Got to say your a very patient investor Cso1 and probably one...

Got to say your a very patient investor Cso1 and probably one that the company should reward with some kind of incentive/reward issue/placement with all the support you have given the company over the last few years.

The comments by JT re the offtaker suggesting the German line of finance may well have(possibly) debunked my previous assertion that the offtaker was probably Cabots.It seems it may well be the other major tantalum consumer in HC Starcks being German(but does it really matter as long as there is a major consumer with the offtake deal to back this project).

This would be even better for Gip in that transportation costs would be much cheaper to this destination rather than the US/Asia where Cabots has its major plants.

This project really will be(and argueably always has been)a waiting game as far as an easing in the stockpile situation and basic demand to literally force the hand of consumers to push Abu D into production, being one of the few good high grade environmentally sound tantalum projects around.A side issue might be that Starcks would be keen to show the mining industry that they would prefer to back an ore project rather than some questionable recycle suppliers.

In terms of tantalum demand it would be interesting to know just what kind of an increase we have had year on year as the kind of technology that requires higher use of tantalum caps seems to be increasing heavily.Flat screen TV's,heavier use of visuals in mobiles and a large increase in Chinese car production, to name but a few,seem to be underpinning Cso's thinking that the tech industry is currently re-emerging from a flat period into an era where much of the technology touted during the IT boom is now becoming accepted reality,which SHOULD underpin higher tantalum demand in the years to come.

Interesting then that JT also points to a possible expansion of Abu D/Nuweibi to make the largest tantalum ore supplier in the world.

As good as the tantalum project would be on its own it can only make good sense for the feldspar to become a major part of the project and should considerably reduce the payback period.It has been discussed previously how the Gres porcelain technology should continue to firm as the accepted ceramic technology in Europe and that Gip's high grade feldspar is very much suited for this application.

I think another salient point is that this project will fit very nicely with the Egyptians hopes for their mining industry to become not just oil based.With JT still keen to push the benification of the tantalum(one of his specialty areas)it would push Egypt towards being a player in the technology industry.

BUT they still have to get the basic tantalum ore mine up and revenue producing and this will only be confirmed once the debt comes to the party.This now sounds much more likely with the offtaker connection pushing for the German finance which may indicate the pressure building on the tantalum consumers for a new tantalum source to be established so they dont see a repeat of the spike in tantalum prices we saw at the beginning of the millenium.

d.