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Intrinsic Value is all-important and is the only logical way to evaluate the relative attractiveness of investments and businesses.
Good day, and thank you for standing by. Welcome to Largo's Third Quarter 2021 Earnings Webcast and Conference Call. [Operator Instructions]I would now like to hand the conference over to your speaker today, Alex Guthrie, Senior Manager of External Relations. Please go ahead.
Good morning, everyone. Thanks for joining our third quarter 2021 earnings conference call. On the call today is Ian Robertson, our co-Chair of the Board; Paulo Misk, our President and CEO; and Ernest Cleave, our CFO. Our VP of Commercial, Paul Vollant, will also be available during the Q&A session of the call.To accompany the call today, we've uploaded a supplemental webcast presentation, which will be available on our website at largo inc.com. Our Q3 2021 financial statements and MD&A are also available on the website as well as on SEDAR and EDGAR.Before continuing the call today, I'd like to remind you that some of the information you will hear today during today's discussion will consist of forward-looking statements, including, without limitation, those regarding future business outlook. In addition, non-IFRS financial measures, such as cash operating costs, cash operating costs excluding royalties, and revenues per pound will also be discussed during today's conference call. Actual results discussed during today's call could differ material from those anticipated and risk factors that could affect results are detailed in the company's AIF and other public filings, which are available on SEDAR and on EDGAR.Further information regarding Largo's use of non-IFRS measures are also available in our Q3 results press release and in the company's latest MD&A, which are available on the website.Additionally, market and industry data contained and incorporated by reference during this call concerning economic and industry trends is based upon good faith estimates of our management or derived from information provided during industry sources. We believe that such market and industry data is accurate and the sources from which it has been obtained are reliable. However, we cannot guarantee the accuracy of such information, and we have not independently verified these assumptions upon which projections of future trends are based.The agenda for our call this morning is as follows. Ian will provide an update to the company's name change and rebrand initiative with further highlights provided on our strategic transformation. He will then close the call with an update on our Clean Energy division progress. Paulo will follow Ian, and will provide an update on the company's operational and sales results as well as an update on the vanadium market. Ernest will follow Paulo with the Q3 financial results. Finally, we'll open the line up for questions. We kindly ask that you restrict your questions to 2 and then requeue if you have any additional questions to allow others the opportunity to participate. And with that, I'll turn the call over to Ian.
Thanks, Alex, and very good morning to all of you who have taken the time to join us both on the call and online. The objectives for my prepared remarks over the next few minutes are twofold: firstly, to ensure that the strategy behind the exciting repositioning of Largo is clear and understandable. And in this regard, I hope to put into context the public announcements you've recently seen, including our exciting announcement regarding the implications that our pre-feasibility study has on driving forward-looking profitability, enhancing access to vanadium. And the second objective is I'm hoping to share some additional insights into why we're enthused about the integration of our vanadium production business with our energy storage business.So let's start with our strategy. We see Largo as an organization which provides investors with 2 separate but closely related new economy focused business propositions. Firstly, investors will continue to enjoy the profitability and value of Largo's highly capable legacy business of producing vanadium, an element which is growing -- has growing recognition as a renewable energy transition enabler. We believe that this business in the context of our recently disclosed technical report results and its plan for profitability enhancement provides material value upside.And secondly and additively, as our vanadium production begins to be directed for use in the vanadium base storage systems we deliver, investors are expected to benefit from incremental and higher earnings from the manufacture and sale of these systems. This is a business whose competitiveness is improved with the enhanced access to vanadium coming from the mineral production expansion. Our strategy leverages the unique vertical integration of these 2 businesses to create shareholder value, we're hopeful that providing transparency into each of these businesses will allow full value to be credited to the Largo story.As you know, Largo has had a long and successful history as a producer of vanadium, a mineral, as I mentioned, which is emerging as an important energy transition input factor needed to enable the planet's transition to renewable energy. The new use cases being developed for vanadium will be a source of growing demand, which should imply higher future prices.Largo recently announced its plan to significantly expand its vanadium production operations. Of strategic importance, vanadium production is