Triton Minerals identifies high grade vanadium, page-2

KL, the narrow bands, and relatively low grades of vanadium identified to date, will not be of much help to TON in getting a mine going. If someone has to dig down 60 metres before even getting to 0.25% vanadium, and then only having a small amount of ore, the economics are very unlikely to add up.

It's really in the same category as the richer graphite schists at Nicanda Hill, which have been found at huge depths (300-400 metres). To go that deep, remembering that an open pit has walls sloping at about 50 degrees, you wind up digging an enormous amount of waste before ever hitting the good ore. Mining is ruled by costs, and mines are run by hard-headed engineers. I know some people on the TON thread have been making optimistic guesses about how much graphite is there. They may be right - but can anybody ever dig it out economically?

Cheers, Prime1


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