Syrah with BHP Billiton Management, page-14

"Should the fact that someone may, or may not, have held stock in another company in the industry invalidate their views today? "

No, but if one month they are promoting the idea that superior quality will win over lower price, that's a wee bit different, IMO.

You really need to stop dragging this (AXE) old chestnut up, Prime1. I held an interest in that company very early into the graphite boom - it was one of the first graphite explorers back in 2010 before SYR and some of the other current contenders entered. I still keep an eye on all of them.

As @melua stated a while back - "The money is made on discovery" - that's what I did.

Unless you invest in mining companies prior to discovery, you will struggle to make meaningful gains (assuming you are a buy and hold investor). SYR is a Tier 1 graphite project but a quick look at the chart shows that unless you were in the stock prior to discovery, it's been a roller coaster ride since and the share price is back where it was four years ago in Feb 2013.

SYR highlights just how difficult it is to make money investing in mining companies with a buy and hold strategy if you come in late.

Because of the long lead times from discovery to production (an average of 8 years) dilution usually kills any upside.

SYR was trading at $3.36 in Feb 2013 and despite having the highest grade and largest graphite resource on the planet the share price nearly four years later is $3.26.

Whilst the market cap has risen, the share price hasn't and it's due to the massive capital required to get mining projects into production and the reality is debt financing is not normally an option as banks are ultra conservative.

Hence, raisings via equity result in massive dilution.

If I ever invest in another mining company, I will not be hanging around for production!