These samples "are being shipped to China for metallurgical and process testing"...
There's no reason to send the rocks to China to do more tests only to determine "what's in the rocks", which is routine enough basic assay work that you can do that at any number of labs locally.
Separations technologies are a much bigger deal than assay work... and the work they're going to be doing in looking at those rocks they're shipping back to China is NOT primarily about "questioning what's in the rocks", rather than about focusing on optimizing the processes for getting what's in the rocks... out. There will necessarily be assay work that gets done to enable validating what the rocks have in them as a part of that... as that's necessary to make sense of the %'s in the efficiency of any extraction processes being tested.
When they've done that... one of the resulting benefits will be that virtually every test required to prove the value in the rocks at Nemegosenda will have been duplicated at least two or three times... giving a very high confidence factor in the results... with that including BOTH things like the initial sampling and assay work (drilling, and re-drilling, sampling the adit, and resampling the adit, etc.) and the metallurgy and separations work (SDSMT in the 50's, SRSR's recent validation of prior work, and China's effort in re-validation and extension with application of their proprietary technology).
That the focus is on metallurgy now shows they're taking a step, in shipping the rocks to China, that is a BIG step farther along in proceeding toward feasibility... It shows that they're continuing doing the work focused on metallurgy and separations, which has them building on and extending the prior work in metallurgy...
We're not privy to the details... but, from what we can see in the fact of what's happening, it appears that having the Chinese do the work on separations is a significant "contribution in kind" the results of which will make a significant contribution to the advancement of the project.
Basically, when they complete that work, I think they will already have determined "feasibility" to Chinese standards...
It appears lost on some that SRSR's work has focused more on addressing feasibility to meet Chinese standards than Canadian.
I'm not confused about that... or what it means...
FWIW, China is currently the world's leader in a number of the commercial scale processes required in order to make the separations process for these types of deposits economic. It's not a bad thing to have a solid partnership going with the guy that you need to be partnered with to KNOW that you can "make it happen"... and with a level of confidence that's as high as that you'll get from doing the work they way they are.
The pinkie traders will always disparage based on things (which they don't understand) taking time... but, reality is... things do take time. You really don't benefit from rushing them along, and you'll never satisfy THEM with any pace in or proof of actual accomplishment anyway. Their flighty inconstancy is not what anyone should be focused on here... as the process continues to advance this prospect, which SRSR has consistently advanced over the last three plus years, from an historical afterthought in 2008, to being far and away the leading candidate for the next niobium deposit that WILL move forward to development.
China still the world's leader in separations...
It's not a bad thing to have them doing work on our rocks.
As an aside, FWIW, things HAVE changed rapidly in advancing the technology in separations over the last two or three years, and there ARE other separations technologies that are coming along now... which have been proven functional enough at lab scale, but that haven't yet been proven at large scale or in long term operation.
So, China isn't "the only game in town" any more...
Jack Lifton's latest articles address some bits of that... even if with a significant lag in reporting relative to others awareness.
But, that doesn't alter the fact that the Chinese ARE far and away the largest players in large scale commercial separations NOW... and have an unquestioned capacity to "make it work" at whatever scale of installation and operation they want to make it work. That's simply not true of the others, at this stage. I think that's not going to be true of the other technologies, yet, for a while... So, while the others tech will be proven, the alternatives will take at least a few years to prove out... and as a result there will be "risk" and "scaling" issues to consider in tandem, in that time...
Large scale big $ development... will require viable, proven tech.
Niobium, in particular, has demand growth that can't be met by sitting around waiting for new processes to be developed and proven...
What that leaves is still that the rocks at each site are unique, and the specific processes you develop to apply at commercial scale still have to be tailored to address the unique problems and opportunities that exist in the rocks that you have. I think SRSR has competitive advantages that result from the unique aspects in their rocks... but, you still have to do the work to tailor process to the rocks.
So, first, you need to know enough about your rocks... then, you need to know "what to do with them" in processing... and have that be KNOWN as a proven viable method of getting the value out... before you commit to spending $500 million or $900 million to build the plant... and THEN find out it doesn't work right ?
So, stupid traders still won't care a whit about proofs SRSR and SRSR's partners are "doing it right" as they proceed to advance the project... as partners... and as a result, they're now being wrung out because of their cluelessness ?
Works for me.
SRSR will continue being accumulated by holders... who will continue holding each share while adding more... making it harder and harder to get those numbers in shares sold back.
Investors benefit FAR MORE from seeing them having the proper approach to reducing investment risk in each of the elements that relate to development of the opportunity...
So, I see they're steadily advancing the effort... and that's what we see happening on the "technical" side recently, with site visits and rocks being shipped to China for testing to advance work in planning the separations processes...
The news last week... not only validates the nature and scope of the opportunity in terms of "value in the rocks", it was also a MASSIVE reduction in "deal" risk... setting a very solid floor under the risks inherent in "the deal"... WHILE ALSO solidifying the element of agreement in proof in terms of "the value in the rocks".
SRSR's got the best rocks out there... and that's being proven in the improving nature of the deals that are being done...
The deal they're working... will have China contributing cash to fund the "feasibility" work to meet Canadian standards... that is almost equal to the average price most holders here have paid for shares bought, recently ? A production decision, by China, will see them spend $0.10 or $0.20 on development, for each SRSR share that you own ?
LOL!!!
The historic data have long made SRSR the lowest risk exploration potential out there. Additional work done has only improved on the historical picture, which is the opposite of what has happened with others out there, who've spent far more $ to get much less... (and, THAT's the only proper test of performance in any junior exploration company management... having the $ spent generate more value in return than in the $ spent...)
Now, we also see the outlines of "the deal" they're working, which validates that view, above, but also obviates a huge portion of prior investment risk, too...
SRSR will be carried to production...
The market is still stupid... because many market participants are. So, the fact in project risk and investment risk being dramatically reduced... won't obviate the market risk factor inherent in markets not excluding participation by the ignorant.
It's still true that no deal is a deal until it's done.
While that element in deal risk has clearly been reduced, here, over time, with the terms improving in SRSR's favor, over time as work done has proved the value... it's still true that the deal risk exists... until the deal is done.
The other risks that exist... looking beyond the unresolved risk in the deal... have been being reduced far more, over time... making the deal risk a more significant factor in relation, both as it remains an obstacle, and as a function of the impact resulting when it is eliminated...
The deal risk hasn't been resolved, yet... but, all the elements in risk are being reduced more and more, over time...
And, maybe that's mostly why SRSR still trades for $0.03 to $0.06 in this market, instead of at a base of $0.20 to $0.35 with an expectation of higher given improving market fundamentals ?
They ARE making steady and obvious progress in addressing that issue in deal risk, too, along with the other risk factors, and it would be wildly foolish to ignore that fact... that progress toward the "deal" continues... to focus only on "they're not there yet"... ?
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