I don't think anyone is disputing that this company will define...

I don't think anyone is disputing that this company will define a resource of SOME size. CID is relatively predictable and that is the advantage of this type of ore. However, the disadvantage is that there is a lot of it around, it is typically or marginal grade/quality etc. For such deposits to become economic it needs to be shallow so that mining costs do not eat up your profit - FMS hits have all been relatively deep, increasing the strip ratio and mining cost. There has been alot of comparison with FMG's serenity deposit and no doubt the FMS deposit is a continuation of this - BUT what has to be pointed out is that Serenity is one of the poorer quality deposits held by FMG. When you have limited rail and port infrastructure as a bottleneck, exploitation of the lower quality deposits will be a lower priority.

My objective view on the recent drilling assays is this:
Positive:
- SiO2 levels well within acceptable limits (~5%), average P levels on the high side but also acceptable (~0.1%).
- average deposit thickness consistent with expectations (though I would only count intersections averaging over 55%)
- LOI within acceptable ranges (7-10%)

Negatives:
- Fe grade low and extremely variable, only one hit above 55%, at depths over 50m.
- Al2O3 levels extremely high at 7% average, with some intersections over 12-20% (preferably less than 2-5%).

FMS owns what will probably result in a CID deposit of large tonnage but high contaminants and very high strip ratio for the quality of the ore. There are many juniors out there with similar or better quality/depth CID deposits/targets. With over a billion tonnes defined at Serenity alone IIRC, FMG are unlikely to be interested in deep extension of said deposit within the next ten years.

Hope these facts provide a good point of discussion for you guys on this thread, minus the sniping and low info posts that has been occuring between the pro and con camps. Whilst I don't think FMG will be interested in this deposit - if a Chinese party were to build their own rail and port capacity and start acquiring juniors, the scale of this deposit would make it a likely target. The low grade and high Al levels would still be a stumbling block. I also think that the chances of that happening are very slim in the Pilbara for various regulatory and economic reasons. The abundance of low quality iron ore deposits makes FMS' resource one of many, where the current target of the Chinese and majors looking to buy up deposits (as opposed to purchasing ore for offtake) is for higher quality beneficiated magnetite projects (e.g. CFE, CITIC, ARH) or higher quality hematite deposits.

Cheers
UIO