Glad to read you are in agreement with me on the capacity that a graphite mine should invest in. I conclude that you and I are one of only a few that agree on the capacity of graphite mine investment. Yes I have also heard Steve Riddle of Asbury Graphite report the same. Steve Riddle did say however if a graphite investment had a take or pay contract from a battery company for about 80 % of it's annual capacity then he believes one larger graphite mine could exist.
We all know why all these public Jr Graphite mining companies decided to try and build large capacity graphite mines. They could not be low cost producers so they thought adding extremely large capacity will reduce it;'s average mining cost which is true. However where and how are they going to sell all the capacity and make sure their investors have a fair return vs the added risks.
I believe the major graphite buyers do not need to sign offtake because they believe that if a new large capacity graphite mine does get invetors and does build a graphite mine and does not have a offtake from one or more battery companies the net result will be a very large surplus of supply and major buyers will be able to buy the graphite they need at very cheap prices. So why sign an agreement if you a company can get all the supply they need at very cheap prices.
