Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to the Syrah Resources Q4 quarterly update conference call. At this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. After the speaker's presentation, there'll be a question and answer session. To ask a question during the session, you will need to press star one on your telephone. Please be advised that today's conference is being recorded. For any assistance, it is star zero. I'd now like to hand the conference over to you for our speaker today, to Mr. Shaun Verner. Thank you. Please go ahead.
Thanks very much. Good morning to everyone, and thank you for dialing in today. With me on the call is Stephen Wells, our CFO , and Viren Hira, our GM of Business Development and Investor Relations. Today, Syrah released its December 2021 quarterly results covering operations, market conditions, the Vidalia project, and the outlook for natural graphite active anode material and its end-use markets. The Q4 in 2021 as a whole was an extraordinarily important period for Syrah, repositioning the company at a transformative point for the industry. Market conditions in the upstream market are the strongest they have been since Balama's commencement in 2017, with very strong momentum in demand growth, the existence of supply interruptions, and rising prices for natural graphite. The electric vehicle market has shown remarkable growth through 2021, with sales doubling year-on-year to more than 6 million units.
Monthly global EV sales exceeding 800,000 units for the first time in December, and global EV penetration reaching approximately 8%. Growth is expected to be sustained, and this is driving significant EV and battery manufacturing expansion announcements and capital programs in our downstream target markets. The current gap is evident in the localized supply of input materials in the U.S. and in Europe. Syrah's signing during the quarter of a fixed volume and price offtake agreement with Tesla for active anode material from the Vidalia facility in the U.S. marks the importance of Syrah's integrated business in potentially starting to fill a part of that gap. All around the world, governments and markets recognize the key role of critical minerals such as graphite in automotive electrification and energy storage development towards the objective of reducing carbon emissions.
Positive ESG differentiation also continues to rise in importance as greater understanding sees challenges in parts of the existing battery material supply chain. Each quarter, we reiterate our belief in the importance of the Balama asset and our vertically integrated active anode material facility at Vidalia to the future of this transition. As 2021 closed, we saw that this is becoming more apparent to customers, investors, and governments. While it's disappointing that disruption in the global container shipping industry constrained Balama production and sales in recent months, we have developed a major logistics option to reduce the future impacts and head into 2022 with strong optimism around Balama's future and the potential for near-term FID approval at Vidalia. Slide 4 reiterates our fundamental ESG commitments and performance focus, and every quarter that passes highlights the criticality of this effort.
Since the company's commencement, ESG excellence has been a key focus, and we're beginning to see the very real impact of downstream customer requirements and supply chain auditing bring differentiation between incumbent production and ourselves into sharp relief. During Q4, Minviro completed a detailed independent life cycle assessment of Syrah's integrated operations from Balama origin to Vidalia active anode material customer gate in accordance with ISO standards. LCA is a globally recognized and scientifically validated methodology to quantify direct and embodied environmental impacts along the life cycle of a product or process. Minviro is an independent third-party consultant with an established track record of life cycle assessments in the battery material space.
The approach incorporates all material and energy inputs and direct emissions to air, land, and water associated with the production of a product or process and identifies environmental hotspots in the production process via an assessment of an overall Global Warming Potential outcome. Minviro's LCA estimated that Syrah's operations exhibit materially lower Global Warming Potential compared with representative natural graphite and synthetic graphite anode material suppliers benchmarked in China. The company is also advancing specific projects, including a solar and battery system at Balama and longer-term power options for Vidalia to further reduce the environmental impact of its operations. It's worth noting here that a lot of partial chain information is being communicated to the market around LCA.
Syrah is committed to making the full chain from mine to final product visible and encourages care to be taken in making comparisons to ensure that definitions are not being cherry-picked to derive a particular desired results by others. Specifically moving on to ESG outcomes for the quarter, our health, safety, and environment performance remains outstanding. Our TRIFR at Balama was 0.5 in the December quarter, and the Balama TRIFR has remained below 1 since late 2018. Our TRIFR at Vidalia was again zero in the December quarter. We recorded a number of further positive COVID-19 cases at Balama late in the quarter, after around two months with no new cases. All cases were minor or no symptoms, and there's been no impact on operations. Syrah has robust COVID-19 protocols in place, and these allow us to effectively manage at Balama without interruption.
