Syrah with BHP Billiton Management, page-12

Graphite states that mining costs are the same, for Chinese producers, Brazilian producers and Syrah, and quotes a figure per tonne of ore. This completely ignores the fact that a tonne of ore in China and Brazil typically contains about 5% graphite, whereas, at Balama, Syrah will be mining ore of 20% graphite for many years. So a Chinese or Brazilian company needs to mine four times as much ore to produce a tonne of graphite.

Mining costs, and processing costs to produce a marketable concentrate, are therefore likely to be materially different.

Cheers,

Prime1