Hi unawares/cdchi1/outback stockman and other sane SYR...

Hi unawares/cdchi1/outback stockman and other sane SYR supporters.
It is interesting to note that our target resource statement of 700-900 million tonnes is equivalent to about 70-90 million tonnes of contained graphite at a grade of about 10%. Based on our rough mine life of 100 years this is 700,000 to 900,000 tonnes of graphite production annually. This is obviously ridiculous since the current world usage is around 1 million tonnes at the moment. One scenario is that we move to a 500 year mine life at 140,000 to 180,000 tonnes a year and use our cheaper costs to sideline existing high cost production - this looks more acheivable. In any event we have more graphite than we know what to do with. Also consider that the 700-900 mt is only a small part of the total Balama deposit - makes the mind boggle!
As surmised by others Balama may also end up being a vanadium mine with graphite credits. The scoping study that is underway will come up with a plan that makes the best sense economically.
As for the comments on Ancuaba. If you look at AMG's announcement they are only commencing the feasibility study now and are aiming for total production of 6,000 tonnes annually - that's right only 6,000 tonnes - don't be misled by the 6,000 mt as posted above, it is 6,000 metric tonnes only. AMG's announcement also says that AMG are doing this for their own company benefit so that they do not have to rely on external suppliers. In other words it is for internal use only in AMG's range of specialty materials.
I don't think we care what AMG do - good luck to them I say.