@Subtek ..... "I don't know much about anything, famous last...

@Subtek ..... "I don't know much about anything, famous last words, but the study we keep talking about values the project at just under $1 billion dollars?"

It does indeed state that, so why would Itafos not bother doing any more work on it since 2013, and sell it 'cheaply'?

The PEA also uses a $US50k/t price for Niobium and $US29/kg price for TREO, while recently WA1 have been using a $US30k/t and Lynas $US22/kg for TREO, so that will dent profit a lot, plus the cap cost of over $US600M has probably gone up a lot, because they had a lot of processing to do.

The report also stated ...
"The location of the old CBMM tailings dam, covering a part of the Mineral Resources, will have an effect on the ability to mine the project. This effect may influence safety and also have a cost implication for the Araxá Project. These effects have not been addressed in any manner or form and will need to be included as part of the modifying factors for Mineral Resource to Mineral Reserve conversion"

So a lot of extra costs involved. Also CBMM own the land the tailings dam is on, so to gain access to under the dam wall would require their permission and cooperation. Do you really expect to get that by going into competition with them for niobium market share??

Digging a huge open pit in front of a tailings wall to gain access to weathered mineralisation, the high grade bit, is never going to happen, without relocating the contents of that tailings dam, that is most likely radioactive with thorium waste from previous mining. Just look at the size of that monster!!

It will not be worth moving the contents of that tailings dam to gain access to a couple of million tonnes of higher grade material. Itafos knows this which is why they are happy to offload the project they haven't spent any further money on in over a decade!!

Shareholders still have the opportunity to vote this terrible deal down. It doesn't matter who owns it, it will never be mined!!