I think surety of supply is quite important with what's happened with malaysia and Indonesia.
Whilst it's lower grade than the benchmark the Chinese seem to be quite happy to take poorer grade bauxite from Malaysia because they could screw them down on price.
I agree finding a buyer is a major hurdle for any new mine. An offtake agreement becomes a license for the market to start factoring in production revenue to the share price.
I'm somewhat pessimistic because ABX has struggled to get into the metallurgical market and is relying on cement grade bauxite for sales.
Having said that their operations are more expensive the distance to ship is greater so what may not be feasible st current prices for ABX may for QBL for example ABX may only be profitable above $40/t whereas QBL claim to be FOB at $20.74 per ton.
The other factor is the Feldman's have been talking to potential buyers for a long time up to 8 years who can say that they don't already have a number of interested parties.
QBL Price at posting:
1.3¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
