Thanks for you past posts - they always make a lot of sense.
My previous post in reply to your previus post, had a basic theme, and that is that WAK should find niches, and not fret over the markets it should not enter, and thus far the E-Glass subsector seems a good candidate, because it requires high purity (preferably very high purity) kaolin, especially in respect to carbonaceous matter and iron. I have seen no comment on titanium as a contaminant, but WAK's primary ore is low on that too. I have seen no comment on particle shape, size and size distribution, but that may be because for E-glass, WAK's product fits into whatever is specified in that regard.
I have read somewhere that I cannot recall, that dry-blow kaolin is what the E-Glass subsector buys, and perhaps the glass sector generally. That is technical stuff that I read about on the Internet, and not being a guru in the game, I do not attach too much weight to my understanding of stuff that I have read. The sockdologer for me is that, in spite of Advanced Minerals International (AMI) being in the E-glass game, Dak Tai Trading, a proxy for Stanco International, is buying K99F, and now K999F if the “F” is an apt suffix, and placing large orders. Maybe the reason is that WAK's ore, being a primary ore, allows it to compete with AMI in that subsector. It could simply be because Dak Tai Trading obtained exclusive distribution rights, and being a supplier of other feedstocks, it can shift WAK's kaolin as a complementery product at a better margin, in spite of it being no better than AMI's product.
In the same don't-tangle-with-the-tough-guys theme, I suggest that WAK's interest in the paper-coatings market may be misplaced. I believe what is going to happen is that circa 2025, if finance and hiring employees is not a problem, and WAK wants more capacity for demand that it then has, Management could treat Stage 3 as a simple third dry-float step. If Management wants to play around with K99 as feedstock for wet-processing, it can do so at low cost at Kwinana, where they used to have a mothballed wet-processing test plant. If it's still there, it may make sense to use it. WAK may then learn that it cannot find a niche, and abandon the idea before wasting real money.
On FYI, which I used to hold, but quickly decided that the notion that its IP is uniquely valuable was fraught with doubt, so I sold out. The basics of making alumina from kaolin has been around for a hundred years, and Alcan was the leader of the pack circa WW2. My question is, would it make sense for the ultra-purity-alumina (4N and 5N) hopefuls to abandon extracting their own kaolin, and simply buy K999 from WAK as a feedstock. The nearology of being close to Alcoa's WA activity could be relevant.
Do other dry-float players like produce 99.9% pure kaolin?
