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Bushveld Complex
I have seen it mentioned that what EUA have will be comparable the the Bushveld complex.
I have been searching and trying to source reliable figures on what PGMs Bushveld has produced to date and what reserves they claim to have.
For me this would be a simple basis for valuing what EUA have.
Can any of you guys offer a reliable reference to source to quantify what Bushveld has and holds. Not being a geologist I could do with it in layman's terms.
Thanks for any help offered
Alexei did a few little bits at one stage but then i think they pulled the plug on him. This is what he said about the original production target for MT, this is before flanks and before the increased target production output which was dropped in RNS -
"Alexey Churakov, strategy consultant to the board of directors of Eurasia Mining, told Kommersant that with a palladium price of about $ 2.3 thousand per ounce, the company's EBITDA after production reaches full capacity will reach $ 250 million"
With the new 1,000,000 Oz figure, people can work out the other things fairly easy tbh.
Part of the transcript to that interview has also magically disappeared.
GLA
Tigra,
The DS interview was in response to Alexei Churakov interview which I watched, sadly that one was removed, ever since the
Alexei Churakov one I have only accummulated, I have no fear in where we will go
GLA
Rhodium from positive Rhodium anomalies is what gets Dmitry all excited, all there and easy to see in historical geological data for both main assets. Excited at $5000 an ounce, imagine how excited he is getting up every morning now with it at $29400!!!!
GLA
And the key words
A very significant rate of Rhodium
"Now, everybody talks about Palladium, and I understand that, but at the same
time we have Rhodium. A very significant rate of Rhodium and Rhodium is
$5000/oz so a much higher price than palladium and all the other metals in our
basket"
I love this bit, especially now its almost $30,000/oz
Thanks Graham, Its a great interview for sure. :)
Allows us to enjoy 100% of the margin. And that’s something very few junior
companies achieve. Normally, the projects are sold after some kind of good
drilling results or at best PFS so in our case we reached production stage. Which
is very rare. Of course, I am pleased to be already in production and secondly we
are working with CKA and other contractors to move our larger Pd dominant
mine into production. And we have significantly increased our resource base
with these flank applications, on both our operating & our Monchetundra mine.
So there is no reason to be sad, and there are all the reasons to be grateful.
Q16. What would you not accept then?
Proactive Interview Transcript
I think now that the people are interested in Palladium and obviously there’s a
lot of companies operating in the PGM space that now want exposure to Pd
because it’s fundamentals are very good.
And also we have open pit mines, which are very different to typical PGM mines
[underground]. So you have a number of parties that are interested in Palladium
Open Pit and I think they know each other, more or less. And they know there is
a competition, especially after big banks joined the process. I don’t think we will
see some kind of unreasonable proposals. I think people are sensible of what’s
going on.
Q17. Realistically, how long might it take to get a deal done?
My experience suggests that it can be very different in time and at the same time
what I want to highlight is that we probably shouldn’t rush into it.
Because, there’s no need for us to rush. We’d better assume that all the
interested parties are/would be rushing because they more or less know each
other and the Banks involved.
And the Banks know how to do this better than us. We [working as hard as
before]. We are scaling up production, we are increasing our resource base,
applying for additional areas etc. etc.
At the same time, it would be wiser to allow the interested parties to rush us and
ourselves being rushed – it will definitely give us an advantage in the tactical
negotiation position.
Q18. You say ‘there’s no guaratnee’ of a deal being done. But you’re fairly
confident?
Look, regarding this quote, which you’re referring to, it’s a very typical quote,
which any sensible advisor would add to any press release/any RNS in a London
listed company. So they always add some kind of qualifications, it’s normal
qualifications that, at least, our NOMAD [I’m sure others] add into. Because there
are NOMAD there are regulators. And that’s quite normal. People need to asses
[the probability] on their own. They can just see what’s coming in the public
domain from our side and from the size of the banks involved and the fact that
they’re operating on a success fee basis. So definitely, they are assessing
probabilities themselves, when they make a decision to work without any
retainer – on a success fee.
So I think those are the arguments which reasonable to mention without going
into something that I cannot say as a Director
Q19. Well, given that as you say, when you first invested when it was 5p,
you’d want a multiple of that to see a decent return of your investment.
I am not again going to speculate about the price. And if, and when, the offers are
coming on the table, I will definitely be looking at them and assessing and we will
go for the best deal on the table.
And regarding my own investments, I am also a shareholder of the company, not
only a director, so will be looking at the offers and finding the solution that
works for all the shareholders
Proactive Interview Transcript
Q11. On the operational side of things re: Sinosteel. Have you received that
first payment yet?
