I had a call the other day from Bruce regarding the company's...

I had a call the other day from Bruce regarding the company's short term plan. In our conversation, Bruce had consistantly mentioned about JV partnership interests were high and  finding a way to boost up shareholders' value was in their interest too as they hold more than 14% of the company. He even went as far to talk about his engineering experience at Rio. From what I could recall, he said the Thunderbird project was by far the best mining project he'd ever experienced.

I asked him why they seemed didn't take any actions at the Thunderbird. He replied to me that it was because of the wet season. I shared with him that from my recent trip to China, from the cities I visited, constuctions were still going but it had dropped its momentum. Thus, ceramic tiles and sanitary ware sales seem to slow down in the short term. However, the great side is that I can see the determination that the Chinese Government has toward green energy and low pollution, which will bring ZrO2 on the table. ZrO2 is used to absorb pollutants emitted from the fussle fuel engines.A current research study done in China predicted that by 2025, 170000 tons of zircon sand will be used to produce absorbants, up from 60000 tons. Bruce just weighed in from here that he wouldn't worry about the demand side because there will be a problem from the existing mines that will be depleted soon, he spoke about few ILU mines and the problems about RBM. Therefore, he's very confident that we are in the best possible period and we just need the extra money to get the project going. 

Just added some thoughts from my trip to China:
1. Chinese economy slowing down is a deliberate attempt by the Government to cope with oversupply issue and pollution. The scale is massive. For example, many provinces had completely shut down their factories for 6 months; only half of cars could drive on roads each day determined by their number plates.

2.With many factories that were forced to close down, workers quickly found jobs in the service sector, including food, tourism, online shopping, delivery and movie industry. I ordered few things on Tmall, delivery was never more than 2 days nationally. The most impressive experience was that I got my pacel in 2 hours.  

3. Most of people in China work 10 to 14 hours a day and 6 to 7 days a week.

4.Average Chinese income had at least doubled since 2011 and things (except from online shopping) weren't that much cheaper in China compared to Sydney.

5.Chinese Government's determination to make China the world's leader of many advanced technologies. If Donald Trump was elected 8 years later, China would be unstoppable.This was said by one of the Chinese high ranking officials in our private conversation.

6 Many cities in China just started to build metros in 2011 and now they are trying to complete line 10 by next year. We can't even complete the 12km light rail from George St to Randwick after almost 4 years.

I was lied by BBC,CNN, Sydney Morning Herald, The New York Times, The Washington Post and so on about China for so many years until I saw it myself in China.