RE:RE:RE:Out of here
You said: "Could you elaborate on "without large improvements in the metalurgy." To date, all of the results on the bench scale and pilot testing have been extremely good as far as I can tell. Admittedly, there still are some question marks regarding scandium production and purity but from all the reports I've heard and seen, management seems very optimistic. What exactly do you think is a problem?" Well put yourself in the shoes of the people who will be asked to put together a debt/equity funding package for a billion dollars. Some Things they will look at: Can the commodities be hedged at anywhere near the price levels anticipated? No. Well, Niobium has been stable so on that portion they might get a pass. Scandium is a wild card and cannot be hedged. Only an off-take from a large and reputable company WITH prices would do that. That will not happen. Niocorp is using life of mine avg's of $3883/kg (Kaiser calls it a fantasy) while the other late stage Sc development companies are using $2000/kg and $1750/kg respectively. My assumption is that lenders/investors would need a level of comfort in the robustness of the project with the much lower prices for Sc. Even then it could be tough for sure an obscure specialty metal for who's market has yet to develop. I do not believe that NB with the lower Sc prices is anywhere near robust enough to attract that investment. Mind you this was all based on early stage PEA level info. The FS level data with tell the tale. If improvements in metallurgy allow for a more robust project with, IMO, realistic prices, then I think the project could have a shot. I'm no metallurgist. I have no idea if that is reasonable to expect. And really, I don't think anyone does at this point.