Spherical graphite in 2015

Joining the dots between recent announcements, nasabear's prolific posts and a couple of conversations with management leads me to believe MRF could be one of the early new producers of likely top grade graphite.

We know MRF intend to go into production early, believe they have enough graphite from the old mines and do not intend to go the jorc --> feasibility study ---> tortuous financing route. With low capex requirement, have the luxury to avoid this rigmorale and aim to produce as soon as they can get their ducks lined up, including restoring old shafts to modern OH&S standards and securing off-take agreements.

These two paras come from their last two announcements...

1) Some of the ore extracted in this program will be used to conduct metallurgical tests and provide samples to potential off-take parties. These test are aimed at determining whether the material is suitable for producing spherical graphite, which is the premium-priced graphite product used in lithium batteries.

Surging global demand for lithium ion batteries, and therefore spherical graphite, has underpinned investors’ appetites for graphite projects in recent months.

2) MRL has commenced the rehabilitation process of the EL228 – S2 shaft at Pandeniya to enable bulk samples and, potentially, early production to commence following the conversion to a mining licence. The rehabilitation activities will take place concurrently with the licence application process.

So joining the dots with a little help:

a) Expect they have already sent samples to labs and prospective buyers for analysis --> suitability for spherical graphite.
b) They have started the process to obtain the mining licence at Warakapola, "the drill rig was moved to DHE228-05... to provide sufficient geotechnical information to the north of the EL228-S2 shaft for it to be converted from an exploration licence to an Industrial Mining Licence."
c) They have commenced rehabilitation of the EL228-S2 shaft at Warakapola in readiness to commence production there as soon as they acquire the mining licence.

d) They acquired a mining licence with the new mine at Aluketiya, where "project planning has commenced on the work required to bring the historical mine back into production and further progress updates will be provided as they come to hand." My understanding is the process to bring Aluketiya into production is a matter of months and not years.
e) They have very interested buyers, pending the analysis of the graphite.

Expect the process to achieve an industrial mining licence is relatively straight forward if implementing Australian geological and mining standards, which is part of the beauty of this project - using Australian technology and experience to enhance old mines that still have an abundance of resource.

Would seem MRF may well be selling spherical graphite to an enthusiastic market by mid 2015 or not long after. Top quality graphite with many tenements in the wings, and an Aussie team leading local talent to develop an exciting contribution to an emerging Sri Lankan economy.

Can't wait to see the first broker report on this, and perhaps some financials - maybe in the next week or so

Strongly suspect today's market capital of $11 will look like a typo.