Syrah has also made available and promoted vaccination, and now 97% of employees and contractors are vaccinated at Balama. The company's also supporting vaccination efforts in its host communities. We'll skip over the quarterly summary slide and go straight to the detail, and I'll hand over to Stephen here to make some comments on the market and our corporate position. Stephen?
Thank you, Shaun, and good morning, everyone. As Shaun noted, 2021 was a watershed year for EV production and sales, with a huge number of legacy automaker programs and model announcements demonstrating mainstream integration. Slide six shows our primary leading indicator, global electric vehicle sales. Very positive momentum continued in EV sales and penetration in the Q4. Global EV sales grew 115% in 2021 versus 2020 to approximately 6.2 million units, with strong demand growth in China, Europe, and the U.S. Global EV sales were more than 850,000 units in December of 2021 alone. A staggering outcome when compared to full year results of just over two million units only two years ago.
Most analysts project further strong increases across all major geographies in 2022 and beyond, supported by growing consumer adoption and government policy. EV sales and battery demand growth are obviously causing the strong momentum to flow through to demand for anode material, as demonstrated by total Chinese active anode material production increasing to a record 71,000 tons in December 2021, and Q4 representing an almost 50% increase on the Q4 of the prior year. The trend on this front has been very strong over the past 18 months, and our interaction with spherical graphite processors in China demonstrates very robust demand. This demand growth has hit some supply headwinds, with both artificial graphite and natural graphite AAM supply in China being impacted by production challenges, which has reduced inventory.
In the case of synthetic graphite active anode material, the impact of power disruptions, rising power prices, and an increased focus on emissions in Q4 reduced availability and increased price on the synthetic product. As highlighted on slide seven, the upstream natural graphite fines market has seen strong demand conditions coincide with supply disruption amongst Chinese domestic producers. Major Chinese production sources have been impacted by environmental restrictions, including tailings challenges, air and effluent emissions, as well as seeing the same power cost and disruption challenges that have impacted the synthetic graphite active anode material producers. These domestic Chinese market dynamics have coincided with the annual winter domestic production outage period, resulting in very low natural graphite inventories, exacerbated by import challenges caused by disruptions in the global shipping market and China logistics disruptions from COVID lockdowns.
As a result, third-party price reporting agencies are recording significant increase in Chinese domestic natural graphite fines prices, as demonstrated by the 2021 spot price chart on slide seven. It is important to note that Syrah's weighted average price achieved may not reflect this spot price, as it includes prices for sale under a mix of spot and term contracts and different pricing mechanisms. We are, however, seeing contracted prices increasingly strong for new deals and spot shipments. Slides eight and nine provide the latest picture of the global and relevant regional battery manufacturing capacity pipeline forecast and announcements, as well as the resultant graphite battery anode material forecast requirements.
The growth ahead for the industry continues to strengthen, in particular for Syrah's Chinese natural graphite target customers and the USA active anode material market, providing a very strong backdrop for the company to increase production capacity utilization of Balama and a great setting for Vidalia's potential initial expansion. Moving now to the corporate front. Syrah finished the quarter and the year with a cash balance of $53 million compared to $74 million at the end of Q3. Given the confidence in progressing with Vidalia construction in the near term and to maintain the expected project schedule, we continue to invest in detail engineering activities and procurement of long lead items at Vidalia.
Syrah also completed the purchase of an adjacent parcel of land that will facilitate construction activities for Vidalia's initial expansion, as well as provide the required space to potentially expand the facility further as the market grows. The total amount of Vidalia investment through the quarter was $6 million. With shipping constraints causing lower production and sales than anticipated at Balama, we were not able to achieve our minimum 15,000 tons per month production target, and there were also several one-off items through the quarter, including a 13th paycheck for local Mozambican staff. We have also extended our procurement working capital cycle to ensure we are not impacted by any challenges to production inputs, while shipping transit times have extended our receivables collection time frames. Funds continue to be received, just later.
Similarly, there is a lag between higher shipping costs being incurred at present and increased pricing on tons being shipped compared to what we're experiencing on new orders. However, this will balance out, and there is strong upward pricing pressure through the order book, which will more than compensate for the shipping price increases we have seen. Over the short to medium term, we would see shipping costs stabilizing and beginning to moderate should the shipping market normalize, while current price support for natural graphite based on market factors is very strong. In the current market, we are also likely to achieve prepayment of natural graphite sales through break bulk shipments, which will also improve working capital. Concurrent with the Vidalia FID processes, Syrah continues to review funding requirements for the initial expansion and is engaged with government agencies relevant to critical minerals developments.
