At the end of Q1-24 the volume of finished Ilmenite products piling up / gathering dust in Largo’s warehouses was 17,720T (out of a total production 18,233T) as if the Ilmenite sales team was on strike after the meager 500T first shipment in Jan. The vague “Due to operational and administrative delays” didn’t really tell the public anything. Anyway, regardless of the cause behind the fact that the sales team could only manage to ship out 2.8% of the Ilmenite produced in Q4-23 & Q1-24 together, what we want to know now is “how long” will it take for the problem(s) to be solved. The statement “The company expects sales to increase in the coming months and maintains its sales guidance for 2024” is also too generic to be of any informative value at all. “Expects sales to increase”? Higher than 513T per quarter? What a joke! “Maintains its sales guidance”? Yeah? Why not tell us the catch-up schedule? How long will it take to clear the backlog? How many tonnes are now expected to be sold in Q2? Q3? Q4 after Q1 unexpected disaster?
Could it be possible that Largo’s Ilmenite produced during ramp-up was of such low quality that nobody wants to buy it until further improvement?
Remember the following Q&A in the Q2-21 CC when Paul Vollant tried to provide misleading information about the iron-ore fiasco? Please and effing please don’t let it happen again.
Andrew Wong
No. I think that helps answer the question. Maybe just a little bit on the quarter. It looks like there was a little bit of iron ore sales this quarter. Can you talk about the volumes associated with those sales and what we can expect going forward? Thank you.
Paul Vollant
Yes. Andrew, we sold a limited amount of iron ore this quarter. We had to deliver many sample and trial quantities to various customers in Brazil and outside of Brazil. We're definitely expecting to run that up depending on market conditions. As you know, iron ore prices have been quite volatile over the past 6 months. But given prices and markets remain as strong as they are today, we're going to continue and increase the sale of this commodity.
Carlos De Alba
So if I may, could you be a little bit more specific on the iron ore outlook for volumes, please? I mean, at this point, you must probably know how much the byproducts from your operations are going to be and given that a lot of investors got quite excited last quarter on this alternative or complementary revenue stream, it will be appreciated if you can be a little bit more detailed in your answer on that. And the other question I have, if I may, is on the sustainability of the July production. In the last few months, obviously, it was a little bit before several reasons that you already explained, production was a little bit lower than we were expecting.