There has been a lot of feedback on ZEN from PDAC here's some that is credited to fintastic at TCC...

#96772 - PDAC summary

fintastic







I was at PDAC and stopped by both zen booth's in the trade show and core shack. The following is summary of speaking with Aubrey, Peter Wood, Dr. Chahar, Dr, Conly, Micheal Burns, Sandra and 1-2 others that I know forget.

1) Zen has 3 million + in the bank with a current burn rate of 150k/month. No financing required until summer next year. Aubrey said if they were to do a financing now it would be with a MOU/LOI @ $4-5 + dollars.

2) In the fall they only had 500g of purified/milled product left. 400g went for further testing (which Dr.Conly is doing now) and the other 100g went to an end user (multinational company) who came knocking on their door. They are meeting this end user today (they seemed quite giddy about the meeting).

3)They have sent out quite a few samples to producers and end users now. The sample size is 1kg - some are larger as the company is asking for more. Preparing the samples for the different end users is what has slowed this process down. The nuclear industry required 1 purity and milled process and flake size where LI-ion batteries required another. Each sample they send out they need to change or milled differently depending on the end user/producer. It is not as simple as throwing 1kg of graphite into a box and shipping it. The end user then comes back and asks to modify the sample so the can then test it again. It is a back and forth process.

4)Dr. Chahar's expertise is Li-ion batteries. He is the expert in this field no doubt about it. When he was at conco-philips they milled synthetic graphite for end users which they sold for 15-30k. He fills zens graphite will match this. He explained to me about how the cyrstalline structure allowed the Li particles to infiltrate the crystal structure and accept the charge better then flake graphite. Zen's graphite also allowed a better discharge of the Li particles so the battery would have a longer charge and charge faster with our graphite.

5) Nuclear tesing on any graphite would take 12-18 months, as pebble bed reactors will need to test the sample remove the graphite and retest the sturcure etc. They have sent samples to the nuclear industry, but whether it is CCB or ZEN the wait for nuclear approval will be a long way away. ZEN's focus is going after the high end LI-ion battery market @ 15-30k.

6) there has been no insider buying or selling as it would be "offside". They are signing a lot of NDA's so no one is allowed to buy or sell.

7) ZEN is going to asia - japan/south korea in May to meet with Li Anon battery companies (mitisbushi/toshiba/sony etc). They have so much traction in just these two countries. This meeting was set with the help of NRC.

8)Aubrey is playing this out as a buyout - he does not intend to be back at PDAC next year as zen will not exist. His goal is to play it slow to get as many players to the table to get a bidding war. He will not sell any of his shares below $10. From the way he was talking I would not be surprised to see zen get north of $17.00

9) Telsa is building a factory in the US that will require 20-30k tonnes/yr of high end graphite. I think they are also meeting them in May.

ZEN definitely has a direction and that is being led by Dr. Charar and the new guy they signed in japan. They are targeting high end li battery companies which should get us 15-30k tonne

There is more which I will write up tonight. But I have to run.

fin

#96790 - Re: PDAC summary

fintastic
Canada







The $8500 figure was the average price (as I understood it) for Li-ion batteries/lubricants etc. Dr. Chahar said the price ranges for 5k-30k, with most of the graphite sold in the 5-10k range.

Their is 30-50k tonnes/year sold at 15-30k. This market is growing quickly and their may be a shortage of steady supply of the high purity synthetic graphite. ( I will explain that in my part 2 of PDAC - latter today/tonight).

fin

96793 - PDAC part 2

fintastic







1) I had a very long discussion with Dr. Conly about the geology of deposit. He explained that the deposit sits on a fault line that separates the Quetico basin and Marmian Terrane. The fault line allowed the hydrothermal fluids to come up form the deposit. He is unsure how much of the deposit has eroded away from the top. His theory is that this was once a volcano which now has had the top eroded.

We do know that the deposit goes down 500m and will go deeper he just do not how deep. The 2 pipes are converging towards each other and he feels where they meet is likely the source of the graphite.

I asked him how rare this deposit is?

He said: The formation of hydrothermal graphite along a fault line is not unheard of. What makes ZEN so special is that the impurities can be so easily removed and are not intertwined with the graphite matrix. Apparently the chance of getting what ZEN has is equivalent to winning the lotto 6/49.

So all of the area plays are not on a fault line - so the chance of them hitting hydrothermal graphite is zero. This makes ZEN even more special as their will likely be no competition from other companies. Other deposits may be hydrothermal and have great purity but they will not have the tonnage.

2) Dr. Chahar explained that Conoco-Philips (CP) is no longer producing high end synthetic graphite to the Li-ion battery market. They shut down their plant in 2011 (I believe what he said) and started out sourcing the graphite to be produced. CP shut down the plant because the cost to produce the synthetic was getting to high and there was not enough margin and they lost a large end user due to bankruptcy. They even stopped outsourcing last year (I think he said)because their cut of the profits was no longer worth it.

Zen has an advantage in reducing the cost for the producer ( what that cost savings is - I don't know as Dr.Chahar was unable to comment due to NDA with CP)
Dr. Chahar has been fielding a lot question in the past 6 months from these end users on where to get their high end graphite supply. All of the end users have used CP in the past and now are in a crunch to find a steady supply.

This is creating a perfect storm for ZEN. With CP not producing synthetic graphite for Li-ion batteries any more, these companies will need to find a steady reliable source.
The high end synthetic graphite can not keep up with current market demand.

You can now see why Aubrey is so convinced of a bidding war for ZEN.

There is another market that I have never thought of, until Dr. Chahar mentioned it. Apparently there is a high end market for lubricants. Most of the lubricants produced by graphite is on low end graphite, but there is a growing market of high end lubricants that fetch the same price as Li-ion batteries.


that's about all I have.

fin

96813 - one more thing

fintastic







Aubrey was in LA last weekend meeting with institutions and will be back there this coming weekend. Both times he will be meeting with new institutions to get the story out.

He said he will be on the road a lot from now until june - either meeting with institutions or end users/producers.

From the way he was talking I would expect PEA mid to end of May. Which coincides with end user feedback. I would expect to see institutions stepping in sooner rather then later

I don't know when this will start to move but when it does I think it will be a runway train.

I am expecting a buyout by late summer.

fin