While silicone is being added to graphite in some cases, it is an expensive material, making it a niche add-on for existing graphite anode chemistries.

“There was a technical conference in Sydney recently and (battery expert) Stanley Whittingham was there who does work on solid state,” Thompson said. “And he said that the battery industry, the research level guys should stop talking about this stuff, that it’s all going into commercial production.

“He says it might take another 20 years and it might take another 20 years after that, we don’t know.

“And we should stop talking about it being like it’s all ready to go.

“It’s definitely bulk graphite anodes for a long, long time, for many, many decades. And even if other things are technically possible, graphite is actually very safe, it’s very doable in different jurisdictions.”

Caught short? Miners say graphite is poised to be lithium 2.0 - Stockhead

Graphite miners think it could be the next commodity to run on the battery thematic with the industry facing chronic undersupply issues.

stockhead-com-au.cdn.ampproject.org

 

[Dona Ferentes]

2022 Financial accounts out ... Pretty sobering risk analysis statements on financing the commercialisation of their Talnode C anodes.

Nothing is certain * . Bedding down the investment capital to develop the production of commercial quantities of their Anodes is not in the bag..

....
........... trading halt as the Company expects to conduct a capital raising comprising an institutional placement

 

[basilio]

....
........... trading halt as the Company expects to conduct a capital raising comprising an institutional placement

Hopefully another critical part to ensuring sufficient funding to fully commercialise the anode production. Be good to see some low cost institutional loans in the mix.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

Hopefully another critical part to ensuring sufficient funding to fully commercialise the anode production.

not so fast

brokers were offering TLG shares at $1.10, a 17% discount to the last close and 16.2% lower than the 10-day volume weighted average price.

The term sheet sent to potential investors said Talga would use the proceeds for:

• its European projects Vittangi (engineering, early works and long-lead items),
• Niska (drilling to expand resources),
• EVA production and trial mine costs, and
• for general working capital and offer costs.

It planned to run a $10 million share purchase plan later at the same offer price.

 

[Dona Ferentes]

Talga Share Purchase Plan closes early

In light of the strong support for the SPP, the Talga Board has agreed to close the SPP immediately, in accordance with the terms of the SPP. The SPP was due to close on Friday, 28 October 2022

Placement on 7/10; SPP opened 14/10. Already got the $10 million

solves that.. was considering a tip into the SPP, but I guess my dosh will go to CXL instead. The trading price was running above the $1.10 for the duration of when the SPP was open, and has now jumped on this news to $1.29

 

[basilio]

Talga Share Purchase Plan closes early


Placement on 7/10; SPP opened 14/10. Already got the $10 million

solves that.. was considering a tip into the SPP, but I guess my dosh will go to CXL instead. The trading price was running above the $1.10 for the duration of when the SPP was open, and has now jumped on this news to $1.29

View attachment 148419

Given the progress of the company the share raising at $1.10 seemed an attractive price. ( But then I thought the capital raising at $1.46 looked good as well.. )

Seems like plenty of other shareholders agreed. Be interesting to see if the SP does hold up with worsening economic news. Always a chance people will cash out their short term profits in this market.

 

[basilio]

Quarterly report highlights plenty of progress. The capital raising in October of around $30m was definitely Just in Time

Quarterly Activities Review For period ending 30 September 2022

Battery materials and technology company Talga Group Ltd (“Talga” or “the Company”) (ASX:TLG) is
pleased to report its activities for the quarter ending 30 September 2022.

Commercial and project development
• Automotive Cells Company ("ACC") signs non-binding offtake for 60,000 tonne anode supply

• Site visit due diligence completed by a number of significant European finance institutions for
Vittangi Anode Project construction financing

• ISO 14001 accreditation attained for Talga EVA qualification plant subsequent to quarter

• Final drill results reveal further high-grade graphite between Niska North and South (“Niska link”)
• 25,000 tonne trial mine program successfully completed subsequent to quarter

• Permitting process for 100,000 tonnes per annum Vittangi mine advanced

Product and technology development
• Talga receives funding to further Talnode®-Si commercialisation

• Talga membership of remote operations space consortium AROSE

Corporate and finance
• Oversubscribed A$22 million institutional placement completed subsequent to quarter
• Oversubscribed A$10 million Share Purchase Plan completed subsequent to quarter
• Talga and Mitsui extend Vittangi Anode Project MoU
• Talga presents at globally significant automotive and battery industry events

Quarterly Activities/Appendix 5B Cash Flow Report (PDF 11,857.2 KB)

 

[basilio]

Talga released an investment webinar highlighting the progress of its vertically integrated graphite mining, refining and anode production.