expected to increase by approximately 20% commencing in 2023 and mine life has been extended to 20 years.And secondly, the company is expecting to generate enhanced profitability from the sale of titanium dioxide, a co-product derived from the same ore stream currently being processed for our vanadium production. The cash flows from the sale of this co-product will lower the net production cost for vanadium going forward. And we're hopeful that both of these factors are seeing us contributing significant accretion to the value of our legacy mineral production business.The second, separate but related value proposition, comprising the Largo investment thesis is our emerging energy storage business. I'm sure it doesn't surprise you that market demand for long duration electrical energy storage is growing exponentially as the transition to renewable energy progresses. Vanadium is being recognized as a high-value new economy mineral given its role in enabling the long-term duration energy storage required for greater integration of renewable energy into the supply mix.The Long Duration Energy Storage Council, which was announced last week at the COP26, has united to provide guidance to governments and grid operators, and will publish a strategic report on long duration energy storage technologies with the aim of enabling the global deployment of up to 140,000 gigawatt hours of long duration energy storage by 2040. As a result of these secular factors, over the coming 5 years, the long duration energy storage market is forecast to grow at a compounded average growth rate of around 30%, reaching 50 gigawatt hours annually. And to put our energy storage business aspirations into context, capturing just 3% of this market would represent full utilization of our current production capacity of vanadium and battery systems.We have begun marketing our V charge, as we call it, energy storage battery system to utility and industrial energy storage customers and have created a sales pipeline representing some 6,000 megawatt hours of storage. A typical V charge system for these larger-sized opportunities might consist of a 10-megawatt hour battery with a capacity to operate for 10 hours of duration. The sale of each such fee charge battery system would potentially bring 3 benefits to Largo. Firstly, we'd earned margin from the production of the approximately 2 million pounds of vanadium contained in the electrolyte needed for such a battery.Secondly, an additive to the value of our vanadium production, we'd earn operating margins on the manufacture of our proprietary hardware comprising the battery system. And lastly and importantly, under the Largo Energy storage business model, we would invest in, retain Title II and ultimately monetize the vanadium employed in this battery. So let's contrast the 2 business models present within our organization. Consistent with the conventional mining business model, Largo generates operating margins, which are equal to our revenues, less operating costs, from producing, selling and delivering vanadium to its current customers.In contrast for the energy storage business, the model is slightly different in 3 ways. Firstly, the operating margins generated by the sale of V charge system are expected to be materially higher than the model of simply producing and selling the associated vanadium. And to help contextualize, based on the current vanadium market and assuming our V chart systems are priced competitively against battery storage alternatives, these operating margins would be approximately 80% higher.Secondly, we plan to invest in and retain Title II, each pound of vanadium used for energy storage. And this vanadium would remain on the Largo balance sheet and will be monetized when it makes sense. And thirdly and lastly, we're proud of and believe that the market will recognize the ESG implications of committing vanadium for use in a battery system, which enables the planet to capture more renewable energy rather than the conventional use cases of vanadium. Our energy storage business employs and gathers a sustainable competitive advantage from its unique access to vanadium and this is something which is denied to all other producers of vanadium-based batteries today.Before I close out, I'd like to ensure that our 2-pronged shareholder value creation strategy is both crisp and clear. Firstly, we will deliver shareholder value from our legacy vanadium production business, value, which is expected to be enhanced some higher profitability on our expansion plans. And secondly, we're committed to augmenting shareholder value through higher operating margins forecast to be earned in connection with the use of our growing access to vanadium in the energy storage business.Overall, we're hopeful that the strategic repositioning of the company will deliver our capital markets rerating of Largo as it becomes recognized as a new economy participant. In some respects, Largo represents the perfect some of the parts investment opportunity. The sustainability alignment of the why of our business really forms the foundation of our vision. We're truly focused on utilizing our strengths and competitive advantages to enable the planet's transition to 100% renewable energy. I'll say this is something that inspires me personally and we remain confident that this shift is paving our path to long-term shareholder value at Largo.With that, I'll turn things over to Paulo for an update on the company's expansion and execution plan and operations and sales progress for the past quarter. Paulo?