With Sinosteel we signed all the final binding documentation, which allows us to
receive the first payment.
We are not rushing into this first payment for a number of reasons.
1. We are not in need of any cash, in a good financial position
2. Therefore they are considering different options, reviewing which is the best
option for us to pay dividend: because not only receiving cash flow from existing
operations but also recently exercised warrants. Now we have a pile of cash
which, it makes sense to give back to the shareholders. Basically something that
we don't need at the moment. The point is that we don't need this cash, we have
more than enough, hence dividend options.
3. Works we are doing now with CKE are sufficient to move us forward, in terms
of the preparation to the mining.
4. Also we are in discussions, as announced, for example with Lesego Platinum
AND some others, and those companies have their own views in terms of which
company should be a contractor. And some of them like Sinosteel (like us), some
Proactive Interview Transcript
of them have other preferences - it's not that Sinosteel are good or bad, some
companies have their own preferences and their own experience
So we are not rushing with moving ahead with Sinosteel. We are doing work
with different contractors in preparation for mining. At the same time, we don’t
need to rush into it. When people rush into it, they normally make mistakes. So,
we want to do everything properly.
Q12. [Recently] been uplift in share price. What is that based on? Is it
speculation of a deal? Or of talks? Or have talks begun?
First of all, we announced Lesego Platinum’s CEO visited both of our mines and
have been doing due diligence for quite some time. So, obviously, we are having
talks – and this is in the public domain.
And the fact that large investment banks like VTB Capital and CITIC means that
something is going on. And I think, I can’t speculate too much about it, but people
can judge from the size of the Banks involved and also from the fact that they
agreed to work on a success fee basis. And because, obviously, they don’t want to
waste their time – we are in discussions.
At the same time, I wouldn’t attribute the share price to rerate through pure
speculation. There might be some speculative element into it, but mind you I
started to invest at 5p right, currently the price is lower than 5p. And I invested
not because of any kind of speculation, but because I assessed the fundamentals
of the company and I’ve been investing in the mining space for quite some time.
And I was looking at fundamentals of the projects and also some deals taken
place recently. For example, at that point in time, First Quantum acquired a
project just across the border in Finland in the very early stage about $200mill
with the same basket of metals as Monchetundra.
So I was
Q5.Well, as you point out its Palladium in particular which is getting
everybody excited at the moment. How much have you got, across your
projects? What’s your resource?
I can only operate on numbers, which we announced, because I am a director of
the company. So we have initially received a smaller licence, similar to the way
we did at WK. (So, as I mentioned, we have 150 sq. km. but started with a licence
of 20 sq. km. Just a tiny bit of that).
And then we applied for flanks, 5km around it. So now, our total area at West
Kytlim is 117/118 sq. km. So it’s getting to practically the size of our exploration
licence of 150 sq. km. So that’s how it works and basically, we follow the same
steps. It’s good [use own experiences].
We again initially got a much smaller licence, and this covers about 2 MoZ of
Palladium equivalent (primarily palladium) and then we applied for flanks area,
and our chairman recently announced in one of our RNS’s [last week] put
forward the number of 15 MoZ of Pd. I trust him because he is one of the top
geologists on a global scale, one of the founders of CSA Global, which is a top
mining advisory. And he’s done a number of discoveries, waiting for industry and
big companies and now grateful to have him on our team. So, that’s what we
announced, and I think that really puts us in a different league of Palladium
companies.
Q7. So the company’s estimates are 15 million in the ground, at the
moment?
That’s including the flanks, right. Exactly right.
Q8. Well your strategic adviser Alexei Churakov put out this number of
40moz how does that come about?
A: What Alexei meant, on the Kola Peninsula there have been a number of
exploration taken place. So it's not only us - it's Anglo American that has been
doing extensive exploration programme within a big chunk of land, which WE
are gradually going to apply for. Also, there have been [Norilsk Nickel], as I
Proactive Interview Transcript
mentioned, doing exploration. Then [Barrick] doing the exploration, again, on a
big licence - a palladium licence. And some other players.
And we are looking at those projects as well, because as a mining company our
main business is to produce the metal - which we are successfully doing - at our
operating mine. So we've proved that we can do it, and we've done it before on a
different project, our team members.
And then, basically, our second job is to continually increase in our resource
base. And we are looking at different options, and what Alexei mentioned was
that there are a number of deposits which are close to our deposit which in total
have this "40 moz" so that's what he meant.
Q9: Is that on top of the "15moz" or "Total"?
A: Can't speculate [total?] That's something we are looking into, right. So once we
apply for those areas - and we will go through a step-by-step standard licencing
process, which we have been doing before - so once applied for those areas, we
will disclose all the details (
Q2. What are your costs?