As a result of these initiatives and the Vidalia production offtake work, corporate costs were also higher than normal during the quarter. I'll now hand you back to Shaun.
Thanks, Steve. Starting on slide 10 through to 14, we move to Balama production, sales, and logistics performance in Q4. While disappointing that the global container shipping industry disruption continued to constrain production and sales, there are two critical takeaways beneath the headlines. Firstly, plant performance in the second half of 2021 was better than in any prior period, benefiting from ongoing incremental improvement programs. Secondly, we worked through a major option for alleviation of the shipping constraint from the Q1 of 2022. December 2021 quarter production was constrained by maximum inventory positions early in the quarter at Balama and Nacala, and the continual promises of improvement in the container shipping market disruption taking longer than expected to eventuate.
This forced us to critically evaluate the alternatives and has led to the development of an additional break bulk shipping option, which I'll speak to further in a moment. That improvement is expected to materially improve production and sales from the March 2022 quarter. At Balama, 13,000 tons of natural graphite was produced at 82% recovery and 19,000 tons sold during the December 2021 quarter. All 20,000 tons of finished product inventory at the conclusion of the quarter was contracted to customers. In fact, much of that has since been cleared with a strong start to 2022. Product quality was consistent with previous quarters, with stable recovery and grade, and we achieved a record 89% recovery in campaign operations during December.
Our strong operational performance demonstrated during campaign production runs in the quarter saw us produce at an average daily production run rate of 16,000 tons per month pro rata, and a maximum daily production rate of 24,000 tons per month pro rata. We have strong confidence in increasing Balama production with continuous operations. Our C1 cash costs of $1,159 a ton for the quarter is reflective of the fixed cost base and low production level for the quarter. Balama C1 cash cost guidance is at $430-$470 a ton at a 15,000 ton per month production run rate. Balama unit costs are expected to reduce materially as the production rate increases beyond 15,000 tons per month.
During the quarter, planned maintenance was also brought forward, and optimization work's completed with sustaining capital and TSF development spending of around AUD 2.2 million for the quarter, giving us a strong open run at consistent production as inventory levels clear. On slide 13, we move to some further detail on the sales side. Starting Q4 with more than 45,000 tons of sales orders, Syrah sold and shipped 19,000 tons of natural graphite constrained by the ongoing disruption in the container market, and primarily the inability to secure sufficient container capacity for Balama products on vessels sailing from Nacala to meet prevailing demand. Given the China market conditions that Steve mentioned previously, we are seeing exceptionally strong demand and forward contracting with end user customers, and we're currently sitting with more than 80,000 tons of sales orders for the March quarter and backlog to work through.
The weighted average sales price increased to $530 a ton CIF in the December quarter, and further price support is evident in coarse and fines markets post-quarter end. New sales are being contracted at higher prices than achieved in the December 2021 quarter. Fines sales accounted for approximately 80% of overall product sales during the quarter, and the fines market is for the first time consistently exhibiting stronger price growth momentum than the coarse market. Chinese natural graphite supply disruption and the challenges in the shipping market severely affected Chinese inventory and restocking of natural graphite ahead of the seasonal winter production outages, and tight market conditions are expected to continue. Container shipping availability is expected to improve through this quarter, with additional capacity being added and lower seasonal competition expected from the agricultural sector out of Mozambique.
Ongoing China port disruption from COVID lockdowns does remain a possible challenge. While Syrah expects container shipping availability to improve, we've taken action to improve sales and alleviate the inventory constraint on production. Slide 14 outlines a major new logistics option that we have developed to commence break bulk shipments through Pemba port. Break bulk shipments will provide an additional export route for Syrah, enabling three things. Flexibility in managing inventory between Balama, Nacala, and Pemba. Secondly, significantly higher Balama product sales than could be achieved solely through Nacala port in containers at present. Thirdly, higher production rates at Balama, facilitating more than 15,000 tons a month of production. Our first 10,000-ton break bulk shipment from Pemba to China is scheduled in early February.
We have significant further customer demand for such shipments, which have a shorter transit time, less likelihood of delay impacts at load and discharge, and an improved payment profile. Pemba is approximately half the distance of Nacala from Balama by road, and Syrah's integrated logistics service provider is providing transport, port, and customs services for exports from Pemba with additional warehousing contractors added. The combination of Nacala container shipments and Pemba break bulk is expected to materially increase export sales, and alleviate the inventory constraints previously impacting Balama production. Moving on to Vidalia on slides 15, 16, and 17. We are well progressed in the processes to facilitate a final investment decision on the Vidalia initial expansion in the near term.
