PrimeBy my calculations, to produce 220k of product per annum,...

Prime

By my calculations, to produce 220k of product per annum, and using 15% TGC head grade, Syrah will require a 1.5Mtpa flotation plant.

From a mining perspective, if the strip ratio is less than 1:1 then yes, mining material movement will be very modest. The open pit will be small by industry standards, however, in industry terms, this is quite a sizeable flotation process plant. It certainly isnt small.

And to add additional graphite production to sell into the petroleum coke market? I am not sure whether that would sell as graphite concentrate or just as a run-of-mine ore? If this was sold as a concentrate it would push the process plant into the large end of town. For example Century is processing at 4Mtpa and that is considered a large operation.

I would imagine that a 1.5Mtpa project would have at least 500 employees in a country with limited existing mining industry - which means a lot of complex training issues. So this is not at the easy end of the industry spectrum.

So I guess I disagree with the impression provided that Balama is going to be an easy project, though technically yes, for the mining and processing it is not complex.

But to market and sell the suggested 220kt of graphite production, which is equivelant to 20% of the current world market? I dont think it is hard to imagine that Syrah will need to work their socks off to to achieve what they have suggested.

I do agree that the key step is to increase the team as necessary, and steps have been done for this. The question will be timeframes and meeting targets. These will slip badly if the management team is not strong enough, or the sales target set too high. For me. the marketing and sales was always the key risk of the project - that bar has now been raised further with the process rate recently suggested by the company(and "retracted"!)

cheers
gosouth