Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
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Hi Brighters, it looks like some of tge senior staff from siltbuster left the company after Selwood took them over and set up material recovery solutions.
Major Oak - Cinovec
My understanding is that CL can produce Li at a lower cost, because infrastructure is already in place in Cornwall.
Apologies but I do not understand what your are asking in
"The fact cinovec has low grade lithium , tons of it in with the tin , does that complicate their offtakers as with CUSN and hopefully a spin off Lithium , would that not make it easier once completed ?"
Major Oak "Maybe a little will rub off here"
Hopefully that will be the case and the timing may be fortuitous.
The Cornish Metals Pre IPO presentation states:-
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Lithium exposure through Cornish Lithium
Cornish Lithium has the right to explore Cornish Metals’ mineral right areas for lithium-in-brine & geothermal energy. Cornish Metals has a 25% free carried interest on the first project advanced to completion of a Bankable Feasibility Study within its mineral right areas, and a 10% free carried interest on all subsequent projects advanced to completion of a Bankable Feasibility Study.
Cornish Metals will receive a 2% Gross Revenue Royalty on all metals produced from brines or geothermal energy produced from within its mineral right areas.
From January 2017, Cornish Metals benefits from annual cash / share issuances from Cornish Lithium of US$50K per year in years 1-5, US$100K per year in years 5 –10, US$500K per year from year 10, and US$1,000K per year from year 15.
Refer to Company news release dated January 19, 2017 for further info.
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The benefit of the latter, to CUSN, rises to $100,000 p.a. from 1.1.22. This will be topped up with royalties once Li from Brine/power production starts in CUSN's mineral rights areas.
Whilst tiny compared to the capital needed to get SC back into production, they may provide some help to the smaller cost of de-watering SC which may come first.
Of greater help will be the shareholding in CL which CUSN is gradually growing as it takes shares instead of cash. Early 2022 is thought to be the time when CL will float on AIM, and when CUSN could if it wished more easily sell its stake in the company.
However, CUSN points out that that its shares offer exposure to Tin Copper and Lithium - key materials in the drive towards electrification, so it may prefer to keep its holding.
Also just another thought.
The fact cinovec has low grade lithium , tons of it in with the tin , does that complicate their offtakers as with CUSN and hopefully a spin off Lithium , would that not make it easier once completed ?
I wonder if that is why cinovec has had deals on the table since 2018 but nobody pushing the actual button ?
I know the main shareholder.
Quick question on finance?
Would it be prudent to keep testing and allow Cornish Lithium to progress to a point when they are happy to go it alone , thus providing some for of finance based on land use and royalties etc ?
It would probably be minimal but it may help + add to the balance sheet for going to raise further capital with slightly less risk ?
I may be way off but the lithium bull run is having billions thrown at it. May be a little could rub off here?
Thanks for the link, they are both high density sludge systems, the difference seems to be that the silt buster unit has large individual components - reaction tanks, lamellar clarifiers and mixers, where this system is an all in one unit.
It's a good idea having it all in one however it would need significant upscaling to deal with the water quantities, to deal with the quantity of water being pumped they will need nearly 300 of those units - . The siltbuster had 3 streams.
An element of the water treatment plant will be a permanent installation as the water will need treating permanently- the volume will reduce after 2-3 years by approximately 2/3rds, but tgat will still leave about 800m3 a day to be treated.
The last one was modular off site construction, the concrete bund is for containment in case of a spill, there's a lot of caustic chemicals going into the process to raise the pH - the last one was a siltbuster design.
Slightly different concept. This would be off site manufacture and a temporary facility. Basically if they go down the modular unit option this will cut cost and time taken to build a permanent facility, it’s also likely to be rented and then once finished sent back, this will help with cash flow. Check out linkedin - material recovery systems
They had a trial plant in 3 years ago to design the full plant. They have the submersible pumps, pipework, vsds and power supply already. The area for the water treatment plant was levelled again 3 years ago and all historic mine workings under it remediated.
The water treatment plant requires a large concrete bunded slab for all tge equipment to sit on.
It’s currently a trail plant, it’s most likely that you won’t see construction but modular treatment unit that look like shipping containers . My guess would be generators and sub pumps to empty the mine.
Where did you get that information from, I haven't seen any sign of its construction yet?
Brighters123 Thanks for the info. Any idea how long it has been there? or roughly what it costs?
