Failed MOU’s, Failed orders, disappearing Credit Facilities
GLK has a habit of producing market moving press releases, with some catchy caveats and never executing the deals. Recent examples we will discuss are Ashland Advanced Carbons I and II, Shamokin Carbon, Credit Facilities I and II, and large orders I and II.
Ashland Failure I
Previously this year March 22, 2017, GLK announced an attempt at getting a deal with Ashland. “The partnership is focused on high volume purification of micronized flake graphite. Towards this end, Great Lakes Graphite and Ashland have executed a Memorandum of Understanding that establishes a framework for now moving towards a definitive agreement that will formalize the terms of the partnership.” March 22, 2017. To this date there is no signed agreement on this.
Ashland Failure II
The most recent Ashland failure was a MOU to be executed by the end of November 2017. This featured a tantalizing 10,000 tons of purification capacity with the requirement to scale to 50,000 tons. GLK informs their supplier “Great Lakes Graphite has conveyed the updated anticipated requirements to their Brazilian supply partner to insure there will be adequate capacity along the supply chain to achieve targeted manufacturing levels”. But wait, haven’t we read this before! Somewhere? of course - large failed order I for 2320 tons (March 15, 2017).
Large Failed Order I
March 15, 2017, Toronto: Great Lakes Graphite Inc. (“GLK” or the “Company” TSX-V:GLK, OTC-PINK:GLKIF, FWB:8GL) today announces that the company has placed a purchase order for 2,320 metric tonnes of graphite with DNI Metals Inc.
Great Lakes Graphite Chief Executive Officer Paul Gorman commented, “Locking in a schedule for this year provides assurances on both sides that are required to operate our respective businesses. Great Lakes is assured of the supply that is required for this year and DNI Metals is able to provide assurances to the supplier that enable them to formulate a production schedule. Another failure – no one knows what happened to this, but it certainly didn’t make the financial statements.
Large Order II
Another Large order in Pounds yes in Pounds!!
October 31, 2017, Toronto: Great Lakes Graphite Inc. (“GLK” or the “Company” TSX-V:GLK, OTC-PINK:GLKIF, FWB:8GL) announces today that the Company has received a large initial purchase order for 50,000 pounds of micronized natural flake graphite from a new customer. The customer, who is unnamed for reasons of commercial confidentiality, is a Fortune 500 corporation.
Reading the fine print in this one reveals “The customer intends to perform final field trials over the balance of the year, which will require 50,000 pounds (or 25 tons) of material in the fourth quarter of this year”. This is simply a 25 ton sample, expressing it in pounds is very deceptive however, since GLK has descended to selling in individual kg (see below), perhaps it was to get us used to these micro volumes.
Now Descending to individual Kilogram Orders
GLK is now trying to sell graphite as individual kg cans (see their website). For 45 bucks you can get one yourself online. I liked the picture on the can. If GLK gets 10% of the revenue (overly generous as they neither mine, mill nor refine the graphite) they should be able to make $4.50 –administrative costs) per can. Maybe this can pay off the millions they owe in flow thru, Northern Ontario heritage, etc.
SRG Supply Agreement
“The MoU specifies that the Companies will seek to negotiate an agreement for the annual supply of between 5,000 and 20,000 tons of natural flake graphite concentrate.” More tantalizing numbers and another failed MOU. November 7,2017.
Shamokin Failure
After leaving the Matheson plant GLK rapidly announced Shamokin Carbons as their micronizing partner. “Great Lakes Graphite and Shamokin Carbons have executed a Memorandum of Understanding to define a partnership arrangement and a path for the two companies to move towards a more structured collaborative effort.” May 3, 2017. I guess even GLK figured out Shamokin contracts out their micronizing resulting in this failure to execute.
Credit Facility Failure I
Remember the 4 million credit facility that was supposed to free up their time to develop other interests. What happened to it?
August 26, 2016, Toronto: Great Lakes Graphite Inc. (“GLK” or the “Company” TSX-V:GLK, OTC PINK:GLKIF, FWB:8GL) is pleased to announce it has entered into an equity financing agreement with Global Corporate Finance LLC (“GCF”) through which up to USD$4,000,000 is being made available to the Company over a two year period. The facility is intended to provide access to working capital to fund operations of the Company during initiation of commercial production and for sales and marketing purposes and other corporate initiatives that may arise during that period.
“This arrangement was specifically structured to free the Company from continuing to spend an inordinate amount of time seeking investment capital. ” said Paul Gorman, CEO of GLK.” Maybe they should spend some time on closing these deals.
Current Credit Facility and Failed Financing
Failed Private Placement “The Company is pleased to further announce that the private placement previously announced on August 17, 2017 has been cancelled.” I guess after 3 months and no takers at .05 then it is fair to call it a failure.
Current Credit Facility
GLK today announces that F2 Capital, a major shareholder in the Company, has provided an interest-bearing secured non-convertible loan for up to US$2 million to fund the Company’s operations and expansion plans. Note the up to clause. Is F2 connected with Paul Ferguson? I do appreciate the investment of Mr. Ferguson in the company but wonder about these and many other news releases which are simply not accurate.
Questions for annual Meeting
1) Update on legal case. Rumors are that Janik requested the case be delayed due to health issues.
2) Flow –Thru repayment?
3) NOHFC repayment?
4) These press releases
5) Written agreements with companies, one only has to phone Ashland, Shamokin, SRG etc. when doing due diligence to hear --- – well just call them yourself.
Successful Issue of Options to Management
“The Company further announces the grant of 5,450,000 options to officers, directors, consultants and service providers. 3,550,000 of these options were granted to directors and officers of the Company, and the balance of 1,900,000 options were granted to consultants and service providers. Each option has a three year term and is exercisable at $0.075 per share.” – Missed this one? November 10, 2017 at bottom.