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*plant, not team
APR,
"Riian and his team onsite, by the time that Pilot team 2 is done, they'll then present the big Heap Leach project. We're talking about a 1.2 million tonne per annum pad. "
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0y3nYLMCnWM&ab_channel=StockBox
I Missed that ... where can I find the reference to the proposed larger pad?
APR,
100kt pm is the larger 1.2mtpa pad, that they are exploring to build.
@RedRoy Hold yours horses !
4x HL pads of 7.5kt capacity = 30Kt/month on 30-Day cycle or 60Kt/month on 14 day cycle so no idea how you get to 100Kt/month unless I'm missing something or you are suggesting a 9-day cycle gives you 53.2% recovery and 100Kt throughput?
ATB APR
RedRoy,
Best post of the day. I did similar numbers, but didn't know the additional details, plus when it was planned to start, so many thanks.
Makes you wonder if they need to build another plant for phase 4 to 50k pa. Costs will be a lot lower as well.
Redroy, also greatly appreciated 2600 oz per month from the heap leach pads… wow
Afternoon all,
With regards to the Heap Leach Plant, the current 2 pads in operation ( each with a 7.5kt capacity) have had an initial~5kt loading of low grade ore. Pad 1 showed a recovery rate of 53.5% after 14 days leaching. The aim as I understand it is to have 4 of these sized pads, working on "series" in order to opimise recovery rate vs residence time vs chemical consumable usage, to deal with approx 20kt per month of lower grade ore production from the mine/mill, leaving the higher grades to be processed through the Cil plant. The data from the pilot HL trials will be used to complete the Feasability Study on a proposed "Commercial Scale HL Circuit", with a throughput capacity of 1.2Mtpa (100,000t per month of lower grade ore. This could contribute ~ 100,000 x1.5g/t x 53.5% = 2600-2700 ozs gold per month to the overall output at Kilimapesa when completed. The trials are expected to finish in Q2, with commercial upgrade starting in Q3.
@ Apro
Thank you, I thought that might be the case, the heap leach returns require some tinkering for optimisation, if you leach for longer you get more recovered but at some point it is diminishing returns and you cut your losses and start again, if that makes sense.
Thanks for the info
@AG1989 / ID78 Yes Clearly RNS talks about ore mined and processed but I ran out of time this morning to digest fully as the paired down format of todays Operational Report compared to Q4 threw me somewhat. It is worth pointing out that a cursory read of these things means PIs can often miss difference between gold produced and gold sold especially if RNS does not spell it out.
Heap Leach - there is still some confusion around the HL 'Boiler plate' capacity (7.5kt) , what gets loaded on it (5k) and how long it is left 'cooking' for resulting in gold recovered at %extraction rates. My reading is we have 1st pad now commissioned, but HL is still in 'Pilot' mode so not fully loaded and process flow sheet (chemicals, irrigation, time cooking et al( is still being optimised hence turnaround of only 14 days at 53.2% gold extraction. This implies as more pads are built and process flowsheet optimised then % recoveries will improve but that this is a play off versus ore throughput.
AIMHO & DYOR
ATB APR
AG/ID78 - I agree. If we are circa 1000oz pre Heap Leach etc, then that 24Koz target looks very much on track and is starting appear on the horizon.
I would like to know more about the gold sales side of things. Who are we selling to in Switzerland? Is that side of things ever going be an issue in terms of selling our gold into the market, etc.
I think Robbie’s statement of being on track for 24,000 per annum is not too far fetched.
I’d like to know more about heap leach pads and the additional mine expansion, and I think the RNS could have been clearer. But I think it’s not too great a leap of faith that we will achieve the 24,000 from the current numbers and bearing in mind the final mine expansion is not yet in place.
Regarding the exploration, drilling, that appear to be going well form what Robbie says. We will know much more in 5 or 6 weeks :)
I’m conclusion.
Processed 51732 tonnes, 1.75g/t, 80% recovery = 2675 oz in the quarter, 10700 oz per annum.
Gold mined and to be processed 44,486 tonnes, 18375@2.64g/t + 26489@2.33g/t = 3891 oz. 80% recovery suggests 3100oz from that ore (next quarter?). That is 12000 oz per annum.
