Pertinent market/industry news/articles, page-951

I get you now - I think that may be revealed in due course if there is serious interest in the MSP product vs Ni/Co Sulfate. It could also end up being an option for a 2nd train down the line if another partner is interested in MSP.

Yes MSP is not really a 'visible' market compared to the nickel sulfate etc which have a market price and can be tracked relatively easily. It is an intermediate product where ARL would get paid say for example sale 95%Ni and 95%Co and perhaps a refining cost - that said if you potentially have 2-3 refineries that have spare capacity and hungry for more feed it could end up being quite a competitive deal. 

If refineries are running at less than capacity basically as long as they cover the marginal OPEX of putting the additional ARL tonnes through + a profit margin (perhaps from the sulfate premium on the Ni/Co) then it would make sense.  It's just a question of whether the lower revenue is offset by the CAPEX/OPEX savings.

With selling a MSP instead of the end products you do not have to spend on building the POX, SX and Crystallization circuits (step 3 & 4 in the ARL flowsheet). I'd also expect the autoclave/HPAL step is the most expensive Capex/Opex wise however would think that this would end up being 20-30% saving at least on CAPEX. We don't have a detailed split of these costs from ARL so until then its just guesswork.