on a positive note it was confirmed that under optimal...

on a positive note it was confirmed that under optimal conditions the plant can actually produce 22000tpa, so the addition of a $12m evaporator/crystaliser should in theory increase nameplate capacity and average annual output to greater than the current 17,000, unless it was just spin, RS really struggled to show he was on top of the finer details and facts in the conference call. To be fair from my point of view when the plant was designed, prices were much lower so there wasn't a rush to get the Li out of the ground and processed. It was consensus forecast that the longer you waited the more you would get paid for it so there was basically an incentive to have as lean a system as possible. With the huge increase in current and forecast demand and price rises bringing previously uneconomical spodumene into the market, the focus has changed from being a lowest cost producer to getting volumes out and processed as quickly as possible to make the most of higher prices. It would be interesting to know what the forecast increase in average annual production will be from adding an evaporator. Hopefully a couple of thousand tonne which would make it a no brainer in current market assuming rough average of analyst forecasts of price stabilising under 10,000/tonne in ~ 5 years