TidalP,

Your post says: "I was intentionally trying not to single out any other company. But since you mentioned NG if one reads their press release they also state that only 50% of the deposit is XL flake. If they used XL flake then they would only end up with 25% after purification and processing. It is ambiguous what they used, as they stated large flake was used. They have indicated that their deposit produces 50%XL and 40% large flake. I don't understand why they would use the second best material to test the ability to make battery grade graphite. So my guess is that either they used XL material or they used a combination of XL and large flake."

The NR of 12 August indicated that large flakes were used in the test to produce 50% yield of SPG (Spherical Graphite). It the went on to discuss prices for extra-large/jumbo and smaller flakes. One possible reason for not doing the blend would be to retain some marketing flexibility, since jumbo flakes could be sold at high price dircetly to customers without going through the conversion process to get SPG. This flexible strategy sound fine to me.

Perhaps, ZEN is having at the same strategy for different grades of graphite at Albany (good question to pose to AE at the AGM). The key is to maximize the net profit. If the direct sale of the best stuff (ZEN would have different "grades" for their concentrates) would yield the most profit, without going through any process (upgrading, conversion, etc), then it would be a good business practice not to invest in any extra process and/or equipment.

http://northerngraphite.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/14-08-12-NGC-PR-Rounding-final.pdf

Just my take.

goldhunter