Member Info for Andii

Apologies Dusty, I maybe disregarded your post too quickly. I will admit I was getting the processes "smelter" and "refine" mixed up. I'm not sure what the size and scope of the iluka facility is. It is for rare earths which I am not sure titanium is classed as due to it's abundance in the earth. Whether they could take some of the lower material as a feedstock and try and upgrade it? I'm not sure. Definitely a good one for the next Q&A.

It rather hinges on whether the phrase "which would make it a highly desirable feedstock for a titanium dioxide pigment producer." is simply informing the market that this

-theoretically achievable and therefor verifying the feasibility of the ore body early days (this statement is from march)

-an option being looked at. From what we know now, it would likely be a by-product.

As for the cost and scale of the ultimate processing plant, and what outputs it may possess, I really have no idea and Shean has often avoided this question when asked in interviews so is clearly holding the cards close to his chest until they can release something more definitive.

I do however think that the pilot plant planned for 2025 could be capable of generating revenue in excess of $100m. The larger future plant will then be designed around the results and then target the quoted 10-15% of global $30billion titanium market.

The demonstration plant was initially going to be a low energy system to process the entire orebody, well at least the top 150m drilled so far. The plan was to "refine" these products into higher grade products "on-site"

This geological anomoly is unique, its a sedimentary basin. No hard rocks. Refining in this sence is not the same as hard rock refining to remove rock and other metal impurities ..it is a much more simple process to upgrade the rutile/ilmenite into higher grade products. Again, all planned to be done on-site.

Please see this RNS and search for refine

https://www.lse.co.uk/rns/EEE/favourable-metallurgical-characteristics-confirmed-xeowdwwc3agy7fb.html

#EEE

Last raise was £3m in january.

They usually raise from positions of strength. Last one was at 11p and they have some big investors who are always happy to take part in placings.

Current market cap almost £50m at todays share price of 8.3p

"As an exploration and development group which has no revenue we are reporting a loss for the 12 months ended 31 December 2023 of £2,796,461 (31 December 2022: loss of £1,162,720).

The Group's cash position as at 7 June 2024 was £3.43 million."

*****

Their cash burn last year of £2.7m included around 100 drill holes. They aren't drilling right now and may only need one more small drill campaign before announcing the full maiden JORC then initiating plans for the pilot plant.

The main work going on right now is metalurgy and desktop studies which will be less intensive on the funds. Although staff headcount is up so background admin costs will be a little higher than last years.

What on earth would EEE require to use a rare earths refinery for? Refineries are high energy intensity facilities used to melt and split up hard rock and multiple metals.

Read the part again;

"The importance of CSIRO involvement cannot be over-emphasised as it is indicative of governmental commitment and potential financial support as evidenced by Iluka's parallel development of Australia's first fully integrated rare-earth refinery at Eneabba, in partnership with government backed by a AUS$1.25 billion state loan."

Pitfield are planning a low energy intensity pilot plant which will output the final high value products on site. Should they want to then build a massive facility, or want helping with the pilot plant, I think thus is why the refinery was mentioned as it is an example of where the Australian government is willing to put their hands deep in their pockets.

Do you think issuing 25m shares (£2.5m) all at 10p, a premium to the current share price of 7.37p for the purchase of Kalifi a few weeks ago was a good move?

Considering Kalifi is scheduled to bring in $500k to $800k FCF a month ($6m to $9.6m a year) starting from end of September. That's an IRR of over 200% and the whole process from deal announcement to revenue is 3 months.

New RNS.

Total feed now up to 20k a month.

This increases yesterday's Free Cash Flow estimate from $250-$400k/month to $500-800k/month (approx as the margins for this new higher grade feedstock aren't known)

Nice one Ageos

I noticed a change of language from Sean ever since the weathered surface high grade mineralised zone was first announced start of June.

Talk of accelerated timescales, metelurgy timeframes being reduced by up to a year. And hugely simplified final stage to transform the TiO2 into the highest value end producs. All sounds really fantastic. Sean always sounds like he is trying to hold back his excitement in the videos. He does it very well..