Thanks, Ian. Good morning, and thanks to everybody for joining us today. So joining you, I'm very excited about the growth prospects of Largo and our updated brand and positioning to be more than a just mining company. We have identified mode for growth avenues, and I believe the value of our company will continue to grow as we execute on our strategy. Before we dive into our Q3 operational and sales results, I'd like to spend a moment to outline and contextualize the key highlights of our tech report results released last week.As we have discussed earlier in this year, Largo undertook a comprehensive optimization study for the Maracas Menchen Mine with the objective of increasing reserves, increasing production capabilities, extending mine life and improving our vanadium production forecast. We were pleased to report the following dreaming and engineering work performance at the Campbell Pit and the NAND and GAM deposits, in addition to the inclusion of TiO2 has resulted in a significant increase in reserve and resources. Compared to the information in the company's restated 2020 annual information form, the tech report results show a 305% tonnage increase in proven and probable reserves and in 128 tonnages increase in measured and indicated resource for Maracas Menchen Mine, increasing our mining life to 20 years from 12.To contextualize this further for everyone, over the next 2 years, we plan to invest approximately $120 million to begin our execution on the phased operational approach outlined in our technical report results press release. The Phase I invest is scheduled to produce 140,000 tonnes of humanite which is the titanium concentrate from 2023 to 2025, from which 30,000 tonnes of TiO2 pigments per year in 2024 and 2025 from nonmagnetic concentrate already mined from our existing vanadium operation.Largo has a long history of successful execution at its Brazilian operation to become the world's largest primary vanadium producer. Our focus and determination is executing successfully with this endeavor is no different. As Ian mentioned, this plan has vast implications in furthering our commitment to Largo's overall valuation, including develop our energy storage business integration. The TiO2 production presents the opportunity to substantially increase profitability and the results of the tech report anticipates free cash flow generation of more than $4 billion over the life of mine with an after-tax NPV of $2 billion on a mining stand-alone basis with no allocation of production to the battery business.
And we have experienced a brief interruption in the conference. [Technical Difficulty]
Operator, why don't we turn things over to Ernest to pick up on our financial highlights for the year. Ernest?
Thanks, Ian. Absolutely. Thank you, and thanks to everyone for joining the call today. The following are some key highlights of our third quarter financial results. Strong vanadium prices in the third quarter resulted in the company achieving revenue of $53.9 million. Please continue, sir.
Ernest, I am back, sorry about that.
Go ahead, go ahead.
Sorry, guys. Sorry. I was talking about this -- the Phase I also estimates an average of V205 unit cost of $2.31 per pound, which is significantly lower than our reported cash operating costs, excluding raise in Q3.Looking ahead to the future, we have outlined additional phase, which are expected to increase our throughput capacity for our TiO2 pigment production, but more importantly, have presented an opportunity to significantly increase our vanadium production. As pointed out earlier, we expect to increase our main play capacity of vanadium from 13,200 tonnes per year to an estimated average of 15,900 tonnes in 2033 onwards. With that being said, I think we have outlined a very clear and profitable path forward for Largo, one that we believe will create significant value for our shareholders. Our existing mining business has significant growth potential, as outlined by the results of this tech report and alternatively can be directly towards our growing energy storage business, which has the opportunity to grow our company's value even further.Moving to our operational and sales progress in Q3, I'm pleased to report that production from Maracas Menchen Mine was 3,260 tonnes of V205 in Q3 2021, representing a 5% increase over Q3 2020 and the second-best quarter of production since commencement of the operation in 2015. The strong production performance during the quarter was largely driven by increased throughput and improved the recoveries following the completion of the company's expansion project in Q2 2021.On the sales front, increased delay and global logistics challenge have impacted all aspects in our supply chain, increased our inventory in transit and resulted in lower V205 equivalent sales in Q3 2021 of 2,685 tonnes. However, it will note that as a result of diligent planning performance on our sales and trading team, we have been able to deliver on all our commercial commitment up to this point. We do not expect the global logistics situation to improve until mid-2022, following increase for equipment availability. At which point, we expect to reduce our in-transit inventory. It is important to note that these units of vanadium will be sold going forward.Demand in all our key vanadium markets remain strong in Q3 2021, highlighted by a quarterly increase of 76% in the European F&B V205 price. Today's price in Europe -- of average price of $8. Aerospace industry demand continues to recover slowly, and we expect a gradual recovery in demand from this market over the next 2 to 4 years. We continue to maintain a strong focus on developing new markets for our high-purity vanadium products supports addition of V203 in our product range. We expect to conclude the commissioning of this plant in Q4 of this year.To close out, our focus in delivering profitable growth in 2021 and in the future. We now have a clear and profitable path outlined in our techno report results that when combined with the continued development in our energy storage business, really present an exciting opportunity to drive shareholder values at Largo, now and in the future.I will now turn the call over to Ernest, who will discuss our financial highlights for the quarter.
