The latest Investing Matters Podcast episode featuring financial educator and author Jared Dillian has been released. Listen here.
I remember when Lovehandles said this on the 11th December
"Sure Andii, "in-theory" they can try and target "target pure TiO2 that sells for $2000/t", which would require EEE to be building a smelter or similar as part of their project - not much change out of $1bn to build one of those...and that's on top of the cost of building a mine."
LH also said that the final product would only be worth $300/t but yesterday we have a route to $5000/t on site confirmed.
Check the RNS again and see the map, HV sub station nearby, water, gas and rail all on the property = massive capex savings.
Gravity separation removes most of the titanite (with 90% recovery) and a simple low acid leaching process concentrates the titanium into 95% product. Not much acid will be required as they already concentrated the material.
I wonder if over time they could gravity separate at the mine face and slurry pump with electric pumps to the processing plant. That would keep costs down.
Of course the project is such high grade, they won't be doing much mining as there is so much titanium in every square meter. Lol
The conceptual processing flowsheet that is being tested consists of beneficiation stages to generate a titanium-rich heavy mineral concentrate and to remove acid-consuming gangue minerals, followed by a simple acid leaching stage, and will therefore not require an energy intensive, on-site smelting process.
Potential On-site High Value TiO2 Products
The final product from the leaching stage is expected to be a fine precipitated powder with a high TiO? concentration, approaching the same content as natural rutile (>95%). However, the material will likely require calcination and pelletisation to make it an attractive, handleable product for customers. 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").
The Company could additionally consider a further on-site refinement step for the TiO2 product and make a pigment-quality product for marketing directly to end users, in the manufacture of paints and coatings, plastics and paper. Based on Q4 2022 prices the expected price range for TiO2 pigments is in the order of US$4,340/t to US$5,180/t.
The process is described in the RNS
The quantity of titanite within the tested samples averaged approximately 20% of the rock mass; this level of titanite concentration is extraordinary as titanite is usually an accessory mineral and rarely gets above 1-2% of the rock mass.
Explorative metallurgical investigations have focused mainly on wet gravity separation to beneficiate crushed and ground ore samples before further processing, with around 90% of the heavy minerals such as ilmenite, Ti-oxides and Fe-oxides recovered to the concentrate streams with 84% recovery of the titanite
From Empire's preliminary processing studies, it is anticipated that Pitfield ore will be amenable to conventional leaching under atmospheric conditions to liberate the titanium, not unlike how certain copper ores are recovered by an acid leach-solvent extraction process to liberate copper on site. There is a considerable amount of metallurgical research work that demonstrates the successful leaching of titanite, using low temperature sulphuric acid or hydrochloric acid to dissolve the titanite and liberate the Ti into a liquid phase.
One of the key differences between the processing options being considered for the Pitfield titanite ore and those commonly found in the ilmenite industry is that a low temperature acid leach process is likely all that is needed to extract the titanium and produce a high-quality product. No energy-intensive smelting is required and a higher value product can be produced on-site.
I see you are struggling lovehandles. Try this website to get your url shared
https://www.shorturl.at/
Nobody found more than small traces of tantanite but we found loads. That's why there are no other resources worldwide to compare it to.
Nice linked-in post from yesterday, have included a photo in this tweet
https://twitter.com/AndrewMathieso3/status/1765300281418375174?t=Hia8sB5aXaqP3NiLm2dZVg&s=19
So there is power already on location also.
Checkout out the DFS of other producers in Africa and Madagascar. Its like $200m to build a power plant in the desert. Capex here should be so low.
Imagine a simple acid leach process. Compare it to an at surface high grade copper project. But with very easy from surface simple ore extraction/mining
Today's #EEE proactive video
https://youtu.be/j8xLQuOoKsQ
End product is a 95% synthetic rutile equivalent which sells for $2000 but they are thinking it will be relatively easy to produce a pigment product on site that sells for $4000-5000/t which none of the hard rock or sand miners can even attempt to do.
Here is a science paper on the processing of tantalite. It is usually a byproduct of a few % but 20% of the ore body contains it at Pitfield.
No other tantalum miners in the world have ever found economic grades of tantalite so there's nothing to compare this to.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0301751616302125
4x diamond drills already started last week. Took two months for DD results last time so end of April maybe?
The 40RC drill program will take 10 weeks but I don't know what else it will tell us, another 40 high grade titanium drill results from surface ending in mineralisation at depth etc etc. Maybe it will be enough for a JORC resource by June?
Sovereign metals PFS
https://www.listcorp.com/asx/svm/sovereign-metals-limited/news/kasiya-pre-feasibility-study-results-2931625.html
Same end product, 95% synthetic rutile.
$400/t cost based on a starting grade of 1% TiO2
Drying then electrostatic and magnetic separation process. Sounds like sovereigns main costs will be power.
Page 9. Simple flowsheet to turn tantalum into a synthetic rutile like product >95% which sells for $2000/t
Low energy process, low cost to mine, = high margins.
Cheaper processing than Sovereign minerals and their resource is only 1% grade.
https://wp-empire-metals-2018.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/media/2024/03/EmpireMetals_Presentation-March-2024.pdf
Over what time frame? There's now been confirmed economic extraction and an extra 40 drill results all high grade and the share price is still below the all time high. They also now fully funded (placing was above today's price).
If the share price hadn't have dropped to 8.3p yesterday, would we still be classed as oversold?
User AGEOS
"on 11.06.23, and several times subsequently, i emphasised the unique nature of the pitfield regional-scale mineralogical province, as the context for what is now accepted by the geoscience community as being “a newly recognised type of strata-based sedimentary rock-hosted titanium deposit”. again, as previously stated, there are no comparable deposits anywhere in the world, and unless and until those who claim there are, can provide published data proving otherwise, that remains the case."