Hi SCB
Who knows at the moment PAN has been spending a lot of money the last few years with WSA acquisition, buying into Greenbushes and Tianji (however its spelt) Li Carbonate plant ( which still is not running at nameplate or anywhere near it) and now saying about Precursor facility at Kwinana ( which will cost a lot BHP's bolt on Ni Sulphate facility cost $240M and they already had all the infrastructure such as switch yards, acid plant, hydrogen plant, tails facilities, thickners, autoclaves etc).
Costs are coming down as can be seen in last Ann and really thank goodness they extended shutdown so it could be done fully. If they had of limped the mill till next shutdown the liners might not have made it or they may have run out of serviceable cyclones. At least now mill is relined, pipes ruberlined that required it , cyclone bank cleaned and cyclones ceramic redone and whatever other little unserviceabilities rectified they can have a strong run ( if ore available) in last quarter to make guidance and lower costs again. Recovery is getting very good for a single mill operation a vertmill after the cyclones would help for a finer grind into float decks that would get it up to 85-87% but it all takes money. Looks like by Ann they have a bit of ore left over from last qtr to add to this qtrs mill feed for a good run and improving recovery to boot.
This Qtr can really make the market (and maybe a partner or TO) take notice if they have a solid run and keep good quality feed up.
PAN Price at posting:
14.0¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