I think we put it in the public domain so I can announce it is within the range of
$300-400/oz. So even with Pt price staying around $900/oz [let alone other
metals like Pd $1800, and iridium – roughly same price as Palladium, and
rhodium, as mentioned, $5000] so with this we are in a very good shape and
obviously being a low cost producer like Norilsk Nickel, the largest palladium
producer in the world, we will be the last one to die if something happens to the
prices. But, we don’t expect the prices to do down because they are in a
structural deficit. That’s where we are.
Q3. So how much did you say you’re currently producing at the moment?
Right, so the maximum rate we reached per day is about 7kg per day, which is
about 200oz/day. So it’s quite a significant rate, and to be sustainable with this
kind of rate we are now undertaking quite a significant exercise. So we acquired
our own enrichment plant earlier this year. And we took over production from
contractors because contractors aren’t sustainable. They’re always trying to
renegotiate and sign different terms of use rather than to leave the site etc. etc.
So just learned the hard way over the 4 years of production – pilot production
and industrial production since 2018.
So we’ve learned the hard way, and now we’ve decided that we can do it
ourselves. Because since 2016 we’ve been gradually building our own team and
we just proved recently that we can do it ourselves without any contractors and
that first of all gives us 100% of the margin, which is good so we get more cash.
And secondly, and more importantly, is that it’s more sustainable. Because it was
contractors that were leaving the site, and saying they won’t resume until [you]
resigned the terms and give them a higher margin etc. etc. so it just goes to and
fro. It’s much more reliable if you do it yourself.
Q4. What are you doing at Monchetundra?
At Monchetundra we are doing preparatory works on the ground with our own
team. Plus, we use very reliable contractors, to include for example, CKE which
the company that works for a number of strategic inventors in the region. To
mention a few; Barrick Gold, which is the worlds largest Gold company which
has a Pd project just 150km distance from Monchetundra.
So Barrick has a Pd project in Russia, close to us. CKE used to do work for
[Barricks], and then basically also for Norilsk Nickel, and [other] big companies.
So they are reliable people and we worked with them our exploration stage also
on this project. Again, MT project stared as a JV with Anglo American in a 50:50
way.
Proactive Interview Transcript
We started drilling later, in 2005, 5 years later than WK. That’s why it’s coming
into production later, a natural cycle. And again, we drilled quite a bit of chunk of
land and we received (similar to WK) a much smaller Production Licence.
However, I will have the right to get an additional area within 5km around our
Proactive Interview Transcript
Now, I am entirely focused on Eurasia. I think Eurasia has high quality assets. So
it’s primarily two assets, which we are focused on. One is WK, which is in the
southern Urals part of Russia. And WK is the mine, which is in production. It
started as JV with Anglo American, the world’s largest platinum producer (about
40% global market share of Platinum) and that was a 50/50 JV which started in
2000.
We’ve been doing the exploration works – a very comprehensive exploration
programme of a big chunk of land of about 150 sq. Km. And then in 2014, AA
decided to leave everything outside of South Africa, which wasn’t a wise decision,
I think. Now, I think they have changed their mind in this regard. But that gave us
an opportunity to buy Anglo’s share at a very good price and then basically we
started production two years ago [2016] as a pilot scale and an industrial scale in
[2018].
So, it’s very rare for the junior mining companies to go into production, and
we’ve already been in production for quite some time, successfully.
Most recently, in September [2019] we completely took over the production
from contractors, because previously the contractors were consuming most of
the margin, and now we enjoy 100% of the margin. So that is a significant
milestone, which we achieved last month.
And plus we’ve expanded our production licence from 20 sq. Km to over 100 sq.
Km which is very significant because we drilled, as I mentioned, a much bigger
area [150 sq. Km more or less] and we’re just expanding within this area which
we drilled in the JV for approximately 15 years. So, we know this area very well.
That is our one asset and we have a basket of metals there which have the four
PGM’s [Platinum Group Metals]; platinum, palladium, iridium and rhodium – and
a little bit of gold.
Now, everybody talks about Palladium, and I understand that, but at the same
time we have Rhodium. A very significant rate of Rhodium and Rhodium is
$5000/oz so a much higher price than palladium and all the other metals in our
basket. So, that’s what we do there. And there are companies that are operating
Proactive Interview Transcript
in this similar space where West Kytlim is and WK is the largest producer of the
sort in the ‘soft rock’ form. [We call it soft rock because it’s very similar to hard
rock open pit operations but you don’t need to blast; just straight excavate the
soft rock. And that basically means the cost if very low. So it’s typical open pit,
you just don’t need to drill and blast prior to excavation. And that reduces the
cost significantly]