SP continues to move up.

Talga Investor Webinar Presentation (PDF 14,062.2 KB)

 

[Dona Ferentes]

Things are advancing, step by step. Now $1.36

The Vittangi Anode Project in Sweden has passed the European Investment Bank’s preliminary screening for debt financing. Following substantial due diligence undertaken to date, including completed site visits, EIB has advanced the Project to Under Appraisal in preparation of a decision. The Project will use 100% renewable electricity to extract graphite, an EU defined critical material, and refine it into coated anode for Li ion batteries. The first stage of the Project will produce 19,500tpa of anode for 24 years from the integrated 'mine to anode' operation (ASX: 01 July 2021).

The EIB potential financing commitment of up to EUR300m, pending final due diligence, credit approvals and agreements, is foreseen to cornerstone and complement debt funding discussions underway with a consortium of leading export credit agencies and international banks.

 

[basilio]

Things are advancing, step by step. Now $1.36

The Vittangi Anode Project in Sweden has passed the European Investment Bank’s preliminary screening for debt financing. Following substantial due diligence undertaken to date, including completed site visits, EIB has advanced the Project to Under Appraisal in preparation of a decision. The Project will use 100% renewable electricity to extract graphite, an EU defined critical material, and refine it into coated anode for Li ion batteries. The first stage of the Project will produce 19,500tpa of anode for 24 years from the integrated 'mine to anode' operation (ASX: 01 July 2021).

The EIB potential financing commitment of up to EUR300m, pending final due diligence, credit approvals and agreements, is foreseen to cornerstone and complement debt funding discussions underway with a consortium of leading export credit agencies and international banks.

This is one of the biggest ducks in the row. The market has jumped on the news. One would think that if the EIB comes to the party effectively underwriting the project the other parties offering a slice of the investment will follow suit.

EIB appraising up to EU300m for Vittangi Anode Project (PDF 69.4 KB)

 

[frugal.rock]

It's all roses right?
Rubber stamped?


From 3rd November Ann.

Battery materials company Talga Group Ltd (“Talga” or “the Company”)(TLG:ASX) is pleased to advise that the hearing for the Company’s Vittangi Graphite Project mine environmental permit has
been scheduled by the Swedish Land and Environment Court.

The hearing is scheduled to take place in Luleå, commencing the week of 30 January 2023 and expected to conclude the week of 20 February 2023.

The environmental permit and exploitation concession applications for a graphite mine and concentrator at the Nunasvaara South deposit of Talga’s Vittangi Graphite Project were submitted in 2020 (ASX:TLG 16 July 2020).
The environmental permit will be decided and published after the hearing, along with the exploitation concession decision by the state mining inspectorate (“Bergsstaten”).

 

[Dona Ferentes]

AFR correspondent has been given the guided tour. Not a bad article.

Inside the Swedish shed that might upend the battery market

In far northern Sweden, Talga Group is closing in on a decade-long goal: to mine and manufacture battery materials for Europe, in Europe.

www.afr.com

And this is why it takes so long.....

.... At the Lulea demonstration plant, about a dozen people oversee a process in which Talga’s graphite is turned from flakes into rounded and coated particles that battery makers use in their anodes.

The process is complex, but the economics are probably the trickiest part. If the company was just offering lithium, nickel or cobalt, that would essentially be one-size-fits-all. With graphite, though, the battery maker has to test and retest the material, to make sure it works with specific products.

It has to be “the right shape, the right crystallinity, the right chemistry, the right performance, before it goes into a customer product”, Thompson says. And that takes time.

An anode materials producer like Talga will typically start off by sending a customer just a few kilograms, known as an “A sample”. If those check out, the customers will ask for a “B sample” of at least several hundred kilos, then a “C sample” of, say, a couple of tonnes or even several dozen tonnes.

By this point the company and its customer are starting to get pretty committed. At “D sample” level, the customer is going into production with that material.

“It’s an almost continuous scale of qualification, until you reach the level where they’re happy to go ahead. That’s why what we’ve done is maybe more of an achievement than gets recognised,” MD Mark Thompson says....

 

[basilio]

AFR correspondent has been given the guided tour. Not a bad article.

