Graphite's day in the sun is about to shine, page-5

"Handful of contenders and the rest are contenders [in the graphite space]" is the statement that I wrote down to quote and you beat me to it!!!

I've just finished watching it from beginning to end. He paints what I believe is a very sage picture. Graphite is difficult and not well understood due to its opaque nature and the fact that so much rides on the quality of the resource... and we're not talking about insitu grade (which ONLY affects costs). The Molo is only 60km north of Maniry and only 18 mths behind NEXTSOURCE... following that company in its footsteps.

VERIFICATION... that's the true determinant here. Not just metalurgic testing and pilot plant testing for suitability in the EV space (in particular) BUT testing of suitable graphite product that has been put through the rigors of SPG process testing and coating... and, last but not least, testing by the actual OEMs as a potential CSPG product.

Now I know exactly why URBIX is not a side show as one poster refered to our collaboration and why it has taken so long for URBIX to test our product. BN in the preso talks about how long it takes to get product verification for EV use done (years) but that it sounds like the process is becoming shorter... so long as a graphite project has collaborators with CSPG producers that have OEMs who want to test their product. We sent processed graphite samples from our pilot plant tests done by BGRIMM in China (what seems like ages ago).. In fact, it was June 2021 by memory. I have been hankering ever since for feedback on that. We are close to the timeline BN mentions.

Clearly we are with the right people... Urbix and Circulor. That is our path to our spot in the downstream EV industry. Whilst NEXT has a partnership with a Japanese CSPG processor with plans to build SPG facilities in a JV in various locations, EVG has its partnership with a US CSPG processor (yet to be inked in binding bold text). NEXT is leading the way for us in a way.

It'll would be interesting to know which OEMs Urbix has been getting verification testing done with and how far down the track we are in the process. Enlightening too to hear BN state that RIO TINTO is keen to get into the critical minerals space. He went on to say that they have had discussions with them but that there are bigger players on the look out for JVs also.

As for your last comment... thats what piqued my interest too with regards to the "contenders and pretenders". We know we are in the right juridstiction according to him (albeit he would be a tad biased... but did get funded by none other than Sir Mick Davis). Tom has mentioned on a few occasions in interviews and the like that they have conversations with NEXT and watch their progress which can only but give us an advantage. Btw, I read somewhere that Tom was in Madagascar around about October last year.