Ann: Opening of Tailings Re-Treatment Plant at Mt, page-6

re: Ann: Opening of Tailings Re-Treatment Pla... I don't understand what dicky is complaining about either. Tungsten supply is very tight and all the big players are striving to secure it for the long term. Have a look at Woulfe's recent deal with IMC. IMC guarantees 100% off-take right away, provides credit, buys a big chunk of Woulfe's tungsten mine, and a majority stake in the APT plant on top of it. If Mitsubishi decided to shy away from Carbine, others would be happy to step in. It's not "Mitsubishi or bust". It is a market with many players and the pressure is on the off-takers to secure supply, not the other way round. Carbine is the only mine entering the market this year. Woulfe plans to start production in the first half of 2013, but its material has been taken out of the equation by IMC already. Ormonde wants to enter the market in late 2013 but as we all know they have to overcome a number of obstacles including funding first. King Island Scheelite also plans to enter the market with initial production from tailings in late 2013 but I question their timing. They changed horses from open cut to ug just recently, have secured neither equity nor debt funding yet. Wolf and Vital IMO are more than 2 years away from production. Hazelwood ran out of money and their brand new FeW smelter in Vietnam is sitting idle for half a year already. They don't have the funds to start production there, let alone develop a tungsten mine at Big Hill.

So if you need to secure tungsten supply now there basically is no alternative to Carbine. While the below 65% concentrate might be non-standard, off-takers don't have much choice. I don't see anybody offering anything before late 2013 at the earliest.