Since you asked and surprised one does view posts I like although I liked others on the SUM thread as well:
1. I had no issues with the fact they only assayed the 'darker nodules' from the rock chips in there 11/06/2024 Ann, been in effect the crystals, to gauge the Nb/Ta and impurities within the nodules. Those results were very good - however, it would appear too me many on here have confused those grades with the actual grade of the overall resource.
2. Taking point 1 above, drilling will determine the grade here overall, and an average grade of 1% - 2% here will be very good, but 1% will be good as well btw, and for the record until they drill it could be higher or lower overall. Roack chip samples, and only taking the 'darker nodules' is not akin to overall grade. If others have a better view, please share as the answer is in Point 5 and 6 below).
3. In pegmatites where lithium is not a key mineral, commerciality will be driven by payable minerals in total, and not just one mineral, so here it will depend on composition and the extent of tantulum + niobium + other payable minerals.
4. I would expect the tantulum grade would be higher than the niobium grade in SUM's pegmatites, but that is a guess here, as using the Australian experience, and noting in Australian tantulum and niobium and tin are essentially a by product of lithium mining (i.e. Greenbushes - has tantulum, niobium and tin, PLS - tantulum, LTR - tantulum) - Niobium | Geoscience Australia (ga.gov.au) However, when you look at some of the results here by SUM on teh crystals assayed you can see that in some samples the Niobium > tantulum and obviously, I repeat obviously, that means you have a different pegmatite system to a number of the comparisons made on here where Australian examples are been used.
5. It does depend on the pegmatite itself, and in that regard if I go back to the 11 June 2024 Ann there are differences in features by the looks of it to what people on here are quoting when comparing that pegmatite to the Australian pegmatites where tantulum say is produced as a by-product. From that Ann is this statement: "" The pegmatites contain crystals of Columbite and Tantalite along with associated Tourmaline and Mica mineralisation that are clearly visible in outcrop as dark nodules and veins ranging in size from sub 1cm to 40cm in size."" Given that comment it would seem the SUM pegmatites have cooled in a manner that has provided more optimal conditions for tantalite and niobium than the Australian counterparts, however only drilling will determine that extent - is it just at surface, so how far it goes down is the key here.
6. Taking point 5, a key for any future SUM announcement is stating what type of pegmatite they think they have - type in the following in the screen shot below to gauge pegmatite differences (LCT compared to NYF in particular). For others this paper I think provides the right insights for yourselves to debate when it comes to assessing pegmatites and what is in there - the type of pegmatite here is the key. Finally, the key is the average grade within a core drill as against the grade in the crystals themselves because when it comes to mining you need to remove all the crap - mica for example - in a process flowsheet before you deal with the payable loads (an obvious point and SUM is a very long away away from even establishing a Mineral Resource Estimate here so before anyone yabbers commerciality establish a resource first and in that regard some of the comments made on here by some posters are simply bizarre as a drill is yet to go in to establish average grade, depth, composition which is fundamental to establishing a MRE down the track that accords to the JORC code 2012.).
7. Risk/reward possibly here - depends on one's appetite.
(20min delay)