Again - it is easy to get the value of commodities like graphite...

Again - it is easy to get the value of commodities like graphite or vanadium.  Google " V2O5 Vanadium Pentoxide Flake 98% Price USD / lb" and you will find the $$ - its unequivocal.  Globally available trading prices make scoping studies  far more reliable. 

You simply cannot do the same with ruby. 99.99% of people do not know the value of " high grade ruby" or "special stones".  Go on google it - theres nothing. Find an expert and ask them the same question , and they will start the sentence with " well that depends" or " theres no set price". 

Any studies undertaken on the ruby would only have been geological - and would only have been able to estimate where they ruby was located  and the approximate volume of it per tonne mined.  They would not have been able to get a value on it - as there is no easily ascertained way to value ruby rough... none. at all. Its a total guessing game - based on how well one knows rough ruby and how well one knows the fragmented, shady, closed mouth gemstone market. In my opinion this fact is the auction was such a disaster - because management genuinely had no idea about the value of the stones they had mined, and treated the ruby like a commodity, which they are not.  Graphite and vanadium are  - which is why I feel that much more confident.