Hi, believe me I am well aware of latest Syrah announcements, the CEO sudden departure and the struggle to find a new CEO
....regarding run of mine purity I said the goal is 96%+ not 96%, however achieving 98%+ for the small flakes just with flotation is IMO pretty much a loosing proposition, how much grinding/flotation cycles do you need to achieve 98%+ for the small flakes ? the first cycle wont do it, the second one neither, the third one you would be lucky to achieve 96%, a fourth/fifth one maybe ? at which cost per tonne ? at which consistency ? at which final size (at certain point if you grind too much you will end up with amorpheous powder graphite not flakes) ? it it really worth the extra effort/cost ?
Remember these are small flakes, even at 98% you wont get much price from the market. IMO even 96% consistent purity from the small flakes is very ambitious. For the medium flakes, most probably Syrah could achieve 96%. For the small flakes, it remains to be seen/proven. There is a difference between lab-scale puirty and large scale purity.
If you think Syrah could achieve 360.000tpa production by Q2 2018, then you simply have no idea how much time is needed for industrial minerals projects
to commision and ramp up production (graphite, lithium, vanadium...etc). I suggest to take a look at ASX and TSX junior companies who did it before (it takes years FYI).
Syrah would be extremely lucky if they finish building the mine in 2017 and start commissioning (which means producing hundreds and then thousands of tonnes of graphite), let alone ramp up production to hundreds of thousands of tonnes. And that is exactly why I am not worried about Syrah flooding the market with graphite anytime soon, because THEY CANT DO IT, not that they dont want to do it. BIG DIFFERENCE. By the time Syrah achieves their too-ambitious target of 300.000tpa (5 years ? 8 years ? going by historical exmaples of industrial minerals projects), the graphite market would have become so big that it wont matter anyway.
(20min delay)