Thanks for this visit and writeup. I have a few questions for you!
1) Did you get any insight into what the R&D facility will be for? Perhaps, in-house refining of silver from these fines?
2) You state that you set out to address whether comstock has access to feedstock, whether they can process at scale, and whether they're well ahead that a well-financed competitor wouldn't try to build and scale against this. It doesn't appear to me that you arrived at an explicit conclusion on these three topics though.
- do you have any reason to believe that the 100kta facility won't be able to process at scale? i.e. anything to contest the throughput?
- did you gain any insight into likely feedstock on the horizon, and/or how that interacts with their current storage capacity limits, and delayed ability to take on new business until the 100kta facility is running? These pictures of many panels are impressive, but the 100kta facility may need up to 5M panels a year (420k/month). The larger stacks there look like ~40 panels, so we'd need >10,000 stacks of those per month. Quite an unbelieveable amount!
- did you gain any insights into competitors? SolarCycle seems to be done.
1. Keep in mind the recycling process is proprietary, not patented. The R&D facility allows them to continue testing and optimizing the process to maximize recoveries, speed and worker safety. Competitors are behind now. It's important that it stay that way in order to justify a premium multiple on EPS.
2. I tried to present the facts as I see them and let the reader draw their own conclusion. You're asking so I'll say the answer is yes - I'm a believer and I'm purchasing stock. But keep in mind, they haven't built the larger facility yet. My conclusion is based on what I saw and what I've been told. It's up to Comstock to actually execute and strangle those potential competitors off.
3. The feedstock isn't a problem. There are panels coming from as far away as Florida and hurricane alley. LODE is actively sourcing new locations to make sure the transport costs don't allow a competitor a chance to set up.
4. Competitors are like weeds. They are not able to compete at the moment, but moving quickly to get up and running with scale will allow LODE to capitalize on its first mover advantage.
I cannot emphasize this enough - the LODE team took on the dilution to get fully financed but they have to execute for the story to come together.
Thanks for prompt responses! I have similar takes, just keen to see other's perspectives.
I'm betting (Shares, not calls) that we'll have great revenue in 2026 q3 from the first site, which is still awhile away. That will force the SP up. Until then, i can understand why the market doesn't value this.
Thanks for your report on Comstock. You wrote: "The site will eventually house a full-scale recycling plant with the demonstration plant transitioning into a research and development facility."
This is news to me. I thought this demonstration plant was going to be scaled up and built into the first commercial plant. It seems like I was wrong. So does this mean that the new plant they are going to build in Q4-Q1 will be from scratch at a separate location?
It doesn't make sense that they would turn the current plant into commercial scale and then turn around and transition it into a research and development facility.
The demonstration facility is in a separate and much smaller building. The industrial scale facility will be built inside the much larger building next to it. That has always been the plan -- it allows them to continue to operate the demonstration scale facility uninterrupted.
I was surprised by the comment that they currently aren't selling offtake for aluminum and glass. That is the first time I've heard that mentioned. What is preventing this ? What are they doing with it ?
That's imprecise language on my part, Ron. Those bags you're seeing in those photos? Those are bags of aluminum from the frames, bags of glass - and bags of metal fines extracted from the panels themselves. All separate. They are also paid on the glass and aluminum. But in terms of the metal fines, they only get paid on the silver. Right now LODE receives about 50% of the silver spot price for those fines (with the rest of the metals considered impurities). The metals team is actively working to change that but it's the situation currently.
I do not. This is an execution story and there’s always a ramp up period. Since this is the first time LODE will be doing this at scale we have to see what we see.
Thanks for this visit and writeup. I have a few questions for you!
1) Did you get any insight into what the R&D facility will be for? Perhaps, in-house refining of silver from these fines?
2) You state that you set out to address whether comstock has access to feedstock, whether they can process at scale, and whether they're well ahead that a well-financed competitor wouldn't try to build and scale against this. It doesn't appear to me that you arrived at an explicit conclusion on these three topics though.
- do you have any reason to believe that the 100kta facility won't be able to process at scale? i.e. anything to contest the throughput?
- did you gain any insight into likely feedstock on the horizon, and/or how that interacts with their current storage capacity limits, and delayed ability to take on new business until the 100kta facility is running? These pictures of many panels are impressive, but the 100kta facility may need up to 5M panels a year (420k/month). The larger stacks there look like ~40 panels, so we'd need >10,000 stacks of those per month. Quite an unbelieveable amount!
- did you gain any insights into competitors? SolarCycle seems to be done.
Let's take the questions one at a time.
1. Keep in mind the recycling process is proprietary, not patented. The R&D facility allows them to continue testing and optimizing the process to maximize recoveries, speed and worker safety. Competitors are behind now. It's important that it stay that way in order to justify a premium multiple on EPS.
2. I tried to present the facts as I see them and let the reader draw their own conclusion. You're asking so I'll say the answer is yes - I'm a believer and I'm purchasing stock. But keep in mind, they haven't built the larger facility yet. My conclusion is based on what I saw and what I've been told. It's up to Comstock to actually execute and strangle those potential competitors off.
3. The feedstock isn't a problem. There are panels coming from as far away as Florida and hurricane alley. LODE is actively sourcing new locations to make sure the transport costs don't allow a competitor a chance to set up.
4. Competitors are like weeds. They are not able to compete at the moment, but moving quickly to get up and running with scale will allow LODE to capitalize on its first mover advantage.
I cannot emphasize this enough - the LODE team took on the dilution to get fully financed but they have to execute for the story to come together.
Thanks for prompt responses! I have similar takes, just keen to see other's perspectives.
I'm betting (Shares, not calls) that we'll have great revenue in 2026 q3 from the first site, which is still awhile away. That will force the SP up. Until then, i can understand why the market doesn't value this.
Great report on Comstock, thanks for that! 🌞🙌🏻
Thanks for your report on Comstock. You wrote: "The site will eventually house a full-scale recycling plant with the demonstration plant transitioning into a research and development facility."
This is news to me. I thought this demonstration plant was going to be scaled up and built into the first commercial plant. It seems like I was wrong. So does this mean that the new plant they are going to build in Q4-Q1 will be from scratch at a separate location?
It doesn't make sense that they would turn the current plant into commercial scale and then turn around and transition it into a research and development facility.
The demonstration facility is in a separate and much smaller building. The industrial scale facility will be built inside the much larger building next to it. That has always been the plan -- it allows them to continue to operate the demonstration scale facility uninterrupted.
Ron is correct. There’s also a plot of land next door that will be used to house the panels.
I was surprised by the comment that they currently aren't selling offtake for aluminum and glass. That is the first time I've heard that mentioned. What is preventing this ? What are they doing with it ?
That's imprecise language on my part, Ron. Those bags you're seeing in those photos? Those are bags of aluminum from the frames, bags of glass - and bags of metal fines extracted from the panels themselves. All separate. They are also paid on the glass and aluminum. But in terms of the metal fines, they only get paid on the silver. Right now LODE receives about 50% of the silver spot price for those fines (with the rest of the metals considered impurities). The metals team is actively working to change that but it's the situation currently.
Ok, that lines up with my previous understanding.
Hi. Do you have some thoughts on what % of capacity will they be able to use the first planned factory And why?
I do not. This is an execution story and there’s always a ramp up period. Since this is the first time LODE will be doing this at scale we have to see what we see.