Good points. I thought the same about the uranium aspect,...

Good points.

I thought the same about the uranium aspect, business units etc but key people do move sideways or upwards in organisations. I assume there is a cultural aspect of doing deals with the Japanese. I would think that Cochrane dealing with Mr Exec 1 via introduction from Mr Exec 2 is more likely to lead to some sort of outcome compared to MR approaching Mitsui with no contacts.

As for 400ktpa being too small lets put some perspective on this. The global total consumption is 5MT, at 400ktpa RWD would be the second largest primary producer and the fifth largest global SOP producer. If the Mitsui salt business is ten times larger as you suggest, it isn't the scale of an iron ore business but it is sufficiently large enough to accomodate a potential SOP business. Furthermore the vessels used would be suitable with minimal risk of contamination.