BananaB,

You are quite right. Electricity continues to be the major cost in ferro-chrome production.The top 5 producers (2012 data) with SA leading the pack at 50% of the total world chromite production is facing servere electricity shortage. The same can be said above others (Kazakstan:26%, India:17%, Turkey: 11%, Russia Federation: 2.7%). The gas conversion technology developed by KWG could come in handly for reducing the cost of prodcution.

Note that China does not appear on the list of producer. Presumably, they would just import chromite and do the conversion themselves, using whatever means. They are facing electrical shortage just like anyone else, hence it would appear that they would be interested in KWG gas technology as well.

Questions for all great planners:

- Do we (Ontario, Canada) want to just export raw product, i.e. chromite ore?

- Do we want to create job by producing value-added product (conversion plants/smelter) to produce ferro-chrome?

- Does the Ontario goverment ban natural usage even the cost of conversion using natural gas is much lower than than electricity (the electric arc furnace)?

- So if we ban gas (would be a misguided policy, since our green gas emission is nothing compared to other countries...also, just compare the emmission of clean burning natural gas with things like automobile emissions and forest fires, the Ft. Mac fire is still burning), then we would just sell chromite ore to China and export liquifized natural gas to China (if we can ever get the gas to BC for making LNG for transporting (if we have a port for the ships to dock)?

These are the questions that great planners such as our Premier of Ontario and other Premiers and PM Trudeau (and the FNs of course) will have to considered in a total package, not each one in isolation.

Note: The sun is good for small-scale stuff, but it would not be able to support a power-guzzler electric arc furnace 24/7. Also, one does not have much control on the Sun, and can not turn the Sun on and off anytime we want, as we do with our gas furnaces, even industrial furnaces, those used as back-up furnaces for the heavily subsidized solar and wind power generators.

All this assumes that we have some kind of transportation corridors for building the mines to bring chromite from the RoF to the market.

Perhaps, while we wait until our faces turn blue, KWG may want to put a more emphasis on the gas conversion technology (grant from the Fed Technology Innovation Program?) with an objective to export the technology to other countries such as China. The Chinese can buy the chromite from SA, and our chromite would be safe for millions of years under RoF swamp.

It's time to get out and watch the flower grow.

Happy Victoria Day everyone, time for planting more green stuff to soak up greenhouse gases.

GH