Ausheds, Ucore, Why?, Maybe.Good afternoon folks,
I see that my question to Ausheds cause a lot talk, well this my two cents worth. Who is Ausheds? Well, has he said, "Why does it matter?" I am guessing that Ausheds is a he. Who works at the engineer level or manages the engineer level of the REE industry in Australia. He know the players of all the REE companies in that area. Talked about have dinner with the people running Lynas. So my guess is that Lynas is his biggest core holding in his portfolio or one of them.
So why attack Ucore the way he does. Think about, the big six in China, Lynas, MP all use the same core tech to do separation of REE, SX. When Ucore first started it was just a heavy REE deposit that would have the same separation problem as all the other REE companies. Hugh Capex to setup a SX plant and getting it through EPA. So what does Ucore do, it when looking for alt tech. The first was just at lab scale and would take lots money to develop with no way of knowing if it would work or not. Then came MRT. A tech that could do in one to five passes what took up to 1800 passes in SX. Plus could get all of the element, not just 85%. Did it work? You got noble winning scientists that have sixty products that work at commerial scale. The odds are it would have worked on REE at commerial scale. Did Jim blow it? In a word, yes. Big time.
As I have said before. Jim should have bite the bullet and agree to the 60/40 deal but added a ten year buyout option for that forty percent. If he had we would all be millonaires by now and MRT would be the standard for the REE industry and China's control of REEs would be broken.
But that did not happen as we all know. So instead of going back to just another REE company that needed SX for separation Ucore bought outright the company that controls the second best tech after MRT. Which again put Ucore in the spot of upsetting the whole REE industry. By upgrading the SX tech to the next level. Not by messing with acids and solvents but by reworking the hardware. Going from settling tanks to columns. Either when the SMC is built or when the one of Lynas competitors signs a licensing ageement to use RSX. Lynas, Ausheds' core stock is looking at major upgrades that will cost millions. So anything that slows that down, even if it is nothing more than a board post about how bad Ucore is.
That is my two cents.
Dragon
PS It is either that or Ausheds is a six foot gorgeous blonde woman that can learn anything with a wink and a smile and is the Lynas CEO's mistress. You choose.