@oznt is throwing around some very extravagant claims, and making extremely optimistic assumptions about his favoured graphite stock, Walkabout Resources. I won't try to go through all his lengthy posts, but a few points will show what I mean, and perhaps allow people to put his claims into perspective.
He states:
"Recovery rates are ever so important"
and then goes on to criticize Syrah's Balama recoveries. Now, nobody is happy with the current recoveries, but it is clear that there is a steady improvement in progress. When (and whether) they will reach the ideal targets we do not know. But to assume that they will never improve is rather ridiculous.
In contrast, he assumes that WKT will:
"process 230Kt of ore, producing 30Kt of expandable (large flake) and 10Kt of battery grade (fines)."
But that's 17.4% graphite from the ore, and the ore only contains a little over 17% graphite. So he is assuming 100% recovery! He elsewhere claimed a recovery of 93%, whereas the DFS actually only states 85% as their target. (See P9 of DFS)
And let us not forget that, in the case of WKT, we are talking about theoretical recoveries, from a plant which hasn't even been designed, much less built. The SYR figures are obviously real, with a goodly quota of burnt fingers, and accompanied by a solid plan for improvement.
Yes, recovery rates are important, and it is important to get them right when talking about them, too.
He also skates around the simple issue of size. Even with a large flake proportion of less than 20%, the current, already achieved, 250K tpa production yields more large flake than the maximum claimed for WKT, with its planned production being little more than one-tenth of that at Balama. If Syrah elects to attack the supposedly-lucrative market of expandables, they will have plenty of scope to do so.
Finally, let's look at prices. The WKT DFS quotes the 2014 Stormcrow report as its primary source. The recent update to the DFS varied these price assumptions only slightly This report, which attempted to forecast graphite prices, has been totally discredited, and used a fatally-flawed methodology. So far, its forecasts have proven hopelessly wrong, and look even worse for the future. Yet
@oznt wants us to believe that it is all true. Well, good luck with that.
In short, we need to take these cross-promotion attempts by
@oznt with a large grain of salt.
Cheers
Prime1
(20min delay)