I know something, and it's not blinkered or bias because I have no skin in the game except my ego on the line and not wanting to look the fool. All the haters should think about that when wondering about my motivations for a non-holder. Any time, any post, anyone can contact management or their broker and correct my misleading, BS posts and drop me on my arse right... Again, focus on the facts and substantiated onionin, test it against managements and their brokers opinion and be wiser for it. Put another way, don't look a gift horse in the mouth...
So I woke up this morning still thinking about the TiO2 grades averaging 5% across the supergene oxides and up to 10% in multiple holes. SRX Sierra Leonne mine processes ~1.2% TiO2 in rutile hosted mineral sands and can make good money. SVM upgraded their Malawi laterite hosted Rutile-Graphite deposit to 1.8Bt @ 1% TiO2 hosted in rutile (which is a good analogy for processing carbonatite hosted laterite obviously). So how bad is the typical recoveries of TiO2 from titanium minerals in carb laterite deposits, and is 5-10% TiO2 enough to maybe have ac rack at the pigment market?
Alas, Iluka had a good crack at this style of C3 Ti-Nb-REE weathered carb deposit in 2014-16 without any joy. This was a JV on an existing Vale mine (permitted, infrastructure etc already in place, just see if it can make money through a bolt on plant), on a Ti-P-REE weathered carb deposit. Check out those TiO2 grades and thickness in the supergene zone, 2-3 times the average of C3 with REE credits also considered in the study.
42q0qlnwc96q1d.pdf (asx.com.au) ILU, June 2014 if the link doesn't work.
Unfortunately, by 2016 ILU walked away because, as I postulated yesterday, the mineralogy and metallurgy is simply too complicated to be economic.
43ddnlh087x4c2.pdf (asx.com.au) 1st Dec 2016 if link doesn;t work
Don;t like me by all means, but ask yourself if management or the brokers are going to up date holders with this sort of analysis? Demonstrably quite the opposite... they going sell the multi-commodity upside of good looking C3 assays while hoping to hit the real deal in C6 or elsewhere. That's what management has to do, that's what I'd do in their shoes. But we're not management, we're actual/potential investors so we have to do our own research.
You're welcome. GLTAH
(20min delay)