Thank you, Paulo. Thanks again to everybody for joining the call. So let's get back to the key highlights for the third quarter. So strong vanadium prices in the third quarter resulted in the company achieving the revenue of $53.9 million and revenues per pound sold of $9.1 from the sale of 2,826 tonnes of V2O5 equivalent. This represents a 90% -- 96% increase in revenues and a 69% increase in revenues per pound sold when compared with Q3 2020. We reported net income of $9.2 million or $14 per share for the quarter, representing a 261% increase in net income over Q3 2020. We also reported cash provided before working capital items of $20.3 million for Q3 2021 and $49.3 million for the 9 months ended September 30, 2021. The increase resulted largely from higher revenue during the quarter, resulting from higher realized vanadium prices.In terms of our financial position, we ended the quarter with a cash balance of $87.6 million. Cash operating costs, excluding royalties, were $3.53 per pound in Q3, and that compares to $3.14 for the same period last year. The quarter-over-quarter increase is largely due to the impact of cost increases for critical consumables and a slight decrease in global recoveries, with 83.7% achieved in Q3 2021 compared with 84.2% achieved in Q3 2020.As Paulo mentioned, we expect to have a solid exit to the year and anticipate ending the year with a cash position of approximately $100 million, inclusive of the $15 million working capital facility we obtained earlier this year.With that, I will now pass over the call to Ian to conclude.
Thanks very much. And maybe before we move to the Q&A session, I'd like to kind of follow-up on the insight that Paulo has provided on the execution of our expansion plan by giving you an update on our path to execution on the energy storage business plan. And on the V charge battery commercialization front, the build-out of our product development and stack manufacturing facility is proceeding on schedule with the completion expected in Q1 of next year. We are confident that the manufacturing capacity of our Boston plant will be sufficient to satisfy our production requirements through 2024.The secondly, we're on track for delivery of our first commercial battery contract with the Italian utility called Enel in mid Q2 of next year. In this regard, we recently received underwriter labs, approval of our battery system, which was an important milestone under the Enel contracts. We're pleased that, that's behind us. In late September this year, the United States Department of Energy announced that we were selected to receive $4.2 million in funding for research and development towards the scale-up of manufacturing of our long duration flow battery systems.And lastly, and perhaps most importantly, we're continuing to move forward on the development of the commercial side of our energy storage business. And perhaps consistent with the approach taken by some of the other long duration energy storage companies such as ESS, EOS and Energy Vault, we're in the process of finalizing commercial supply framework agreements with a number of energy storage developers, including a company called Concentric Power, who are an important developer of energy management systems on the West Coast and specifically focused on California. And these agreements represent more than 2,500 megawatts of storage capacity over the coming 4 years. We're currently negotiating the first delivery under such frameworks and are confident that additional system deliveries will be announced shortly.And with that, I'll turn the call back over to the operator to field any questions that we might have. Operator?
[Operator Instructions] And our first question comes from Carlos De Alba with Morgan Stanley.
Yes. So a lot of big announcements. But I wanted to start asking Ian, maybe you can give us a little bit more specifics as to when you expect to announce the second contract on the energy business. It has been several months now since you guys came out with the business, the energy business. Then you had your investor Battery Day, the lot of on fire, but we haven't really seen a lot of pick up in sales. So when -- can you give us a little bit more color on that very interesting and promising business, Ian?
