>Why Ford does not come to AMY and put in $100M to guarantee future supply is beyond me.
Joe, i surmise that potential JV partners are patiently awaiting the results of the pilot plant study and perhaps the pre-feasibility study toward end of Sept. Someone remarked a while back that some of these interested parties may get the results earlier via a non-disclosure agreement.
If AMY is, in fact, going to opt for a much expanded plant to be capable of producing, not just 110M lbs/yr of EMM (the old model), but 600M to 900M lbs/yr of EMM and EMD/LMD, i think the capex costs for getting all the way into production (i.e., building the plant, procuring the mining equipment) will surely be more like $200M to $300M, not the $90M-$100M that was the estimated capex for the previously planned mining scenario.
Nevertheless, $200-300M is NOT really a steep figure. Some of those rare earth and silver plants being planned are like, $500M to $1B in capex costs.
The math shows that if AMY produces 600M-900M lbs/yr of EMM/EMD/LMD at, say, $1.40 per lb gross profit on the EMM/EMD, and $6 per lb profit on the much smaller amount of LMD, and a JV partner gets just 20% of those gross profits, they would see their $200M-$300M investment returned to them in about a year. After that, it would all be pure profit for such a JV partner. What a gold mine... er, that is, a MANGANESE MINE... a money-making machine.