Is there any commercial miners operating from the Shazi anatase deposits of China? I wonder if there is any commercial information available on the Opex there and we could work backwards and plug in the at surface, higher grade and other geological advantages of the gigantic pitfield system.

**Please could you guys respectfully start your own thread for chatting and allow the EEE specific threads to remain so? Thank-you**

"Included within the total Exploration Target above is a subset that covers the weathered sandstone zone, which extends from surface to an average vertical depth of 30m to 40m, and is estimated to contain between 4.0 to 4.9 billion tonnes with a grade range of 4.8 to 5.9% TiO2*."

EXPECTED TO ACCELERATE TIMESCALES

"This discovery reinforces the potential for Empire to develop a fully integrated, single site, mine to high quality TiO2 product project and it opens up the possibility of a new, staged development plan whereby the Company can look to develop the much higher-grade, high-value, more easily accessible titanium dioxide mineral-rich surface deposits whilst it continues to develop a processing route for the titanite-rich bedrock deposits.

Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "This is a game changing development for Empire and one which is expected to accelerate timescales and further enhance the economics of Pitfield."

"· The total Exploration Target covers a combined area of approximately 59km2, extends down to 150m vertical depth only, and has been constrained at a 2% TiO2 cut-off grade;"

"· The Exploration Target covers an area less than 20% of the overall mineral system at Pitfield , which has been mapped by a 40km by 8km by 5km deep magnetics anomaly, supported by other data;

https://youtu.be/z_fWURKqIME?si=MW9LJ-dP-3_j54b7

7:33 "this could accelerate the metalurgy process by around a year"

13:47 "you've got hundreds of years of mining here"

I'll tell you my theory.

They want tmit to appear like a lunatic asylum to control the narrative hence turning away potential new investors.

Why is the open short right bang on the reporting threshold of 0.51%. Its optics. Looks like there are shorts which is a red flag. But actually shares are being accumulated in the background on dips

Video from 5th June when the new at surface discovery was announced

https://youtu.be/z_fWURKqIME?si=MW9LJ-dP-3_j54b7

7:33 "this could accelerate the metalurgy process by around a year"

13:47 "you've got hundreds of years of mining here"

From Jason on telegram;

We entered into a subscription agreement with a mining investment company and that was announced and was for funding our activities - Payments against specific work programs etc.

From the jan/Feb 2023 RNS

Under the terms of the Subscription Agreement, a subscription of up to £3.75 million through the issue of up to 100,000,000 new Ordinary Shares in the Company at a price of 3.75 pence per new Ordinary Share is to be made through a staged equity investment across five equal tranches.

The initial tranche of £0.75 million has already been advanced by Q Global to lawyers in South Africa and is to be released upon receipt of all necessary regulatory approvals in South Africa and the UK.

The four other tranches will be advanced upon each of the following milestones being met:

Commencement of resource definition drilling at the Blesberg Lithium and Tantalum Mine (💥)

Commencement of resource and exploration drilling at the Kinusi Project and Bagamoyo Graphite Project in Tanzania (💥)

Receipt of the initial resource drilling results at the Blesberg Lithium and Tantalum Mine to Q Global’s satisfaction

Receipt of the initial resource drilling results at the Kinsui Project and the Bagamoyo Graphite Project to Q Global’s satisfaction

****These aren't warrants. They are part of an existing share subscription agreement and are going to AUO who are building a large stake in Marula****

There is a further 47m share subscription agreement from 2024 for shares at 10p wprth £4.7m which Marula have already been utilising for project aquasitions and working capital

Further to my 16:25 post yesterday where I quoted Shaun B the CEO as saying:

"This is a game changing development for Empire and one which is expected to accelerate timescales and further enhance the economics of Pitfield."

I also enjoy the fact that this top 30-40m contains mostly rutile like mineral which is worth $2000/t (which could be upgraded to pure titanium is worth $10,000/t)

**So $500b in-situ value in the top 30-40m from surface is actually only 5% (or less) of the larger mineralised system**

"Included within the total Exploration Target above is a subset that covers the weathered sandstone zone, which extends from surface to an average vertical depth of 30m to 40m, and is estimated to contain between 4.0 to 4.9 billion tonnes with a grade range of 4.8 to 5.9% TiO2*."

