Capacity Ledger

Your Second Borate Source Went for $3.4 Million in Cash

5E Advanced Materials won the Searles Valley operating assets out of chapter 11 on Monday for $3.4 million in cash, 8.3 million shares and a $6.2 million note, then filed an annual report three days later carrying a going-concern warning on its first page of risk factors. Also on the file: the WARN notice that finally puts a date on Mosaic's idled Faustina, a permanent closure at Shell's Martinez catalyst plant, and a full year in which Chinese R-32 produced no entries at all.


One of the two places in America that makes borates changed hands on Monday. The cash part of the price was $3.4 million.

The buyer filed its annual report three days later, carrying a going-concern warning as the first bullet of its risk factors.

That is the week in one line. The rest runs through a Louisiana WARN register, a catalyst plant on the Carquinez Strait, and a tariff line that went twelve months without a single entry.

"What is a working plant worth when the buyer pool is one junior with a going-concern note?"

The rest of this brief is for subscribers.

The capacity math, the trade-flow read, and what it means for the products you buy.

$50 a month, or $400 a year.