Thanks for posting Larry's comments and Peter's responses.

The responses are reasonable, but it would seem that ZEN was a bit ahead of itself.

The correct sequence should be to publish the "usual" raw resource estimate in compliance with the NI standard. This would, as Hoov has indicated, result in a (much) higher value than that in the NR. Perhaps, this would prevent the "dump" of shares during the last few days from folks who had high expection for the resource estimate.

When more drill results are available then it would be the time to use the Whittle model (to optimize the pit shell for various mining options) for a preliminary economic study.

If there is still time to crank out the raw resource estimate the why not just do it and issue another NR before the 45 days to finalize the NI report? Admittedly, this is like cleaning up after spilled milk, but at least it would provide a little comfort to some folks.

IMO, the released resource estimate is quite good (a lot more than good enough). The East pipe alone contains more than 10M tonnes ore of 5.6% in the indicated category which could be mined first to get some cash flow going (for financing the subsequence expansion). The operation could start with some baby steps: with a shallower pit (again to reduce the initial Capex, and to get the cash flow going).

Too ambitious a plan (go deep, and go high in production rate, in a one go) may not be the best strategy. Production rate of the order 25,000-50,000 tonnes/yr would be enough to produce some serious initial profit, assuming the price of high-quality graphite in a realistic range of say $8000/tonne. Let's stay away from (unrealistic) high prices such as $20,000 to $30,000/tonne, which are at the extreme end and may not be easily achievable...I would let the chicks hatch first before counting.

goldhunter