Bad news... I'm convinced the drosrite units have been taking up nearly half of PYR's advertised and hyped "manufacturing space" in Montreal. This is hilariously bad.
Good news... I was bored and looking for some kind of paper trail or documentation about this facility in Saudi Arabia and Ma'aden's plans for it. Ma'aden mentioned it in their 2019 Sustainability Report, detailed the BOOT agreement with Radian, etc. But then as I was going through the yearly reports they never mentioned it again... no mention in the Sustainability Reports, no mention in the Annual reports.... until I got to the Ma'aden 2023 Annual Report, where I found this:
"19.1 Build Own Operate Transfer Contract agreement (“BOOT agreement”):
During the year, the Group obtained the required permits from the Royal Commission for Jubail and Yanbu for the construction of dross processing plant facility (the “Plant”) inside the premises of one of its subsidiaries. A third-party contractor (the “Contractor”) was engaged under a ‘Build Own Operate Transfer Contract’ agreement (“BOOT agreement”) to carry-out the construction of the Plant. Under the terms of the BOOT agreement, the Contractor will build, own, and operate the Plant for a period of 20 years after which the Plant will be transferred to the Group. The Group is required to make capacity payments to the Contractor which are contingent on the annual volume of dross processed from the Plant, from the date of commencement of commercial operations of the Plant. The expected commencement date of the Plant is by 2024.
Based on management’s assessment of contractual rights and obligations under the BOOT agreement, management concluded that the Group controls the Plant from its construction till the end of contract period. Accordingly, the Group has accounted for the Plant as ‘Capital work-in-progress’ valued at the fair value of future capacity payments discounted at the Group’s cost of debt against a corresponding financial liability."
So it seems they are expecting the plant (or a plant) to be coming online this year. It certainly appears this the facility that the 4 stored Drosrite units are destined for.
However, I would temper any celebrations due to a couple of ambiguities... I was under the impression the Radian facility was already up and running and just waiting for "expansion"... this passage seems to contradict that. Makes it sound like the plant hasn't been in operation at all. Also in the 2019 report they clearly named Radian, here they just use "the contractor". Radian was bought out by the HAKA Group, and it's been years with no movement... maybe there's been a change? Makes no mention of the agreement being 5 years old.
If this is indeed the Radian facility, it looks like Pyrogenesis is on track to get the remaining units shipped and paid for this year. Whether it comes in time is anyone's guess.