What SC needs now is a source of cheap power. Perhaps switching to using power surpluses, which otherwise would cause wind turbines to be switched off. Power user of last resort? SC perhaps needs sunny, windy days..............
Anyone got a wind turbine surplus to requirements?
Just so you are aware a treatment system is on site at Crofty to treat the mine water coming out of the mine.
Bubble
I think there is some Government money going in to Sunderland and Coventry but no idea where the big money is coming from. Good question.................
Vii, local government would be hoping the whole area comes up good and attracts not just main government grants /funding but also joint ventures ,demand for rare minerals are going to continue for many years imho ,o/t Lloyds bank have tesla, landrover on their books it wouldn't surprise me to see something similar here imho ,who's funding the giga factories for batteries in Coventry and Sunderland? ?
Thanks southwesterner very informative post keep us updated on those drill updates and funding
SW'er Great post.
Re: " Moreover it shows if they left that lode behind, what else is there out there in this area?"
The presentation that followed the AGM, I think mentioned three lodes being explored at UD perhaps more, the "Lithium lode, Trenares and I think it was a deep one below Mt Wellington. ( Page 9 of the current website presentation - being updated-
https://www.cornishmetals.com/site/assets/files/4930/2020-05-01_cornish_metals_presentation_website-min.pdf
mentions discovery of 6 in 2020 and states ongoing "test of 3 lodes over a 1,000m strike length to a depth of 500m in the initial phase. Up to 7 further mineralised lode structures also to be tested." .) You are absolutely right, if these have not been found in the past what more is to be found?
I think a lot at depth. Using modern methods of exploration - cheaper/ quicker I think there will be rich mineralisation found at depth in many places in the 15,000 hectares of mineral rights. It seems to me that the deeper lodes have a greater percentage of ore, which offsets the increased cost of going deeper. SW'er and CK would be better to listen to on this than me. Given CUSN needs around $100m to release many times that number in profits from SC, they are probably waiting to see if a near surface mine at UD can provide the funding for SC, obviating the need for a big raise. However they said in the post AGM presentation that they would not be using existing workings for UD - not sure that rules out the Wheal Maid Decline- but if so, UD itself may need significant finance. Given the way the tin and copper prices are going, I don't think CUSN are dependent on UD, but if UD works out well, SC's financing needs might be considerably reduced.
The company mentioned that Cornwall Council wish to invest, and that the UK Government's diplomatic service are sounding out potential investors or others who can help speed up the projects.
Given there is a lot of exploration going on, I think shareholders can expect regular newsflow.
I can't tell you about short term price movements, or who is or isn't "holding this down" after the bell. All I can really observe is that the price has consolidated well over the past couple of months in this 15p (+/-2p) range. It may push higher based on the strong tin price performance recently, but there are two major news flows that will determine the next move, and that could be positive or negative.
The first is whether CUSN can get the finance for pumping Crofty. No specific time pressure on this, and the market probably views it as both a negative and positive, depending on the detail - mainly, what the raising price is, and whether its all dilution, or can something be done with offtake finance. It'd be a bit unusual to get offtake finance for a project only at a PEA level, but Crofty has provenance that most projects don't, and the tin concentrate market is very tight, apparently. I'd view it as a positive even if there was significant dilution in the short term. Because if they could gain access to this finance it shows the market views South Crofty as viable and worth putting money into. If they can't progress it forwards at $36k/tonne tin, then when can they? - is the flipside on the negative. Obviously they will want to get finance on reasonable terms, but we will see whether it happens or not, no guarantees, this is more money than they have ever raised before.
The second is the next batch of drill assays at United Downs, which we are due this week based on what the CEO has stated in recent presentations. Obviously that could be a big deal to the share price. The last drill assay had a fairly neutral reception, hopefully now there is has been some recalibration in expectations, and an appreciation in the market that this is narrow vein (1-2m wide) mineralisation, but potentially high grade, and if they can prove 200m+ lateral continuity of 4%+ copper, then this begins to move in the direction of something that has real value. Moreover it shows if they left that lode behind, what else is there out there in this area?
Lots more buys again than sells and they keep this down ??,let's see if we see the seller's after bell like we have for last week or so holding this down ,what do you think Cornishknocker?, Southwestener?
https://www.mining.com/goldman-recapitulates-5-a-pound-copper-price-by-end-2021/