fundamentals of the abu dabbab project

Thought i would start another "fundamental" thread anyone who interested can pitch in a lot of it will be educated guessing anyway till we get the finance but it may stop us getting bored.

http://www.hotcopper.com.au/post_single.asp?fid=1&tid=828658&msgid=4592819

http://www.hotcopper.com.au/post_single.asp?fid=1&tid=828658&msgid=4589651

As for the Syncon "Firstly, there has been a technical break thorough and the project now intends to produce a significantly higher grade tantalum product,
55% Ta2O5 rather than 20% as first envisaged, and secondly the capital expenditure required has increased to $173M, an increase of $48M since the November 2007 estimate."

Implications.
"The higher grade tantalum product will sell for substantially more than the lower grade
product. Whilst exact details are confidential, we have raised our tantalum revenue estimate by 25%. This is offset by a small increase in operating costs.

The higher revenues result from the fact that the higher grade tantalum product is much purer. Hence, the first step of processing by the purchaser results in using significantly less hydrofluoric acid and much smaller amounts of waste for disposal.

Since this waste typically contains uranium and thorium, this is expensive waste disposal, but the new
process, called SynCon, removes much of the radioactive content of the concentrate.

The new processing technology is partly responsible for the $48M increase in capital expenditure, which is now estimated to be $173M. This revised figure includes
contingency and pre-production costs, owner’s costs and project finance costs during
construction."

http://www.fox-davies.com/media/20973/gippslandflashnote21stnovember2008.pdf

Robert