seigfried,

Sri Lankan vein graphite may fetch higher than $6k/tonne, e.g. ~20k/t, depending on the Cg content. Large lumps tend to have higher Cg, but small particles have more impurities (dirt, etc...). So price is all over the place as you have noticed. Sri Lanka would do fine for highly specialized applications that require only low volume supply. High volume is one important factor for companies like Panasonic or Tesla Giga factory. E-cars demand for batteries is huge, hence Tesla Gigafactory would look for reliable supply for high-quality graphite in the range of 20-60ktonnes/year, or even more.

For all practical purposes we should just leave Sri Lanka garphite to the one side. A tidy profit could be made by ZEN if they can get $8 - 10k/tonne for an all-in production cost of $2-3k/tonne. If ZEN could get a higher price, that would be gravy on top. But I would set the target too high, e.g. $20k/tonne, which may set the scene for disappointment. A price of $8.5k/tonne as mentioned by ZEN (to be confirmed by the PEA) looks like something that would be achievable based on what we know about the quality of Albany graphite.

goldhunter