Jasventure, I don't think a merger would be on the cards for...

Jasventure, I don't think a merger would be on the cards for KNL, not for anyone. Having spoken to management a number of times over the past few years, they are acutely aware of what they have, and would be highly unlikely to accept a merger or some sort of tie-up with an inferior graphite company. If we were to merge with someone, then we are bringing the advanced and approved project, we are bringing the committed buyers, and what do they bring to us? Nothing. All the arguments about "more graphite" in adjacent areas is arbitrary. We have plenty of graphite in the ground that is not yet measured, but that doesn't mean it's not there. Our deposit is open in all directions, and only the easiest portion has been measured for BFS purposes. We could triple our production, and still have graphite for decades. That's why it's amusing to have had the "p*ssing" competition between SYR & TON holders in the past about whose deposit was technically the biggest. When you are selling x tonnes per year, and your graphite deposit is "x times y", with y being a sufficiently large number, then who cares whether you have a 200 year mine life or a 250 year mine life?

Did you actually mean "graphite demand could eventually exceed supply?" That won't happen, or at least, not in my kid's lifetimes. Graphite is an extremely common occurrence all over the world. What is not as common is quality graphite (i.e. low impurity, large flake). Which is a massive part of the reason that KNL has managed to pre-sell all it's graphite on binding agreements when others can't. But, our advantage in that space only lasts while it stays expensive to process lesser quality graphite. Eventually, like with most technologies, things get cheaper, technology improves, and at some point in a decade or two it might be cheaper going to a bulk mine like SYR (or TON) and buying all their stockpiles for a pittance from the years they couldn't sell their graphite, and then just processing that lesser quality graphite and turning it into useable stuff at a feasible rate.

I will also add to your use of the word "competition". When you have sold 100% of your product, you don't really have any competition any longer, because at this stage we've got nothing left to sell. Everyone else has competition, but not us (or at least, not until we announce a larger mine, which needs more sales, but that time is not yet). And, given the intention of all of our (3) buyers is to take more graphite from us when available, there is a certain amount of future sales that we don't need to chase either. Graphite is less of a mining commodity, and more of an industrial product. And in this space, buyers are more important than they are in a normal mine dealing in a bulk style commodity. Buyers are paramount, and should lead the mine development (rather than merely propose a production target and assume it will sell). We've already got our buyers, and we are in the fortunate position of having no competition. Personally, I'm happy to see every other graphite mine sell out all their production to other buyers. It won't happen, of course, not even close, but it wouldn't matter to us if they did.