Basically, brown coal evaporative techs remove some of the water in brown coal making it a dryer form of brown coal...however it is still brown coal.
Brown coal, as can be seen from BR's links, has a tendency to self combust and therefore is not suitable for transportation.
If you look closely at the pictures, especially one in particular, you will see where this actual incident occurred...however it doesn't seem to have been ann'ed by the company as far as I can see.
Hence the reason the LY stock pile is fed into the furnaces within hours/days of being dug up.
The Exergen CHTD simulates mother nature in that it converts brown coal to a true BCE under a high pressure and heat reaction at depth...just how brown coal becomes black coal naturally.
The added benefit is that brown coal can be mixed into a slurry and piped to port (either before the CHTD process of after it). In the case of LV, Exergen's ex-CEO Jack Hamilton quoted approx $150m investment to get a pipeline from LV to port.
Now compare that to brown coal briquettes, pellets, etc. being railed out of LV...not only are the infrastructure costs going to be in the billions, but the product has a tendency to self ignite...consider that happening on a tanker in the middle of the ocean!!
If these BCE companies are unable to overcome the tendency for brown coal briquettes, pellets, etc. to self combust, then I believe, that any future of an LV export BCE project is defunct...Exergen CHTD excluded.
So, we are back to BM with Exergen CHTD:
1) Can CHTD be transported without self combusting?
Yes
2) Is most of the rail infrastructure in place to get the product from BM to Port of Geelong?
Yes
3) Does Exergen have an offtake agreement for the CHTD BCE?
Yes
4) Is the land at BM which is MNM's tenements been sterilised to be used for extractive (mining) purposes only?
Yes
5) Does MNM have a legally binding JV with a Company that seems to have (or partners with) the know how, experience/expertise, skills and incentive to make BM happen?
Yes
6) Is MNM basically free carried at BM (apart from additional costs to get BM up to JORC status) up to commercial development stage?
Yes
7) Have Thiess and Sedgman carried out a scoping study whereby they have estimated a $1.4 billion NPV on the BM project of which MNM is currently a 50/50 JV with Exergen?
Yes
I have researched this BCE area for the past 4 years and the more I research and uncover, the more I believe MNM is one of the safest investments in this space as:
a) they own the resource to which several techs can be applied,
b) they have partnered with the most likely BCE tech to be successfully commercialised and transported for export revenues
c) their partner Exergen has an offtake agreement with TATA for the CHTD BCE
...so (rant coming to an end)...
MNM have the brown coal with an MD who is an undergound mining expert and partnered with Exergen for the CHTD tech who is backed by the buyer of the BCE which has an ocean tanker transport arm to its business on a tenement set aside for mining purposes with a rail line going through it to port in an area with 12% unemployment in a state that is strapped for cash and does not have historical revenues from exporting coal but is showing all signs via ALDP, S7 tenders, media releases, etc. in developing one.
Hmmm.....
5c per share, MC of $13 million, bargain!
Cheers K
MNM Price at posting:
5.0¢ Sentiment: LT Buy Disclosure: Held