valuation of niobium asset in crown

While i am no mining engineer, maybe someone has the ability to calculate the value of our niobium in crown based on the following. On the ALK thread on the 14th, jojosydney posted the following

Yesterday, Japan and South Korea invested $1.8 billion in a Brazilian mining group that is the largest producer of niobium. Niobium is used to make a hard lightweight steel that is increasingly being used to make vehicles more fuel efficient and lighter. Japan and South Korea are seeing soaring prices and are concerned about future cuts from China. Niobium is crucial for these countries to provide the lightest and strongest cars. Outside of Brazil is Iamgold?s (IAG) Niobec Mine in Quebec and Avalon?s (AVL) Nechalacho Mine which ranks as the third largest niobium deposit in the world. I would not be surprised if we see further investments into this sectors as the shares have significantly underperformed the soaring prices of rare earths.


http://www.kitco.com/ind/Handwerger/mar082011.html

On the 19/3 11 Tonio posted the following on the LYC thread

Looking at the Crown deposits drill results it appears that Mt Weld has a twin sister and its not ugly



Category Mt Ta2O5 Nb2O5 TReO ZrO2 Fe2O3 P2O5 Y2O3 Al2O3 TiO2
Indicated 1.5 0.037 1.40 1.65 0.32 46.5 8.9 0.10 9.94 5.8
Inferred 36.2 0.024 1.06 1.14 0.30 42.6 8.0 0.09 11.3 3.9
Total 37.7 0.024 1.07 1.16 0.30 42.8 8.0 0.09 11.3 4.0
Mt = million tonnes, other figures are percentages. Ta2O5 tantalum oxide, Nb2O5 niobium oxide, TReO rare
earth oxide, ZrO2 zirconia, Fe2O3 iron oxide, P2O5 phosphate, Y2O3 yttria, Al2O3 alumina, TiO2 titanium oxide



Assuming a modest 1,000,000 ton per year operation.
The Treo revenues alone would be

1,000,000 t x 1.16 % = 11,600 tons


assuming that the basket price is the same as the rest of Lynas' resource at Mt Weld then you are looking at $118 Kg



11,600 tons x 1000kg = 11,600,000 Kg x $118 =


$1,368,800,000


There are also additional potential revenues from


Ta2O5 240000 kg x $ 100 kg = $ 24,000,000
Nb2O5 10,700,000 kg x $ 50 kg = $535,000,000
Zro2 3,000 t x $3000 t = $ 9,000,000
Fe2O3 428,000 t x $ 140 t = $ 59,920,000
P2O5 80,000 t x $ 100 t = $ 8,000,000
Y2O3 900 t x $ 10 kg = $ 9,000,000
Al2O3 113,000 t x $ 250 t = $ 28,250,000
TiO2 40,000 t x $3000 t = $120,000,000
---------------

$ 793,170,000


So potential revenues of $ 2,161,970,000

That is per year for a mine life of 37.7 years and that is only a fraction of the potential of this mine


What I would like to know is if the Koreans and the Japanese are prepared to invest $1.8 billion on a South American Niobium project, what does that make the Crown deposit really worth?