Hi dowjones30. Good point, while we all wait for verification at...

Hi dowjones30. Good point, while we all wait for verification at the commercial scale of IHP, the real question is will it work with Wonarah ore?

From the December 2010 quarterly:

"Testwork on Wonarah run of mine mineralisation in Florida is very encouraging to date at laboratory pilot scale.
Work is indicating the preferred binder for pelletising the material, which may require a relatively low level of on-site beneficiation. It is reportedly performing very well via the Improved Hard Process and phosphorus yield was 97% over the full design operating temperature range."

This was taken from the announcement Positive Dry Kiln Test Work on 15th March 2011:

Minemakers is very encouraged by the testwork results to date with respect to phosphorus recovery using the patented dry kiln process, rather than the conventional sulphuric acid wet technique.
? Testwork by JDCPhosphate Inc in Florida has been undertaken on expected “run of mine” phosphatic product from Wonarah and averaging about 20% P2O5.
? About 15% of the known extent of phosphate mineralization has been sufficiently drilled thus far to enable resource estimation. At a 10% cut-off, there is currently an estimated 289Mt at 18.5% P2O5 in the indicated resource category and 331Mt at 17% P2O5 in the inferred resource category for a total of 620Mt at an average 18% P2O5. These resource estimates are both JORC and NI43-101 compliant.
? Satisfactory pelletisation of product for dry kiln feed has been achieved, at batch test scale, using commercial binders and balling equipment.
? Firing of the balls at pilot scale by JDCPhosphate has resulted in 97% phosphorus recovery.
? The iron, alumina, magnesium and calcium all stayed in the pellet after heating in the kiln.
? The high phosphorus recovery is due to the low iron content (about 0.6%) in Wonarah phosphates.

The latest quarterly, September 2013 had a report on metallurgical test work of Wonarah ore in regards to suitability as feedstock for the IHP:

"1.3.2 MetallurgicalTestwork
Diamond drilling during the June 2012 quarter generated sufficient core to undertake an extensive metallurgical testwork programme. This core was delivered to the University of South Australia where the testwork programme was supervised by DrKwan Wong, who has supervised all of the metallurgical testwork on Wonarah ore since the commencement of studies in 2008. The testwork programme was designed by KEMWorks Technology, Inc. (KEMWorks) of the United States. KEMWorks has reviewed and analysed the results and made preliminary recommendations for the beneficiation plant flowsheet, although some areas of the comminution circuit are awaiting the outcome of further testwork involving the use of high pressure grinding rolls.
Composite samples were prepared with geological input on sample selection. The resulting samples were then subject to a series of tests to determine a suitable processing flowsheet based on the premise that attritioning should produce a product of suitable quality to be fed to the IHP plant.
The testwork was successful and resulted in a treatment regime where percentage solids content, agitator speed and residence time were optimised. The optimised conditions were defined as those which gave rise to the maximum P2O5 recovery and maximum clay rejection.
Further tests explored the effect of pH modification as well as exploring the effect of various water sources, including site water, with no significant variation noted.
Variability testing was undertaken to test the behaviour of the optimised circuit at the extremes of the potential feed to the beneficiation plant. At the time of reporting, the assessment of the results was still awaited, however no unusual outcomes were noted during the trials.
Silica sand obtained from Wonarah was subjected to the same treatment regime as the ore and produced satisfactory result. However, further testing revealed that similar outcomes could be obtained by simply wet screening of the sand and this was selected as the treatment process for the beneficiation plant, thereby minimising capital and operating costs for this section of the beneficiation plant.
Data obtained during the beneficiation testwork has been utilised to create a beneficiation algorithm which is now incorporated into the pit optimisation model being managed by AMC consultants.
As part of the JDCP portion of the FS, they required 30kg samples of each beneficiated ore type and a 50kg sample of beneficiated silica sand to be provided to enable them to undertake balling testwork. In order to meet the physical demands of passage through the kiln, the composition of the primary materials (ore, petroleum coke and silica sand) needs to be modified by the addition of binders. The type of binder and exact blend will differ for each ore type and these can only be determined by testwork. The balance of the samples was sent to Metso Corporation for grinding testwork to determine the power requirements for the grinding circuit.
The generation of the larger samples for JDCP produced sufficient clay residues to enable settling testwork to be undertaken to determine the required thickener size and settling storage requirements."

The previous quarterly, June 2013, had this point about the silica needed for IHP:

"A similar suite of testwork has also determined a suitable processing route for preparation of the sand that overlies the deposit and which will be used in the IHP process. This work concluded that a simple wet screening process would produce a highly suitable silica sand product."

I am as confident as I need to be that Wonarah ore will prove suitable in the IHP.