Potential Upside of WKT - Expandable Graphite, page-1457

Hello @oznt

You and @Croc-file frequently talk about "vanilla markets" and infer that Syrah's Balama mine is a prime example. Your view is overly simplistic,

In relation to why Syrah are struggling, here are some facts from their 2019, Q2 Quarterly with my comments in yellow:

1) Plant Recovery only 66% in 2019 Q2 - In the Balama BFS it was assumed to be 92.5%. With so much capital sunk into a huge 350 ktpa plant they are hemorrhaging money with that sort of performance as 29% of their forecast graphite concentrate is going to the tails dam.
2) Fine Flake (-minus 100 mesh) production 88% of concentrate in 2019 Q2. Way too much fines compared to their BFS (fines at only 68%) which attract $400 less than +80 mesh (medium or larger flake). Refer price graph below from Benchmark Minerals, May 2019.
2) Medium, Large and Jumbo Flake (+ 80 mesh) production 12% in 2019 Q2. Syrahs BFS had 32% of flake size distribution at Medium or larger. Their plant would appear to have issues in not preserving flake size. It is not appropriate to compare all projects to Balama. For example Epanko BFS estimates 79.5% of concentrate produced will have coarser flake greater than minus 100 mesh. The Epanko graphite has a much coarser flake size distribution than Balama.



Stop pretending to be an expert and refrain from making inaccurate claims.