Inside the Swedish shed that might upend the battery market

In far northern Sweden, Talga Group is closing in on a decade-long goal: to mine and manufacture battery materials for Europe, in Europe.

www.afr.com

And this is why it takes so long.....

.... At the Lulea demonstration plant, about a dozen people oversee a process in which Talga’s graphite is turned from flakes into rounded and coated particles that battery makers use in their anodes.

The process is complex, but the economics are probably the trickiest part. If the company was just offering lithium, nickel or cobalt, that would essentially be one-size-fits-all. With graphite, though, the battery maker has to test and retest the material, to make sure it works with specific products.

It has to be “the right shape, the right crystallinity, the right chemistry, the right performance, before it goes into a customer product”, Thompson says. And that takes time.

An anode materials producer like Talga will typically start off by sending a customer just a few kilograms, known as an “A sample”. If those check out, the customers will ask for a “B sample” of at least several hundred kilos, then a “C sample” of, say, a couple of tonnes or even several dozen tonnes.

By this point the company and its customer are starting to get pretty committed. At “D sample” level, the customer is going into production with that material.

“It’s an almost continuous scale of qualification, until you reach the level where they’re happy to go ahead. That’s why what we’ve done is maybe more of an achievement than gets recognised,” MD Mark Thompson says....

That is very intriguing. I didn't realise how particular the requirements were for graphite anodes and individual suppliers.
In that situation once a supplier got the product just right his customer is not going to move in a hurry. Another consideration is just how picky just a client need to be? How much will a not so perfect battery anode affect performance ? Was there much more in the story that explained the nuts and bolts of individual battery anode requirements ?

I am surprised at this story. To date battery suppliers produce millions and millions of batteries for the current crop of cars and other devices. So are these battery anodes extensively built to be "just right" ?

 

[Dona Ferentes]

I think MT has been saying this all along ... Which is why we need to file under 'high risk'.

Sold down part of the penultimate cap raise today, at a small profit. Still hold my initial 5c entry point shares from way back when, and some others to make a nice round number..

 

[basilio]

Offtake agreements now moving to completion. Also increased demand for silicon based anodes.

Talga and ACC graphite anode offtake update (PDF 54.3 KB) Talga silicon anode demand drives progress (PDF 3,723.0 KB)

 

[Dona Ferentes]

Still miffed about early closure of SPP. Now $1.43 and bouncing around, here's hoping 2023 ducks align.

 

[orr]

So are these battery anodes extensively built to be "just right" ?

From memory Bas you have an interest also in NVX. When I looked over'm 2 years back the in house technology that stood out was the battery testing. Jeff Dohn's with others had developed a cycling methodology to compact years down to months all with the aim of getting all aspects of battery chemistry's as "just right" as possible as quickly as possilble.

 

[basilio]

Talga SP has been moving smartly upwards in the past week. Currently sitting at $1.69.

They just announced a non binding Letter of Intent from a majoe battery producer for their Talode C anode.

Verkor and Talga sign non-binding Letter of Intent for Swedish battery anode supply
Talga Group Ltd (“Talga” or “the Company”) (ASX:TLG) is pleased to announce it has entered into a non-binding Letter of Intent with French EV battery manufacturer Verkor SA (“Verkor”) to supply Talga’sflagship graphite anode product, Talnode®-C, from its 100% owned Vittangi project in Sweden ("LOI").

Talga is allocating its planned anode production across offtakesupply agreements in support of the Company’s project financing
strategy, focusing on European customers. The LOI, which follows successful Talnode®-C qualificationtestwork to date, formalises commercial discussions underway\between the parties and sets out non-binding terms for Talga tosupply Verkor with Talnode®-C for electric vehicle applicationsover a 4- to 8-year period. The parties will work towards executinga binding term sheet in Q1 2023 alongside advancing product qualification programs.
Verkor is backed by multiple prominent partners including RenaultGroup, EQT Ventures, Demeter FMET and Sibanye-Stillwater. Verkor’s goal is to open its first Li-ion battery Gigafactory in 2024in Dunkirk, France, with a 16 GWh/annum capacity, followed by long-term expansion to 50 GWh/annum by 2030.

Talga’s mission to enable the world’s most sustainable batteries aligns well with Verkor’s mandate to
accelerate the large-scale industrialisation of batteries in Europe.

Verkor signs non-binding LOI for Talga Anode Supply (PDF 85.2 KB)

 

[Dona Ferentes]

Quietly creeping up.