Yes. Sure, Carlos. And look, I appreciate the comment. I think it is important, though, to kind of keep in mind candidly there is a difference between the production and sale of an energy storage system and the sale of, I'll say, of a commodity product like vanadium, and I'm -- that obviously, energy storage systems are integrated. There's significant capital investments, and they're integrated into projects, which are many, many months, maybe even years in the making. And so the gestation period for these projects is long because they are multi-decade investments by our customers in the energy storage systems going forward.And so I guess I'm not surprised and not disappointed. Obviously, I remain enthused. Being a guy who's been in the wind development business for a long time, these things are I'll say, overnight successes, which are 5 years in the making. So I think we're very pleased where we stand from our pipeline perspective, the engagement we have with some very specific customers. And obviously, it feels a little uncomfortable disclosing those specific contracts until they're signed. But I think it feels like they are progressing in accordance with my expectations, understanding of what it takes to move forward. I think it's fair to mention that the evolution of Largo's long duration energy storage technology. I'll say that -- well, it's been a long time in the making.I think we're pleased that we've -- our first commercial battery system that is up and operational in a place called Shirley, Massachusetts, and it's doing exactly what we expected it to do. And so it's giving us confidence certainly in the delivery of the next system to Enel. And I know this was a long answer, Carlos, to a very specific question. I think we're confident that you're going to see us meet the expectations or at least move forward toward the expectations we set at Battery Day this summer in terms of what we're looking for in 2022. So I guess in short -- and I don't know say stand by, but because I agree with you that this is an incredibly exciting part of the business.I will say that -- and maybe I go back to the shareholder value creation strategy that obviously shareholders are enjoying the profitability and value that's being created on the mineral production side of our business. And so we obviously are anxious for us to be additive to that value. But in some respects shareholders are also getting paid to wait, that this is a great company and that these developments will come in the normal time.I don't know if Carlos, if that answers your question. I know you were looking for some very specific commentary, but hopefully, I've kind of communicated the process we're in right now.
I understand the challenges of giving more details at this stage. Just looking forward to getting some incremental good news. And then if I may, just coming back to the more traditional Largo business. I noticed that they imply sales expected figure for the fourth quarter is a little bit -- it's close to 2,800, maybe a little bit, just a little bit above that level. So still below the 3,000 run rate and certainly below the production, the implied production for the fourth quarter. So your inventories will continue to increase. Can you comment a little bit more as to specifically what could you do in order to alleviate the logistic issue that you're facing or why do you have hope that in 2022 or early 2022, that should start to ease?
Yes. Let's turn that over to Paul Vollant. Paul?
Yes. Thanks, Ian. And thanks, Carlos, for the question. It's a very good question. We have been trying to manage our inventory and sales as best as we can in the current logistics situation. What we can do is deliver material to customers closer to the production. That is easier thing we can do to reduce transit time and get material to our customers quicker.We've been very active in that. We have sold less material than budget into Asia and more material into Europe, which is much closer to Brazil. Obviously, there is a limit to what we can do because we have long-term contracts that we need to meet and deliver. But we are doing the best we can to accelerate sales. We're trying to be reasonable and cautious in the expectation for Q4, again, because of the logistics situation, but we had a good month of sales in October, and we'll continue to try and perform as much as possible for the remaining of the year.
Paul, I appreciate that. And then my last question, if I may. It has to do with cost or expenses, at least. What should we expect in terms of the run rate, the normalized run rate for professional consulting and management fees? I mean, obviously, there was a spike in this quarter. It was expected because you're ramping up the energy business. But now that you are also working on the titanium development and maybe there is more to come on the energy business, what should we look for in terms of those expenses on a quarterly basis?
Well, Carlos, normally we limit guys to 2 questions, but we're going to make a special exception for you to give you the third, Paulo.
Thanks, Ian. Ian, I think Ernest is more the guy.
Oh sure, okay. Ernest, go ahead.
Yes, Carlos. Candidly, I think the numbers that you've seen in Q3 are going to be reasonably representative of what we will do going forward. There are just some fundamental increases that are associated with being listed as a NASDAQ company. We obviously have the LCE division that adds to our overall G&A. So in and around that number that you see for Q3, I think, is -- I don't expect substantial reductions from that number.
And Carlos, I'm just kidding. You can ask. You asked before. Go ahead.
No. I am fine.
Our next question comes from Leon Cooperman with Omega Family Office.
