I don't think they even need to start that big given the starter pit grades Giga has outlined.
If you have head grade of 4.5% and 75% recoveries (they are a bit above that from recent met work and higher grade *typically* gives better met results) then you get 3.375% from each front end tonne. Targeting 65% for Ferroniobium you need ~19.25 front end tonnes per tonne of Ferroniobium.
As such if you want to produce 10kt of end product you need about 200ktpa front end. If you move to 300ktpa you're getting 15kt of Ferronibium. At that run rate the "starter pit" lasts about 20 years.
300ktpa plant might cost $300m given remoteness of location and non-plant infra etc? Somewhat of a guess by me on that number.
But assume US$25k margins (conservative) at 15kt run rate and that gives you ~A$600m FCF per annum.
I think upside surprises available to those numbers too. But obviously I am making a lot of speculations.
WA1 Price at posting:
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