With reference to timbin4's earlier email, much as I appreciate the later testicular correspondence, my take on the off-take agreements is that the vanadium is being given away to Chengde, at least for stage 1.
To most steel mills vanadium (and titanium) is considered an impurity (contaminant), so Aurox's list of potential customers is limited to those mills who can extract the vanadium from the slag.
The vanadium is spread throughout the iron zone at Balla Balla but it's particularly high grade at the base, so this layer will be left behind and then benched out during stage 2 when there will be a separate vanadium circuit to produce vanadium pentoxide, the potential big money-spinner.
All this is on the Atlas website's Balla Balla pages. What's always drawn me to this project is the vanadium $$$ potential PLUS the iron ore PLUS (to a lesser extent) the titanium. I'm not brave enough to go for a pure vanadium play.
Sorry to have a go plugging Balla Balla again, but given that all iron production appears to be pre-sold for 15 years, where's the risk? Go for it, Atlas. Build the mine and take the profits.
AGO Price at posting:
$3.24 Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
