When I wrote the above, the Stanco connection limited my thoughts to the glass sector, wherein Stanco specialises, and looked to K999F as the basis of a new off-take agreement, or a modification of the existing agreement. I now think K99C merits more thought, which supports the idea of selling a less beneficated product than K99F, or K999F. In loose terms, a silica-kaolin blend that is not much higher up the ladder than the ore, and hence suggesting bulk transport and low CAPEX per dollar of sales.
Glass is a ceramic material that has a non-crystalline atomic structure, but chemically it is in essence similar to the colloquial understanding of "ceramic", so the ceramics-sector market falls into Stanco's bailiwick, and the pressure-cast ceramics subsector takes a coarser kaolin, namely K99C. This suggests that Stanco can shift both K99C and K99F in volume. Further, for pressure-cast ceramics like tiles and sanitary ware, a great deal of silica sand is blended with kaolin to improve the speed of water drainage in the body-forming process, so there is less imperative to thoroughly removing silica sand at the Wickepin minesite. It may make sense to ship relatively lightly beneficiated ore in bulk (not bagged), and shift significant K99 beneficiation to Stanco.
The WAR in Ukraine has created a huge demand for a pressure-cast-ceramics blend of kaolin and silica sand ordered in bulk (not bagged). I am hoping that to upcoming Announcement is going to be hugely significant. In the short-term to shift as much as WAK can produce and transport by road, and in the longer term to make the Wedin-to-Narrogin rail connection more viable, and in the much longer term, make the transport of ore to Wedin merit the investment in either a rail or a slurry pipeline.
I am unsure what is required to ship kaolin other than using bulka bags packed into containers. Bagging may be avoided by so-called "container liners" (I do not think it can simply be poured into ship hulls). Selling more K99C relative to K99F reduces beneficiation expense, and it monetises a higher percentage of the ore extracted. Consequently, leaving more silica sand in the product as a ceramics blend may reduce the ratio of CAPEX required per dollar of sales.
My vivid imagination and situation bias may be interfering with rational judgement, so take all my rose-tinted posts as the conjecture of an idle mind. I bought another 100,000 shares recently (settled yesterday).
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