another take from the interview - my own take that is:ALK...

another take from the interview - my own take that is:

ALK looking for 50/50 JV and what does that mean? If ALK does not want to contribute to the funding then I don't think ALK can get more than ~ $70m to sell 50% of NMPP and for the JV to fund rest until production.

That eliminates all majors unless someone is really desperate for a deal. Majors normally will want 70% or more. They may agree to 50/50 if the deposit is about double of the current NMPP and the funding goes 50/50.
If I am right then ALK will only be able to attract mid-tier miner. EVN, Goldfields or similar caliber miner.


Separate from the interview:
Also, I think the 5Mt plant will be the most meaningless example and will not serve any useful purpose in the SS. ALK should have done 10Mt, 20Mt and 25Mt examples due to the low grade nature of the resource.

We are looking at ~800Mt of resource (not 650Mt as Nic said (if I heard him right) unless he had Freudian slip and we are in for some really bad news) and that means any plant with less than 15Mt capacity will simply be useless as AISC will be too high and if Au and Cu prices fall bellow certain level the plant won't be making much money if any.

10Mt will be right there at the very low end of town and 5Mt is just nonsense.

for example - even if prices stay where they are and move higher so 5Mt plant starts to make some sense then LOM will be around 160 years without the operator adding any more resources. not sure anyone will be happy to have a mine for that long there. the environmentalist will oppose it all the way while larger miners will not be interested to pick up scraps for eternity, so no one is happy but few HC business case "experts" in this scenario.

10Mt will offer 80 years LOM
20Mt will offer 40 years LOM
25Mt will offer 32 years LOM which is something any major will like. Especially if they know they can add another ~250Mt of resource from nearby prospects.
25Mt also offers better production volumes to attract larger partner. It also delivers lot lower AISC.