Disclaimer: I have not requested answers to your questions from management, but I have provided some feedback by researching previously released and/or publicly available information.
Hi Bluevein. I hope this helps yourself and others. I totally agree that many questions won't or more likely, can't, receive a satisfactory reply.
You have stated that 100 families have agreed to the environmental study and relocation plan. How many families have not agreed.There are 5 villages within the immediate area around the proposed mine site with a population of around 500 people. The average household population is 4.6 people. This equates to approximately 100 families. I'd suggest, based on the maths, that very few, if any, families have not agreed... and I'm not sure why it's important to know. If there was significant levels of disagreement, I seriously doubt that management would make Announcements to the contrary.
Why do you only give revenue projections for Panthera and no profit projections.This is not true. Numerous releases have stated that the projected operating margin (ie profit) is circa 50%. Specific OPEX projections have been provided in the Feasibility Study including raw material, processing, transport, logistics, packaging, duties, administration. I'd say it's too early to be expecting detailed financials from the JV, but there has definitely been profit projections provided.
What is your break even tonnage at Panthera.Variability of prices across the product range, ongoing plant optimisation, planning for plant expansion and a number of other issues make it difficult to provide an accurate "break even tonnage" figure at this stage of the operation. Once the business has matured a bit further, the financial numbers will settle and then projections/budgets (including things like "break even tonnage") will become easier to calculate with confidence.
Having said that, I suspect that with such high margins, the plant might only needs to produce 500tpa (approx $1.5M revenue) OR EVEN LESS to break even (my guesstimate).... but breaking even isn't what anyone is interested in.
Why would you want to increase tonnage at Panthera when you can’t even produce at 100% capacity now.Once Stage 1 production capacity is achieved, assuming demand for our product remains sufficient, it makes sense to increase production to meet said demand. It wouldn't make any sense whatsoever to NOT want to increase capacity. They obviously won't fully commit to commencing Stage 2 before Stage 1 is at or near to full production capacity - expected in Q3 - but failing to plan for it would bad business.
Again, without the environmental study signed off, we have nothing.That's not true. We have got plenty. No doubt once we have Environmental Approval and Exploitation (mining) licenses we will be even further de-risked - ie YES, it's clearly very important. However, ESIA being approved is far from being the only thing that matters. I believe the single most important thing that is holding us (ie the SP) back is still the graphite market, in particular, natural graphite prices. Then there's a Grant from the EU. Offtakes. Other sources of funding. ETC ETC ..... there's a long list of important things and Environmental Approval is just one of them.
GOOD LUCK TO US ALL
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