NemaskaI went through all the Press Releases from 2015 to 2019 of Nemaska to learn how the story went bad. Here is the timeline.
On July 30th 2015 they received the approval from the Federal Gvt.
On September 4th. (1 month later) they received the provincial gvt. approval.
On April 4th. 2016 they published a NPV of 1.16 B $ after-tax.
On July 13th. 2016 they began a new phase of drilling to upgrade ressources and the life of the mine.
On August 16th. 2016 they started a pilot to sample of 60 000 tons.
From that date until January 2018, They developped the mine. Nothing much. Seemed pretty constructive.
On January 9th 2018, They updated their Feasability Study. The NPV went up to 2,4 B $ after tax.
In Spring 2018 they raised over 1 B $ (Softbank, Northvolt, Issue of shares for 360 M$, Orion, Debt for 350 M$US).
The interesting part is happening during fall 2018 and winter 2019.
Here are the amounts spent on Wabouchi mine and Shawinigan Plant at different dates.
September 1 2018 93 M$ 41,9 M$
October 27 2018 115,9M 47,9 M
February 13 2019 138.4M 67.3M
They announced they needed 375M$ more.
June 30 2019 238 M 123M
August 30 2019 247 M 130M
Still needed to spend 201 M $ 691 M
So the 375M $ they needed was principally for the Shawinigan facility. That's why I say that the new process (Shawinigan facility) was much more costly and that put on hold the project. They restructured under the creditor protection and now Orion (creditor) with Pallinghurst will give us some light on the economics of the project in the future.