Replies to post #25749 on Niocorp Developments Ltd (NB)

[douginil]

Shedding some light on

begs the question where does the 65% contained Nb come from as opposed to the 82.4% average recovery shown further down in the report?

82.4% average Niobium recovery - Means that of all the Niobium containing material that is processed 82.4% is recovered as saleable Nb2O5 and 17.6% is not separated, for whatever reason, and goes out with the rest of the dirt and rocks to the tailings pile.

65% contained Nb - Means that when they sell it they are selling a bucket/bag/tote bin of material which is not 100% pure Niobium but Niobium Oxide and maybe some other Niobium containing minerals and other "dirt" stuff. The buyer understands that he is buying the Niobium in the stuff and that is all he will buy and pay for. All of the other "stuff" is his responsibility to separate out to get to 100% pure Niobium metal. That is why the material is sold for $39.60/Kg of Niobium contained in the material.

However, for some uses the process may do the separating for him. In the steel making process maybe they just toss into the furnace some pig iron, the material that contains 65% Nb, and the other slaging materials, etc.. Then the refining process and slags will reduce it to metallic Nb that dissolves into the liguid iron to make FerroNiobium ingot that is sold to the steel company as an alloying additive to make the Low Alloy High Strength steel for making bridges.

Hope this casts some light on the process.