We were very pleased in late Q4 to announce the offtake agreement executed with Tesla to supply 8,000 tons of active anode material per annum from Vidalia at a fixed price for an initial term of four years. This agreement underpins Syrah's movement into the final phase of assessment for the initial Vidalia expansion and also contains an option for an additional volume supporting evaluation of further expansion beyond the initial phase, consistent with the market growth and announcements that we've talked about. Ongoing commercial and technical interactions demonstrate strong interest from other target customers in the remaining volumes and our future plans at Vidalia and are providing strong motivation for Syrah to assess a potential accelerated larger expansion at Vidalia beyond the initial expansion project.
Detailed engineering of the Vidalia initial expansion project is 50% completed and has supported the technology, design, and operating assumptions in the bankable feasibility study from 2020. In addition, the detailed engineering and critical long lead equipment procurement completed to date is continuing to build readiness to proceed to construction, subject to a final investment decision being made. With $79 million of capital invested to date in Vidalia's operations and project development and the continuing development of the Vidalia team, the de-risking of Syrah entry into the downstream active anode material market continues towards the investment decision. As far as we are aware, we remain the furthest progressed of any company in the development of an ex-China, vertically integrated source of natural graphite active anode material, leveraging the size, strength, and operating history of Balama with an established facility and customer-supported initial construction at Vidalia.
We're pleased to have reached this stage as supply chains are under increased scrutiny and pressure, and we expect to communicate further around FID in the near term. To conclude on slide 18, Syrah is very positive about the period ahead. EV sales growth, a constructive demand environment for anode material, and Chinese supply disruption are driving strong demand and pricing for Balama products. Increased shipping optionality, release of inventory constraints, and strong demand should facilitate increasing Balama production beyond 15,000 tons per month and enable higher sales volumes. Continuation of our FID and financing processes are seeing us working toward a potential FID for initial expansion of active anode material at Vidalia in the near term. Excuse me.
The current market and Syrah's progress demonstrate the unique position we occupy with the largest global integrated natural graphite operation at Balama and the most advanced option for vertically integrated supply of natural graphite active anode material outside Asia. We look forward to keeping you up to date with the company's progress. With that, we'll move across to questions.
Thank you. We'll now begin the question and answer session. If you wish to ask a question today, please press star one on your telephone and wait for your name to be announced. If you wish to cancel your request, please press the pound or hash key. Please note there might be a slight pause as questions queue. Once again, it is star one and wait for your name to be announced. Thank you. Our first question comes from the line of Saul Kavonic from Credit Suisse. Saul, please ask your question.
Hi, gents. Just a couple of quick questions, if I may, particularly regarding just the scope for shipping improvements. Perhaps just for some clarity here, I understand the break bulk option you're referring to, is that just at Pemba port or is that also an option you're pursuing at Nacala? Is it possible to just give some further color on the potential scale of the volumes you could be getting out of Pemba over the next six months?
Yeah, sure, Saul. Apologies for my lack of voice. At the end there, I was just recovering from being unwell last week. We'll see how we go on questions. With regards to break bulk, certainly the initial plans that we have in place are out of Pemba. There is the possibility of break bulk operations out of Nacala, but one of the issues at Nacala at the moment is ongoing congestion, which is part of the issue for container shipments as well. The initial plan is very much through Pemba.
We've got good plans and set up in place, and we'll see how the first shipments go, and we'll provide some further guidance around potential later volumes as we move ahead.
Thanks. Perhaps if I could probe in this way. You talk about a 10,000-ton break bulk shipment for Pemba in February. Does it... I mean, to my mind, that could indicate that, you know, we could get, you know, your 15 KT run rate almost entirely out of Pemba if things progressed well there. Would that be a fair inference? All things going well, Pemba capacity could meet or even exceed Nacala?
As I said, we'll see how things progress, Saul, but certainly the combination of the two is pretty powerful. You know, Nacala continues to be very important for us, now and in the future. We have a number of customers who take different sizes of shipments, and we need to be able to service both. Certainly putting Pemba and Nacala together is a pretty powerful combination of lifting volumes beyond 15,000 tons a month for sure.
