“That bottom of the cost curve pretty much says that under...

“That bottom of the cost curve pretty much says that under almost any circumstance in the market, we’re going to be able to make a margin. What is that margin? I’d say it’s between $10 and $20 a tonne. We’re targeting $15 a tonne this year. If we can mine and sell at $15 a tonne, that gives us about $100 million EBITDA. For a small company like ours, if we can generate that sort of money, then we’ll be very quickly into paying down our debt and then getting into returning some funds to shareholders.”

These economies of scale, however, aren’t likely to be held back by a 7-million-tonne ceiling. In fact, Wensley is already contemplating a ‘de-bottlenecking’ program, which will take place after the expansion phase in an effort to stretch the Bauxite Hills operation to 8 million or even 9 million tonnes per year