Niocorp Developments Ltd (NB)

[tedro84]

I don't know if this is enlightening or not, but it is not alarmingly high. The Australian players Clean Teq, and Australian Mines have production costs in the $700-$800USD range. SCY has the lowest at a claimed $557. We have the lowest scandium density at a ppm of 70. SCY is over 200, but they are also a pure play scandium company.

Australian Mines has other mines to maintain cash flow, but their SCONI project is all Scandium. Of these, I think Clean Teq is the most intriguing as they are marketing as a nickel and cobalt company with scandium.

When you figure that these are all open pit mines with much higher scandium content in their ore, the production cost does not seem quite so bad. Still high, but not alarmingly so.

Where we could shine is the the size of the carbonite, and the annual production rates. Niocorp has the potential to produce much more Scandium than any of these other companies, allowing them to impact the global supply and demand far more than anyone else. The specialty chemicals email from Jim that is stickied is relevant as well. Perhaps our extraction process costs more but also removes more impurities and subjects us to a premium market that the other players have less access to due to the type of impurity in their ore, but that's pure speculation on my part.

A chemist could likely examine the various reports in the appendices and provide a detailed answer as to the costs incurred to produce Sc2O3.