Then… heap leach.
5000 tonne pad, 1.72 g/t and 53% recovery = 150 oz.
Increasing to 20000 tonne = 600 oz.
Is this per month, per quarter? If per quarter it is another 2400 oz per annum….
It looks encouraging to me
recovery should be 90% max given the grades. I also did the math and came to similar figures but if it is true that we are around the 1000 oz/month level, excluding the HL, why not spell that out in the RNS?
Most companies are explicit about actual production values (and revenues). In Q4 they even used the "gold on carbon" expression, which only confuses the reader.
On the plus side, we got rid of JB. The more I know about him, the happier I am that he's gone
ID78 - 10% difference possibly that I used Troy oz conversion, 1oz silver = 31.103g
Itsyou - Thank you. It does look like I have missed that.
Robbie - If you're reading this board, could you confirm/discuss this in the next interview please?
Joff1, it was my dads 60th last night so my heads a little sore still. But if those figures are in the ball park, that’s exceptional returns for the company. Including those figures alone in the Q1 results, would have trumped anything else in there. One of the top 3 factors investors will look for, is oz’s produced. Maybe even the top factor in priority. Shareholders shouldn’t be left to calculate the figures and come up with an unofficial production figure. I believe that one line of inclusion alone “1,000 oz per month target hit”, would have seen a much stronger reaction in the market today.
That said, from Q4, they only sold a percentage of gold, from what they actually produced, with upgrades ongoing with the smelting process. No reason why Q1 wasn’t the same, and they’ve got Gold on hand to sell in the future.
LW - on the Heap Leach front, Q3&Q4 results will be very interesting. I can’t wait to see what returns they create on the pads as they progress. Before the years end, the company could wel release a monthly figure of “2,000 oz produced”, and when they do, I can see a flurry of new investment pile in.
They also carried forward a decent amount of part processed gold from the last quarter.
Not sure why we have not been given so many numbers this time. No costs and no details of part processed gold etc which we were given last time. Seems the new management team want to play things a bit tighter. Lets hope it pays off.
itsyou- thank you, greatly appreciated. 80% is the number I am missing
Do you know how often they charge the heap leach pads?
I was getting something similar on the back of fag packet. It does look like we are producing more ounces than we are selling? IF that is correct (and I need to check it all properly), is there any particular reason for that? I recall reading that we had a buyer in Switzerland... Anyone got any thoughts/knowledge re the sales side of things, given that RM has said that they are not making enough money from the mine at present, which is difficult to square with them having ounces that are not being sold - IF that is the case?
You need to apply recoveries.
Not reported, but Q4 was 80% for the Milling Plant and 52% for Tailings plant
I did, Joff, though we seem to have a 10% different conversion between grams and ounces.
My question is can we claim 100% of the gold is recovered? I don’t know enough to comment.
Either we have not sold all the gold or they recovery rate is remarkably low. I would think you are correct and not all the gold has been sold. It would have been helpful to state this.
1000oz per month target reached!
54,121t of ore (versus 51,732 tons in Q4'21) was processed at an average grade of 1.75g/t Au, resulting in gold sales of.1,226 ounces - an increase of 17% on the previous quarter sales of 1,047 ounces in Q4 2021.
54,121 x 1.75g = 94,711g
94,711/31 = 3055ozs
so an average of 1018ozs per month.
They sold 1226ozs, so will have 1829ozs still to be sold.
I wonder how many did the maths?
GLA
I will study the figures in more detail, but an immediate observation is just look at how much ore they are stockpiling for the Heap Leach Plant. When you add up the stockpiles from Q4 and Q1, doesn't that point towards the significant ramp up in production coming when the Heap Leach plant gets going?
AG1989,
Good well balanced post as always imo. My sentiments as well.
I picked up 500k to average down a tad. Will likely get more latter but I don’t see an immediate runaway SP just yet.
Usual caveats
Trek
Swampmonster, exactly. Priced at no more than many explorers that are unlikely to produce an ounce of gold.
Not without risk, but if they get this right we have a great company in the making.