Below is a post on SH board for your info. Even though some discussion is specific to ZEN and it's latest results (quite impressive), other discussions, especially the "key parameters" and "comparision to Au" are quite general and can be applied to NGC and othet graphite companies.

goldhunter

----------------SH post on ZEN board by goldhunter---------------------

Results of #5 cores are quite impressive, especially for a vein graphite which would normally yield high quality C products (fetching upper level sale price).

Even though the cable broke at about 170m for hole #4 and the company has indicated re-drill will be done at a later date. However, based on the initial visual examination, it would appear that hole #4 results (still pending) would be good as well (only my tea-leaf reading based on the info available, and you should do your own reading). It would be better than eye-balling the specimen if ZEN has a hand-held Niton XRF Analyzer to have some rough quantitative assessment of the core (even in the filed) before they are sent to the Lab for a more detailed (and NI compliant) analysis. This little thingy is quite popular with exploration companies.

With the kind of ore grades they have so far (although from just 3 holes) there would be no need to drill much deeper than 170m, since the depth intersection of high ore grade would be expected to be in the range of 100m which is more than adequate for a comparable deposit to that of NGC and FMS.

For graphite, there are several key parameters that would need to be considered

- size of the deposit: should be large enough for a 20-40 year operation with reasonable profit. The deposit does not need to be huge, just enough to start the mining operation to get the products to the market before the market is saturated with competitors.

- ore grade: the higher the ore grade the better, but ore grade alone is NOT king.

- open-pittable of a deposit near surface is preferable. So it is not advantageous to go below say 200m.

- C content of the final products shoulbe be high enough (should be around 94% to fetch good price)

- a large percentage flake size distribution, large/jumbo/super-jumbo, in the range of +80 mesh to +32 mesh, would be desirable (Chris Berry's balanced flake size distribution footprint in his 2 May 2012 presentation in New York is a good guideline)

- the larger the flake the better for conversion to spherical graphite (suitable for Li-ion batteries for power tools and e-cars and storage devices to store energy from solar panels and windmills). Small flakes won't do this without significant losses using available (expensive) conversion processes.

- Chemistry and composition of the ore and the graphite products before upgrading are also important to fetch top dollars.

All the above parameters indicate that unlike gold graphite is a special products which must be tailored to specific needs of individual customers. Hence it may not be a simple exercise to try to convert graphite ore grade (%C) to g of Au. For gold it's easier, since a producers can just sell the gold bars to any customers and let them sort out their desirable purification.

For garphite, it would be appropriate to compare ZEN's results with those from its graphite peers. Even this comparison is not a simple task due to many parameters listed above.

But so far so good for ZEN.

Just my own opinion. Do your own DD.

goldhunter