Toyota, page-4

Yeah it's all looking bleak right now but let's see what Toyota Tsusho does in the next six weeks or so.

Going on the banter between Richard Seville and one of the :"analysts" at the end of yesterday's briefing it is up to Orocobre and Toyota Tsusho to finally pull the FID trigger for both the stage 2 expansion and the LiOH plant and that that is likely to happen in the next few weeks. It was stated in the quarterly and I think also in the briefing that the final sticking point is for Toyota Tsusho, who is managing the LiOH project, to finalise the engineering procurement and construction contract with the chosen entity, Veolia. They have linked the two projects, not one without the other, so when the LiOH plant FID is good to go then I guess the stage 2 expansion FID will also be made. Seeing there has been no announcement about the $100m debt facility I can only assume that the EPC contract negotiations are holding up the signing up of the debt facility as well.

So I would be interested to see how the market reacts to an announcement confirming that Olaroz is moving to becoming a 42,500 tonne a year producer. Sure, the increase in production is at least 2 years away but with that decision Olaroz becomes a serious player in the lithium sector.