lead smelter , page-5

THanks XM..X Co expects refinery to be up and running around june next year provided epa make the right noises. Refusal is not expected as the technology is world class. The 21000 tonnes to be produced will need 36000 tonnes of dud batteries, hense the need to scale up the south coast crusher from 12000 to 36000 tonnes of batteries crushed. What is sold at present is a mix of metallic and oxide leads, as it were, and this is sold on to smelters. By processing this themselves, the return could be 20% or more on what they are getting now. Or in other words they are now only getting approx 80% of the current LME. I also got the impression that once they have the pure lead they are also able to consider producing alloys of various kinds- eg lead with antimony, etc. At present the plant has ramped up to circa 20,000 tonnes from the 12,000. Labour is still a problem but 36000 is expected to be going through by middle to late 2009. A good hold methinks. jwt