It would seem to be a scary proposition to generate a graphite resource estimate on such a unique deposit. The type of graphite, the vertical geometry, the market economics of the final product, any necessary patents, land claims status, and the fact that there is a general lack of production cost statistics from similar style deposits.....etc, etc, etc, all means that we have no idea what reality is at this point.
Whittle can generate many, many optimized pits at one go based on varying economics and it can even factor a stock-pile of sub-economic low-grade for future mixing with high-grade to maintain a specific mill-feed. But to get Whittle to work in any meaningful way, you must be able to plug in real world numbers for every aspect of the cost of production and facilities.
I suspect that the consultants generated a Whittle Resource because it is legally defensible. They have no idea what the potential costs associating with mining this would be. In other words, they can say that given the arm-waving parameters for an arm-waving resource based on those inputs, this is the answer. It is only the answer given those arm-waving parameters. The published resource may have nothing to do with reality, or what the geologists believe, it is simply legally defensible and lets the consultants sign their names to it without fear of law suits.
A resource estimate must be based on a reasonable chance of being economic. Clearly, this is the case given these (experience-based) arm-waving parameters at this point in time, or the consultants would not sign their name.
And lest not forget Mother Nature. If they drill or blast into a water seem and flood the pit or the U/G workings……we will need a new Whittle Optimization to factor that!
