Re: E25 Quarterly Report, page-17

The issue with the 37% conc from almost all mines is that manganese is a accumulator metal. Where you find Mn ore it is dirty - iron, a bit of copper, maybe antimony, perhaps some arsenic, phosphorous etc. That costs money to extract and produce clean Mn for either Mn metal / metal sulphide of for very high quality Mn steels. The deposit E25 has is a freak - it is an ancient, weathered orebody which has had all the nasty elements. It may be a little low on grade but it has benefits as it won't be hit up for being a dirty concentrate. So the vale will be less than 37% concentrate - but not by a lot.

I would expect that once the operation is selling concentrate that a pilot plant will be installed on site to produce manganese metal and manganese-metal-sulphide to bring in an offtake agreement or a Japanese/German partner to fund the bulk of the plant.

Going this route puts us in a better financial position and therefore a stronger bargaining position. This will take a little longer, but for the holders, it will bring larger returns in the end.