"· The total Exploration Target covers a combined area of approximately 59km2, extends down to 150m vertical depth only, and has been constrained at a 2% TiO2 cut-off grade;"

"· The Exploration Target covers an area less than 20% of the overall mineral system at Pitfield , which has been mapped by a 40km by 8km by 5km deep magnetics anomaly, supported by other data;

August 22nd

Jason Brewer:

A zoom call / investor briefing will be done so can update on all fronts - accounts and all the developments whilst suspended.

Nav - working on 2 of those 3 for Neo and Marula. And a few extra for them too. Shuka I can’t comment at moment and I’d keep looking out for RNSs there for all company updates.

Marula there is a lot of news to clearly flow.

Relisting is imminent now that the audit meeting was held and a few of the administrative matters are being addressed - Martin and Angie doing a good job there.

Updates due and you know we don’t always release pre-market

Jason Brewer:

Historical resources on NCLT tungsten and tantalum. JORC Exploration Targets for copper at Kunusi and Nyorinyori and Bagamoyo graphites.

Historical JORC and SAMREC resources at Blesberg for the full commodity mixes.

Manganese to be firmed up but cashflow there now. Cobalt historical statistics too.

So a fair bit of confidence in what is there and what is being undertaken.

Cashflow to be announced this month. Production and sales from 3 mines.

Plenty to get excited about.

I liked this little snipped when they first announced the enhanced surface mineralisation back in June:

"This discovery reinforces the potential for Empire to develop a fully integrated, single site, mine to high quality TiO2 product project and it opens up the possibility of a new, staged development plan whereby the Company can look to develop the much higher-grade, high-value, more easily accessible titanium dioxide mineral-rich surface deposits whilst it continues to develop a processing route for the titanite-rich bedrock deposits.

Shaun Bunn, Managing Director, said: "This is a game changing development for Empire and one which is expected to accelerate timescales and further enhance the economics of Pitfield."

*****

I guess thus means things may move faster than the timescales announced in the development plan from March?

https://x.com/Empiremetalsltd/status/1798251175198015785?t=sYUAfeWsfkEwlGXtttxitA&s=19

Will they start closing after today's announcement?

https://shorttracker.co.uk/company/VGG3036T1012/

20vs1 buys from around 8:13

8.57p for 100k, 8.71p for 170k dummy buy quotes

"Included within the total Exploration Target above is a subset that covers the weathered sandstone zone, which extends from surface to an average vertical depth of 30m to 40m, and is estimated to contain between 4.0 to 4.9 billion tonnes with a grade range of 4.8 to 5.9% TiO2*."

Let's throw the calculator over that

5% x 4.9billion tonnes x $2000/t rutile price = $490b in-situ resource

Easy to benificiate, from surface, and easily upgradable to higher value pigments.

********

http://www.rns-pdf.londonstockexchange.com/rns/6096F_1-2024-3-5.pdf

Based on Q4 2023 rutile market supply and demand forecasts the price range for rutile is in the order of US$1,880/t to US$2,180/t, reflecting a tightening of the supply chain despite increasing demand over the next decade (Source: Sovereign Metals Ltd. February 2024 Investor Presentation - Prices per TZMI; Ilmenite price: November 2023 FOB Mozambique; Rutile price: “weighted average price for bagged rutile shipments“).

Alternatively, the Company could consider the potential to further refine the TiO 2 product and look to make a pigment quality product for marketing directly to the final end users, in other words for use in the manufacture of paints and coatings, plastics and paper.

Based on Q4 2002 prices the expected price range for TiO 2 pigments is in the order of US$4,340/t to US$5,180/t.

Q u I n t o n is the chairman and owns 30% of SKA. So actually the value of his investment dropped by around £700k this morning

Https://youtu.be/l-jCvwKLD5c?si=bJnTS2bLJMZhrehs

Jason and Landau worked together at Continental Coal. Jason resigned as CFO in November 2012.

"Between June 2015 and February 2016, in his capacity as company director, Mr Landau stole approximately $2.2 million from a Citation bank account without the knowledge of Citation's other directors."

Other people were also charged but the court found nothing against Jason.