A couple of questions and observation. One, you guys created an expectation level regarding battery sales when you had your battery day. And as an observer of the company, I think things have been extremely disappointing. And the question that I guess was Carlos asked, you really were unresponsive. What is your timetable for announcing significant new battery orders because we only had one and that order was like pulling teeth to get it done? Secondly, what was the statement that company is looking to make when you made, what seems to me to be a superficial name change from Largo Resources and Largo? What was behind that decision? I can understand Largo Clean Energy and I understand the significance of Largo Resources to Largo. And third, it is to Ernest. You obviously have a budget because you talked about year-end cash. Earnings estimates are all over the place. Can you help us and give us some guidance as to what you anticipate earning in 2021 and 2022, given current conditions? Those 3 questions.
All right. Well, let me with the -- I'll start with the first 2, and we'll let Ernest pick up on the second one. And actually, I'm going to start with your second one first, that talks about our brand change. And I think here's the short answer is that this organization from our perspective is more than just a resource company. And so do I actually think a name change is meaningful? No, I actually don't. But I think having the wrong name can imply to shareholders and to customers and to employees things that we -- that aren't consistent with the business we're in. And so I think dropping resources from our name is a recognition of the fact that we have a broader perspective than simply producing vanadium.Having said that, I guess this leads me into your second question. Obviously, this organization has a long and rich history of producing vanadium. And we'll continue to do that and create value. And I guess I'm sorry if it wasn't the intention to leave the expectation that building and selling battery systems was the same -- had the same production and sales cycle as selling a commodity. As I've mentioned to Carlos, and I'll say -- I'll reiterate the answer, and I'm sorry you didn't find it responsive, is that we're in active discussions and negotiations with organizations who are investing in multi-decade projects. And the investment in that sales cycle is not something that happens sort of in weeks, these relationships take months to develop. And so I will say that it's somewhat akin to building and selling wind turbines. If you know anything about that business, it's a long sales cycle.Having said that, we're pleased that we've got a pipeline of interesting and opportunities that are growing in significance and size. And I think that this business has great implications going forward. But again, as I mentioned to Carlos, I think the short answer is, in some respects, you're getting paid to wait. That there's value upside from the energy storage business. This isn't not just a start-up where we have no revenues, and you sure hope we come up with something. We're producing significant earnings and revenues today, and we're pleased that we have the prospects of being additive to that. And so I'm sorry that you didn't find the answer to Carlos responsive. But as I said, I think it's inappropriate to be telling you, oh, I think we're going to announce this sale and the sale and this sale before we're going to announce them. And if you're saying, well, it's taking a long time, that's just the nature of the sales cycle. It is what it is.
Blame yourself for what had happened because you guys created a level of expectation on battery day. And I also would take a -- you said, we're getting paid to wait. You're getting paid to wait when there is a dividend in your pocket. We're not getting paid to wait for anything. I think the company is being very promotional in his presentation.
Well, Lee, we're going to have to disagree whether earning returns and accumulating cash on the balance sheet or paying out a dividend are not the same thing. I think I'm just going to have to respectively disagree with you on that point. And if you say we were being very promotional. I'm sorry, that wasn't the intent. We're obviously enthused about the prospects of, as I said, a building -- taking an organization and converting an organization, which was largely an old-world economy producer and bringing it into the new economy with -- in 2 areas, the ability to produce an element which has strong uses in the new economy and one that's actually producing systems that are facilitating. So I actually do feel that this organization feels fundamentally different than it might have a year ago. I'm sorry if you disagree, but it does feel fundamentally different. I think the prospects of this organization are materially different. And I'm hoping that for a guy who's been following this organization for a long time, that you look into the announcement that was made in terms of the resource that we now have and the prospects that we now have and go, oh my gosh, there's a lot more here than I thought there was even a year ago. So anyway, I obviously see it as being quite different. And I'm hoping that I'm communicating that without being promotional. That's not the intent. But let's answer the rest of your question, Ernest. Le obviously has some very specific topics.
