TB only separating HMC into a mag-ilmenite con and non-mag zirc...

TB only separating HMC into a mag-ilmenite con and non-mag zirc rich con (plus paramag zir-monazite rich con, but not very rich). It was more a case of trying to make the project fundable for minimum equity funding hurdle, and of course processing stuff in China is always going to be heaps cheaper on capex and opex than in WA. Even after China takes some profit for processing, it's so much cheaper there is room for very decent profits to Aussie mine.

Only trouble with selling all your HMC to China for lower capex and cheap processing is all your eggs are in the Chinese basket. Binary risk really, and who knows if/when another dirty TB mag con off-taker could be found if there is some China embargo of they play games over off-take price next time contract is up for renewal (requires roasting to separate out iron-oxide contamination). Nobody likes to spend more capex/opex or have MSP plant risk in Oz, but damn it does mean almost zero offtake risk because a finished product can be sold to anyone anywhere...

No JV partner also means higher MC potential as the entire project is listed on ASX. No doubt the brokers running STA last year were hoping on getting MC up to index level so the index funds had to come in and buy up. Not now obviously.