There is nothing alike with the WKT situation. WKT chose not to...

There is nothing alike with the WKT situation. WKT chose not to be in the battery anode business when doing their DFS. They are targeting the smaller expandable graphite market that's more of an industrial mineral. A choice afforded by their mineral resource being high % large flake. All the other graphite plays are betting on the EV demand to drive up battery grade graphite prices, because size matters in their NPV maximizing equation. Their business case are also 'future heavy' with majority of value attributable to down-stream processing that further adds value ie they are mining wannabes pretending to be a specialist industrial company. Accept the graph looks ugly not because of necessarily bad performance but rather previous valuation based on hype that didn't turn into funding then, now faces a bigger funding gap due to the shift in sentiment. The whole strategy is not suited to the current graphite outlook.

Play the ASX graphite play bingo:
1. Phase 1, 2, N to prop up the overall project NPV (suck the funders in, dangling a carrot at the end of the stick)
2. Bolt on Anode/beautification plants in the plan (why don't pre-existing industrial players do the same, when they already have the supposed expertise? Graphite is now cheaper than ever remember?)
3. Quote big basket price from a mixture of cheap and expensive graphite produced (never mind the expensive graphite production quoted will smash the prevailing prices if achieved, due to size of the market)
4. Blame the government of the jurisdiction