Through two significant decisions Westwater Resources (WWR: Nasdaq) is now able to direct all human and capital resources to the development of battery-grade graphite and the extraction of natural flake graphite from its Coosa County, Alabama graphite asset. Mid-September 2020, the Company announced the planned sale of its North American uranium assets to a U.S. uranium exploration and development company in exchange for an equity stake in the public stock of the acquirer. Additionally, the company announced the intention to relinquish its lithium claims and licenses in the states of Nevada and Utah.
The company estimates that the strategic moves could free up as much as $4.2 million in operating cash flow over the next year, an outcome that could be pivotal in getting the company’s battery-grade graphite materials to customers. A low-volume pilot process is currently being assembled in Germany. Before the end of 2020, the pilot plant is expected to produce at least one ton of the Company’s Purified Micronized Graphite (PMG) for a use by a prospective customer in final testing and verification tests.
Attendant with
other strategic news Westwater Resources announced application for provisional
patent protection for its graphite minerals purification process. Understandably management’s commentary has
been circumspect about the purification process, which is to be used to produce
battery-grade graphite materials aimed at a highly competitive market. The Company’s patent application encompasses
three successive steps for processing graphite concentrate: 1) caustic roasting, 2) acid leaching and 3)
thermal treatment. The patent will
protect the Company’s proprietary knowledge related to the optimum caustic
solution, roasting time and temperatures.
The patent
application comes on the heels of Westwater’s announcement that assembly of a
long-planned pilot plant is underway. A
German engineering firm, Dorfner Anzaplan, had been commissioned to complete a
final graphite process design that would be the basis for volume production
capacity. A pilot plant version of this
design is being organized in Germany near the engineering firm’s headquarters
for the purpose of final design verification and low-volume production.
The decisions to
exit the uranium and lithium sectors are astute and timely given the real
progress the company has made with its graphite materials development. There appear to be near-term commercial opportunities
for the graphite materials that could lead the Company to breakeven or profit
in the next couple of years. Management
makes the argument that it is wise cash management to exit the uranium and
lithium initiatives and redirect cash resources to graphite. Both the uranium and lithium initiatives were
facing long trajectories to reach an economic stage while the graphite picture
appears more promising than ever.
Westwater’s
strategic moves bode well for the Company’s graphite materials plan. Competing cash requirements will be
eliminated and critical human resources can be focused on graphite. It is
likely traders and shareholders will take some time to sort through the
announcements, in part because there remain a couple of moving parts related to
the uranium assets reclamation that frustrate accurate estimation of the deal’s
impact on the balance sheet. Progress in
the graphite initiative in the form of a patent application and assembly of
pilot processing capacity are likely to be supportive of the stock price, but
it may be that traders will wait for news that pilot plant has produced Purified Micronized Graphite (PMG) for
customer testing. In the meantime, WWR
shares seem well undervalued relative to the opportunity in front of the company.
Neither the author of the Small Cap Strategist web
log, Crystal Equity Research nor its affiliates have a beneficial interest in
the companies mentioned herein.
Crystal Equity Research has a Speculative Buy
recommendation on Westwater Resources
(WWR) as part of the CER Report series.
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