That wouldn't be good, but is it anything more than a rumour? It sounds pretty contrary to where we seem to be and prompts several questions:
1) Re FEED not being economic, how recent is the info? The demo plant design capacity increased by about 3x in late November, presumably to address its economy. Why would Geoff Ward have written this in his
December update?
"The FEED studies completed have provided sufficient confidence for us to look to progress our discussions with potential hydrogen off-takers and project co-funders as we head into 2019. As set out in our recent update to shareholders, from our initial FEED Study results we are looking at a Commercial Demonstration Project capable of operating on a continual, 24/7, basis producing approximately 100 tpa of hydrogen and approximately 375 tpa of graphite, and with a target capital cost of ~$10 million."2) Hazer gives the impression it's very confident, e.g. looking back to the AGM posts by
@Inductor. If they'd hit a funding bump, why wouldn't they have got as many HZRO as possible converted? There would have been enough in the news flow timeline to do this.
3) Management recently put over $1m of their own cash into the company. I wasn't expecting GW and Tim Goldsmith to buy in. Would they have done this if the company was troubled?
4) Hazer has said that the MIN commercials will be finalised when they move to Phase 2, but maybe MIN has made its own mind up what it wants. Regardless of FEED results, MIN would always be in a strong position because Hazer needs this deal, and especially to advance the H2 business. Is this not simply a tough negotiation between partners? Without Hazer it's a no-go for MIN either, except they have less to lose...
5) If MIN was really convinced Hazer's H2 business was uneconomic, why not just buy out Hazer for its own purposes?
I've looked and the morphology patent application is ongoing, with Shelston sending Hazer's latest response on Jan 15. Meanwhile, the patent protecting the Hazer process itself is almost secure, due in March. That would mean nobody is allowed to copy the Hazer way of making graphite, so competitors would have to achieve various morphologies under their own steam. To me this sounds like a manageable level of risk for Hazer and MIN.
(20min delay)