Thanks. One last clarification. When you refer to kind of this spot volume out of Pemba, that's just referring to the port. It's still going into the same contracts. Is that correct, or is this also going to a different market?
We are doing most of the break bulk shipments into the spot market because they are under different logistics conditions. They are separate contracts and obviously priced accordingly.
Understood. I might try my luck here, but can you give us any indication of what kind of spread with the difference in price you're getting or those spot volumes versus contract volumes that, you know, is weighting in at that AUD 5.30?
No, we've made some commentary there about the December quarter, weighted average price being at $530, and obviously the spot shipments being above that, and strengthening significantly. I'll leave it at that.
Great. Thank you very much.
Our next telephone question is from the line of Mark Fichera from Fosters Stockbroking. Mark, please ask your question.
Yeah. Hi, Shaun. Yeah, just a couple of questions. Firstly, on the FID for Vidalia, obviously earlier, you previously said you were looking at FID by the end of this month, now you're stating in the near term. I was just wondering what the reasoning is there for, I guess, the slight delay and when you say near term, I gather, is this in the current quarter and, you know, would it be early or late this quarter? Then my second question is on the life cycle assessment. You mentioned in the quarterly that a third-party critical review is yet to be undertaken. What are your thoughts there in terms of when you think you'll make this third-party review and who would likely do that? Thanks.
Thanks, Mark. With regard to the FID, the technical, commercial, operational, and funding elements of the FID review, the processes around them are well underway and progressing well. We recognize we communicated and targeted January, but the process is not completed yet. We will advise when they are complete. They're expected to be completed in the near term, and certainly you can read that as within this quarter. You know, there's no specific issues we're dealing with on that front. We're just working through the process to ensure we bring the best possible project to execution. With regard to Minviro, LCA assessment.
The potential for third-party independent review of the assessment really then provides the potential for an additional amount of disclosure around specific comparison points. One of the things that, you know, we've mentioned this previously on prior calls is that this really is an emerging area. We've taken the most detailed and transparent approach that we could to the full chain from Balama origin to customer gate out of Vidalia. We are waiting, I think, as well as doing the third-party review, to see how others are continuing to describe these processes and making sure that the comparison points are fair and valid.
We'll work through that in conjunction with Minviro, but we're really pleased with what we're seeing so far in terms of the general comparisons compared to China.
Right. Just to follow through on that, Shaun, is this, I guess a key selling point in terms of some of your potential off-takers in terms of wanting to see that LCA in terms of, you know, making a decision, especially given the ESG semantics?
Yeah, exactly. It's certainly, you know, all potential customers who are engaged with us around Vidalia, ESG is a key focus area for them, as is supply diversification, as is quality and cost. This significant level of detail is something that we are able to disclose to them under those processes. Certainly it's been very helpful on the way through so far in that differentiation.
Okay, great. Thanks.
Just a reminder, it is star one to ask a telephone question. Our next telephone question is from Glyn Lawcock from Barrenjoey. Please ask your question, Glyn.
Shaun, good morning. Firstly, I just wanted you to talk to me a little bit more about the 80,000 tons of sales orders. I mean, that's, you know, over 25,000 a month of production. I mean, is that you've got to deliver that or, you know, how does that work? I mean, is that just what you've got and that's for delivery over the next six months and nine months? Just trying to square the circle between that comment and your production rate at the moment. Thanks.
Yeah, sure, Glyn. The production rate has been constrained by the inventory position, so obviously that's been key in developing the break bulk option, the 80,000 tons of the sales orders ahead of it. A mix of previously contracted term contracts and spot sales that have been made over prior months and even more recently in anticipation of clearing some of the shipping issues. Of course, as I said earlier, the new spot shipments, spot break bulk shipments being done under new terms as well. We are endeavoring to work through the backlog as quickly as possible.
Customers are all essentially willing to take the material, even though it's been delayed, because market conditions are incredibly tight, not just in China, but more broadly across the global market.
Shaun, are you aiming to sell or ship 80,000 tons then if you can get the logistics chains to work? Is that the inference from that comment?
Yeah, certainly we're looking to get up above 15,000 tons as quickly as possible and to be clearing through that backlog of sales orders for sure. We will have to continue booking new sales in conjunction with clearing that backlog because the break bulk process, you know, gives us that opportunity to mix the two to be able to clear the backlog and continue to participate in the current market.