Right. Lee, thank you for your questions again, and we appreciate your support. I think one of the things, just to start off with, we have not traditionally given EBITDA guidance, but I think this is something that we will rectify in the near future. So I would like to say that late Q4 or Q1 of next year, we will put out some earnings guidance. We'll create a definition around it and try and break that down by quarter as well. So I just did some quick numbers. Yes, just off the face of our financials, we are probably in the region of about $50 million EBITDA, give or take, just based on some rough calculations I just did.If you look at Q4, I'd anticipate something between $20 million to $25 million of additional EBITDA. So it may be more. But we're going to end the year on about $75 million in EBITDA, Le. But then for next year and going forward, I think we'll get much more narrow and pointed in terms of the guidance that we provide. So we will continue with our guidance on cash costs. We will probably drop our guidance on total cash costs because I don't feel it's a very good measure. But what we'll do to replace that as we'll start getting into the tradition of anticipating and forecasting earnings.
And our next question comes from Andrew Wong with RBC Capital Markets.
So in the prepared remarks, I think I heard the operating margins V charge sales would be 80% higher than your traditional vanadium business, which is very promising. Can you just kind of walk us through some of the assumptions in that calculation and how that's done?
Sure, sure. Thanks for the question, Andrew. And so to be clear that, obviously, I don’t want to say it's a different business and it's priced against different indices. And so what we have attempted to do is kind of understand the alternative -- the cost that would be incurred, procuring an alternative energy storage system. And candidly, lithium-ion is the most obvious one against which we are looking to price our battery storage systems. And it's the long-haul cost. Just to be clear, Andrew, it's not just the upfront cost. There's a concept called the levelized cost of storage. So you look at over the life of the storage system. And so assuming that we price our systems on a levelized cost of storage basis, which is at parity with our understanding lithium-ion business. We back ourselves into kind of what we can charge for our systems. And it is on the basis of that, that we kind of look forward and say, okay, the operating margins, the revenues less COGS for our system are, as I said, materially higher than sort of the current margins we're earning off of producing and selling vanadium. And I think it's -- there are some more than just nuances that need to be discussed here because, obviously, as the price of vanadium goes up and down, the margins we earn from our mineral production business, obviously, vary. And so it's kind of a multi variant equation.And then the other and last and perhaps most important consideration of the energy storage business is that in our model, we are retaining the vanadium that we are producing on our balance sheet. And so you might think, well, that's an interesting kind of value add and we think it is, is that we're going to invest in and put that vanadium on our balance sheet. And I'll say, make it available to our customers, but it never leaves our position over the life of that battery system. And so I think there's -- you kind of have to look at it from a bunch of different ways. And I know this was a long answer, Andrew, to kind of giving you more insight into the value -- the total value proposition associated with the energy business. But it really does involve those 2 elements, producing and selling the battery system and investing in the vanadium going forward. I'm sure I butchered the answer so Andrew rephrase it in another -- in another way, if I didn't get to where you were looking for.
No, that's good. That's helpful. That's good. And then just another question around LCE. We're seeing some other competing technologies that -- like competing in flow technologies like iron flow batteries, other vanadium flow battery producers. Can you talk about how those other battery chemistries and other vanadium batteries compared to what LCE offers and both on like the actual efficiency for the utility customer and then also just around availability, pricing and some of like the underwriter stuff, like what's the difference?
