Let's do some quick reverse psychology, not in any particular order:
1. Talga is not just a mining company, it's will also be the first anode producer in Europe, if not Talga, who else? MRC, MNS, EGR? quick comparison:
TLG 440.24M mc(good grade good resouce):
Sweden: contain JORC resources totalling 55.3Mt @ 17.5% Cg for 9.7Mt total contained natural graphite.
MRC 49.30M mc(took a big hit because of management issues, better grade, smaller resource):
Norway: 1.78 million tonnes at 22% TGC in the category of indicated and inferred for 397kt of contained graphite using 10% cutoff.
MNS 449.83M mc(lower grade, bigger resouce):
Nachu Project near Ruangwa: 174Mt @ 5.4% for 9.396Mt total contained natural graphite.
EGR 310.73M mc(lower grade, smaller resource):
Tanzania: 6.6Mt of measured resource at 9.7% TGC, 7.9 Mt indicated resource at 10.0%TGC and 8.8Mt indicated resource at 8.7% TGC.23.3Mt resource for a total of 640k + 790k + 765k = 2.2Mt total contained natural graphite.
correct me if im wrong with the resouce numbers...it's not hard to notice that the mine is special and it's 100% owned by Talga.
2. By disapproving the mine, it will just sit there useless unless they buy it and produce their own anode, they can't just take it and start mining themselves, they will need to go through the same process as Talga went through in the past 5 years, what is the benefit delaying the project 5 years when there is an EV boom?
3. No other company will build an anode factory without a mine in Europe, very hard to compete with China's pricing.
So what i'm trying to say:
1. Talga controls 100% of the mine, and it's a good mine, we know that.
2. Swedish government can't just take it and use it themselves, anyone else have to go through the same process, delaying the project for years.
If they disapprove the permit, it's either:
a. enviromental/social reasons which means no one else will use it anyways...and they don't see a need for anode production in Europe, mine wasted...because Talga won't give it out for free or
b. they want Talga to fail and buy it out then use it themselves 5-10 years later, by that time, the economical benefit is probably irrelevent, because most EV companies probably have a stable resource input for EV production.
Both scenarios brings no benefit to anyone, so any talk with "LKAB link with Swedish government and they don't want an Australian company to do it blahblahblah" is rubbish.
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