Okay. Sorry, maybe I'm just a bit slow, but I mean, even if you sell your product inventory at 20, that leaves you 60, which is 20,000 a month. Is that sort of, you know, if this sort of sales orders continue and you get another 80,000 tons for the June quarter, you know, then you've got to start pushing your business towards 20 a month in terms of, well, over 20 a month in production and hopefully the logistics chain stacks up. It sounds like logistics is your bottleneck and your business needs to run at 20 plus 25,000 a month if you can get the logistics chain to work. Is that what you're trying to tell us?
Yeah. Otherwise, the backlog persists. You know, clearly we're trying to work through that backlog and have the logistics chain support us increasing production as quickly as possible to work through the backlog and continue to satisfy new spot demand. Yes, that's what we're saying. We're looking to try to lift that production rate as soon as the logistics support is there.
Is that 80,000 tons then if the logistics chain doesn't come through and you ship it in the June quarter and the September quarter? Are they priced on today or is it priced on delivery? Because obviously the price in six months time could be much higher and we just don't wanna be thinking you're getting this big price lift on orders that were placed, you know, yesterday.
Yeah, the weighted average price is a mix of pricing mechanisms, some of which were fixed at the time contracts were put in place, some of which are more related to timing of shipments. There will always be a lag and a difference between, you know, stock market price assessments and what our weighted average looks like across coarse and fines, and as well as the timing of prices being settled. You know, that is a clear strategy that we've had in place to ensure that we have a mix of mechanisms and a mix of different contract types so that we're not fully exposed to, you know, changes one way or the other in price all at the same time with every counterparty.
Okay, that's clear. Just the difference between the break bulk out of Pemba and containers out of Nacala. You're selling everything on a CIF basis. Can you talk to me about the freight differential shipping break bulk versus container and, you know, how that market's looking at the moment, the two freight rates?
Yeah, I think both, you know, both shipping markets have been elevated, there's no doubt about that. The single biggest issue for us has been the constraint of availability over rate because, you know, stock market prices were increasing for the product faster than freight rates and we just couldn't get enough capacity out of Nacala. Clearly the economics around break bulk are different. You know, the cost structures are different. We have a shorter land logistics leg, you know, different contracting requirements around warehousing, stevedoring, et cetera, compared to container packing.
Those economics have been taken into account and clearly at the moment it makes economic sense, from a freight rate perspective and the overall logistics costs, to be undertaking these types of shipments. You know, one very positive thing about this is if it evolves successfully, you know, it opens up greater logistics opportunity for us in the future and it gives us exposure to slightly different cycles that occur through bulk shipping markets and container shipping markets. Could be very useful to us as we continue in future.
Can you put a quantum around one versus the other, break bulk shipping versus container? What's the dollar per ton figure, please?
What we've said so far, around the container freight rates on a per ton basis is that most of them have more than doubled through this period of disruption. You know, clearly, some time ago we were talking about an average of around $50 a ton on a container basis. It's significantly above $100 on average across our destination suite. The component of break bulk freight, you know, it's not directly comparable because of the other logistics costs, but at the moment it's certainly competitive with those levels.
Okay. Similar. Just one final question. Just inventory, obviously sounds like graphite inventory is quite low, but do you have any visibility and sense on your customers' inventory of anodes and even batteries in the chain? Or do you think the whole chain is quite low? Thanks.
Look, I wouldn't comment too much on the battery side, but certainly on the anode side, you've got a situation where production rates are at record levels in China. You have constraints on input raw material supply. You have constraints on production capacity utilization. You're in this strange situation where the Chinese anode material producers have actually produced at record levels. But to do so, they've had to push really hard to satisfy demand downstream. In doing so they've really put pressure on their raw materials inventory.
You know, I think there is potential challenge there in terms of availability of anode material supply, as we head into 2022 on a couple of those factors around power costs, power disruption, availability of input material from the natural graphite side. You know, anecdotally, of course, we hear the pressure from the cell supply side that's being caused by both cathode materials and now starting to come through on the anode material side.
Okay. Thanks very much, Shaun.
Thanks.
There are no further questions at this time. I'd now like to hand the conference back to Mr. Shaun Verner for closing remarks. Please go ahead.
Well, thanks to everyone for the attention today. As I said, we look forward to keeping everybody up to date. As we work through our Final Investment Decision processes for Vidalia and keep everyone up to date with the very positive evolution of the upstream markets. Thanks very much for the attention.
Thank you all for dialing. You may all disconnect. Have a great day and goodbye.