Sure. No, it's a great question. So I think you're making reference to one of the most notable stories in the capital markets there is a company called ESS which is producing an iron-based battery system. It's kind of a hybrid battery system. But -- and let me start by saying is ESS is being advanced by some very capable people. And I have -- and I'm not intending to slag that story at all because I think we have great respect for the individuals who have advanced it. And there are people who, I'll say we know well. But maybe I should have started, Andrew, with the comment that this is not a winner-take-all market. As I hope you kind of came to the conclusion as we talked about the size of the market, there's lots of room for all of us in here. But obviously, the things that you mentioned, capital cost, round-trip efficiency, these are all things that will determine the competitiveness and that arguably, maybe the margins that you get to choose. ESS, the iron batteries, I'll say they demonstrate certain characteristics, some of which are more challenging than some of the characteristics we have.And I think you're making the observation that iron is very cheap. Comparison to vanadium. And so when you think about the -- I'll say, the active electrolyte, there's no doubt about it. Iron is cheaper than vanadium. Having said that, there are challenges with the voltage of an iron-based sale. The size of the stacks requires many, many, many more of them to get the same -- to get to the same size and scale of our vanadium-based systems. And so we did a bit of a -- we tried to do an introspective analysis. And I think we're comfortable that our vanadium-based system remains competitive even -- not even, but against systems like ESS. What you are seeing, and you mentioned some of the other ones, you're seeing a bunch of mechanical energy storage systems. These thoughts of lifting big concrete weights up and dropping them down and expanding energy to make potential energy and turn it into kinetics into electrical energy. Those generally suffer from lower round-trip efficiencies than, I'll say, chemical storage systems. So I think overall, and I will say that energy storage systems have different applications in different places, in different spots on the grid.And so I think there's going to be lots of room for everybody to be competitive. And we obviously know the lithium-ion suffers some -- obviously, fire risks, etc., it's not great for really long duration storage because of the coupling of energy and power. And so I think maybe the long way I'd answer you -- or the short way to answer your question, Andrew, is that across the spectrum of energy storage technology, there isn't the killer app. And there certainly isn't the killer app, which is available today commercially or even forecast to be available. So I think, A, we're happy with our tech. B, we are super happy with our access to what is a pretty thinly treated hard to get access to element like vanadium, and I think it positions us well going forward. And so I'm happy to kind of take this offline and get into some of the specifics for you. But we're not seeing that killer app, which is causing us concern, Andrew. Again, I apologize for the rambling answer, but you press the start button.
And then just one last one on the vanadium market. Obviously, we've seen prices turn a little bit lower here with steel production coming down. Can you guys maybe Paul, provide a little bit on your outlook for vanadium prices going to 2022? What are inventory levels like globally? And are we seeing maybe some pullback in slag-based production because of the decrease in iron ore prices?
Thanks for the question. Outlook for Venetian market, the way we see it today is that prices are very well supported by strong demand in all of the industries. Our main industry, as we all know, is still and still has been performing very well in 2021. We met with a lot of customers over the past few months, and they have very good visibility, at least until the second half of next year. So that should be positive in the steel sector. In the aerospace industry, we're still quite far from the pre-COVID level, but there's been a definite recovery starting basically from April, May this year and we think that it's going to continue to revert to the mean over the next 2 to 4 years. Chemical industry has been a good business also not that impacted by COVID. And obviously, there's a growing interest in the energy sector, and we believe we're going to assign a lot more of our units into this sector going forward. So I think demand should really support prices. The big unknown today is the logistics situation that could create a supply crunch, if it gets to us. But today, we don't expect it to change dramatically. On the stock level, we are somewhat higher than budget on inventory, not by a lot, but somewhat higher. And until the current logistics situation resolve itself and we probably see that it's not going to happen in the next 2 or 3 quarters. We believe we're going to keep the same type of inventory level as of today. I think your last question was pertaining to iron ore. Yes, iron ore prices have dropped significantly. But as we all know, they were starting from a very, very high base. I don't think we are today at the level where that is going to have an impact on supply reduction, especially in China. But obviously, if it continues in that direction, there will be impact in global vanadium supply, especially production of vanadium in the Bay Area in China.
Okay. And sorry, just on the inventory, I meant global inventory levels, especially given that steel production in China has come down, like is there a risk that we see instead of vanadium imports that we saw this year and last year in China that we see exports coming out of China, which then -- despite the strong steel demand in Europe, might impact the vanadium prices elsewhere?
Yes. No, it's a good question. Definitely, China has become a net export compared to a net importer, a couple of quarters ago. However, it's been very limited. The volumes going out of China. We're monitoring very closely every month and this tiny fraction of the whole production. We have not heard any high number of stocks anywhere, whether it's in China or elsewhere. If anything, I think the concern is more on the inventory sitting in transit on vessels in trucks rather than in warehouses and readily available to be sold to customers. So that's where we see the main issue today is prompt availability of material.
And that does conclude the question-and-answer session. I'll now turn the conference back over to Mr. Guthrie for any additional remarks.
Thank you, operator. This concludes the Q&A session and our quarterly investor call. Have a great day. Bye-bye.
Thank you. That does conclude today's conference. We do thank you for your participation. Have an excellent day.