"The orthodox way of exploring and mining has not changed. That...

"The orthodox way of exploring and mining has not changed. That is to find an economically viable resource, concentrate only on funding and development of that resource, then get to producing revenue as quickly and cheaply as possible. All being equal then the profits will follow. In a nut shell, that is how the extractive industry works."

That, unfortunately, is not the way it works in the graphite industry, which is what investors in graphite companies do not understand.  Graphite is not a traditional/orthodox way of mining/selling product.

In graphite world you find the resource, then you find end users who may want to buy what you have, you "engineer" the graphite you have to suit the end users requirements, and when you finally have an agreement from them that they will take your product you can go out and get funding for the project and develop the resource.   Without a market for your graphite, all you have is a resource in the ground.  It is not a "find it, dig it up and they will buy" commodity.

So "first to market" I don't believe is what counts.

First to find a market for ALL planned production is what I see key - that takes into consideration your #2, having the right stuff in the first place that someone is prepared to buy, and of course being, as you mentioned, low cost.

Just my 2 cents worth.