The known world resourses of chromite is approximately 12 billion tonnes not including ours and that is enough to supply the world for a few centuries. Therefore the key is for our deposit to be able to compete on the world markets and wrestle sales from the few companies that now mine and produce chromite. To use Kemi as a comparison since that mine has been referenced in Noront reports, we look very favorable. They have reserves at 40MT at 24.5%CR2O3 and 1.53:1 CR:FE ratio while our latest press release shows ours at "a lot of tonnes" at 38% CR2O3 and a 2.6 CR:FE ratio. So looking at the ore quality on just those parameters, we are far superior.
Kemi processes the ore in a normal sequence of mining, crushing, wet gravity concentration. The chrome recovery is 80% and the concentrate is 44% CR2O3 which is not much higher than our ore grade. Depending on the metalurgy, we may be able to get much higher percentage concentrates of CR2O3, probably in excess of 60%. This would make us far superior because if selling to a smelter, they don't have as much waste to contend with.
With regard to value, Noront has stated that 40% ore will fetch $600 per tonne. All you have to do is mine it, crush it and transport it to a port. The big question is whether it makes econmic sense to refine the ore by concentrating it and next stage to smelter it. When you concentrate any ore, you lose some in the process. The amount you get to save is called recovery rate. Kemi is 80% so we will use that. A tonne of our raw ore at 40% CR2O3 will get you 705 lb of pureCR2O3 and a lot less waste to have to move around compared to Kemi's 458lb per raw ore tonne. Looks pretty good for us.
Looking at concentrate, at 44% a tonne of Kemi's concentrate is 969lb metal and our concentrate at an estimated 60% has 1322.4lb metal. If they can be achieved, these are the parameters that will make the orebody competitive with the world. The cost of new infrastructure competing with existing infrastructure is quite another issue and one the big players are doing their homework on before jumping on board with us. This is in my opinion the biggest obstacle.
