Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
London South East prides itself on its community spirit, and in order to keep the chat section problem free, we ask all members to follow these simple rules. In these rules, we refer to ourselves as "we", "us", "our". The user of the website is referred to as "you" and "your".
By posting on our share chat boards you are agreeing to the following:
The IP address of all posts is recorded to aid in enforcing these conditions. As a user you agree to any information you have entered being stored in a database. You agree that we have the right to remove, edit, move or close any topic or board at any time should we see fit. You agree that we have the right to remove any post without notice. You agree that we have the right to suspend your account without notice.
Please note some users may not behave properly and may post content that is misleading, untrue or offensive.
It is not possible for us to fully monitor all content all of the time but where we have actually received notice of any content that is potentially misleading, untrue, offensive, unlawful, infringes third party rights or is potentially in breach of these terms and conditions, then we will review such content, decide whether to remove it from this website and act accordingly.
Premium Members are members that have a premium subscription with London South East. You can subscribe here.
London South East does not endorse such members, and posts should not be construed as advice and represent the opinions of the authors, not those of London South East Ltd, or its affiliates.
Yes, Rio tend to think in decades rather than years and have certainly not lifted a finger in Moz. Probably a more active partner would be one whose existing business has been transformed ( negatively) by the race for clean energy. I’m thinking Shell, BP, GALP and the other “oilies”. VW of course has seen the additional opportunity to leave “dieselgate” behind them. Either would make great active partners. In posting the Rio Tinto news I was really saying -don’t forget about the major miners who don’t want to miss the boat. It will all come out in the wash as they say.
CM, always like to hear the word skyward and can but hope you are right.
I am trying to remember how long RT have been sitting on Jadar and their Moz assets for that matter and I should avoid mentioning Mongolian copper. Seem to remember that they supposedly lost the Jangamo asset due inactivity. Not sure whether they really seem to look for relatively small individual piecemeal plots and in any case, not sure that even if they do, the T&C of the auction would allow them to sit on them. I doubt they would be allowed to turn over a few sods of earth, position a portaloo and claim it is under development.
I appreciate that getting MDB underway would be a huge underpin. As DA said in his latest episode, SAV should be well positioned to add and replicate (hopefully at speed) based on the experience developed over the past 3/4 years in country. Obviously 6%spod would compliment any carbonate to help with a ‘whole of market’ offering but personally I would rather see a few patches sewn together to make it significant, and then see what is available.
IB, I suppose the test of interest from the mining majors will be whether they field bids for these “patchwork pieces” at the forthcoming but much delayed auction of Li mining tenements by Portugov. Will the likes of Rio and Fortescue ignore the opportunity or allow minnows like SAV to scoop them up? Maybe in the future their CEOs will be judged on whether they had the foresight to secure scarce assets on the cheap or not. Personally I think a bidding war more likely, driving the value of existing well-defined licensed tenements with excellent economics ever skyward.
I understand the sentiment of that comment but it seems a bit too broad for me.
MdB is looking to increased resource toward 50mt and has near 50% post tax IRR which would be factored into the economics of 'patching the quilt'.
It's also a different chemistry with Jadar aiming to produce carbonate whereas MdB SC6 is proposed for hydroxide.
There'll be a lot of differences but the point we see plenty of commentary focused on size of resource rather than grade, chemistry, economics of extraction, C1 costs etc.
Posted elsewhere :
“See some wishful thinking comments about SAV and RT for lithium, now that they have come out of the closet.
Certainly don’t see that (RT and SAV) based on current (MdB only) profile but that would change with further, albeit different sites added across Portugal and Spain to enable a progressive ramp in supplies. Can’t see RT sewing the little patches together, but they or others may well be interested in the quilt at some stage.”
That map showing Fortescues interest has been doing the rounds on the SAV presentations almost as long as the VW backdrop.
Perhaps something to be said there for page 26 of the corporate presentation? I've yet to find a link between SAV and Fortescue beyond that slide other than some historic articles of Fortescue looking for Lithium opportunities
As long as the boxes keep getting ticked off there is the possibility somebody buys out SAV before they get this into production. The worldwide push towards EV is getting stronger and there is only a finite amount of lithium to service the demand.
Rio Tinto and Serbia have got themselves organised as E U based Portugal dithers.
Timing is key imo, Jadar production forecast to start 2026, SAV could be up and running 3 years ahead of that, 2023.
David archer has lots of contacts at Rio, I'm sure he was employed by them at some stage before 2015 and of course the existing JV counts for something.
At last, been saying for years Rio will look beyond Sav mineral sands.
Our Moz JV partner is determined to be a major player in the European LI market it seems…
https://www.benchmarkminerals.com/membership/rio-tinto-commits-2-4bn-to-arrive-at-lithiums-main-stage/
Investing BIG money in mining Jadar. No reason they shouldn’t take a stake in MdB in time? They may have to compete with VW amongst others?
The news seems to have floated all boats in the Li market (Zinnwald, EMH,..). This is getting to be a more exciting market from the top down, what with the forthcoming listing of EV maker Lucid Motors, tipped as major competition to Tesla. Interesting times ahead.