Gordon Stein, CFO of CleanTech Lithium, explains why CTL acquired the 23 Laguna Verde licenses. Watch the video here.
Griffin Mining Limited (“Griffin” or “the Company”) is pleased to publish its interim results for the six months ended 30th June 2008. Highlights: Profit before tax of US$13.0 million (30 June 2007 US$18.0 million) Turnover US$22.2 million (30 June 2007 US$26.4 million) Ore processed 237,435 tonnes (30 June 2007 202,840 tonnes) 11,748 tonnes zinc metal in concentrate produced (30 June 2007 10,983 tonnes) 806 ozs gold, 98,843 ozs silver and 550 tonnes lead produced (30 June 2007 none) Break fee of C$2.5m received on aborted Yukon Zinc acquisition Completion of buy back of 79,851,818 shares from Citadel Attributable net assets per share $0.75 (30 June 2007 $0.46) Increased cash balances with $84m held at 30 June 2008
The companyi s puttingt he flnishingto uches to the BFSf or the Abu Dabbabt antalum-tin projeci, west of the Red Sea coast in Egypt's central eastern desert. With latestd rillingr esultsb eefingu p the resourcet o 44.5m1@ 250 g/t tantalump entoxide( with3 2.5mti n the measureda ndi ndicated category) and a projected 20 year mine life producing2 mtpa- witht hefirmh opeo f ramping this up to 3 mtpa - the project, accordlng to Gippsland executive chairman Jack Telford, would caiapult the company to second on the worldt antalump roducelre aguet able. "We will come onto the market in a very t'lg way (once we start producing) because we will be the second largest producer of tantalum globally,h"e said. While that might be enough for many com panies,T elfords aid Gippslandh ad no intentiono f restingo n its laurelsa ndw as targeting lhe number one position of world's tantalum producerc. As well as Abu Dabbab, a JV between Gippsland (50%) and the Egyptian Mineral ResoLrrceAs uthority( EMRA),t here is also the sn'ralml attef ofthe indicateda nd inferred9 8rrt resourcea t the company'sN uweibiJ V,a bout '15kms outho f Abu Dabbab."We certainlyd on'tp lant o stayt here( second). lf we plan well, we could certainly becomet he largestp roduceor f tantalum. "We have enough resource to expand and take ourselves to first position."
Gippsland has more than delivered on its promise of a reserve upgrade as part of its open pit optimisation work. Total reserves have been more than doubled by the company’s experienced engineering team to 30.2Mt. This should help to increase confidence in the projects viability still further and as a result we reiterate our recommendation, BUY. The reserve upgrade follows on from the 30% increase in the Measured and Indicated Resources made at the project after the drilling programme during late 2007/early 2008. The reserves are split all but equally between the Proved and Probable categories with grades of 260g/t Ta2O5 and 250g/t respectively. This gives an overall average grade of 255g/t along with 0.109% tin. All the remaining Inferred resources (10.5Mt) along with a further 3Mt of Measured and Indicated resource currently lie below the initial pit floor. The optimal pit shell created by the team contained an undiluted resource of 29.1Mt along with around 23Mt of waste, highlighting the very low waste:ore strip ratio in this deposit. 5% dilution was assumed and targeted production was maintained at 2Mt/year. Whilst the tantalum price used as an economic cut-off remains confidential because of the off-take agreement with HC Starck, the optimisation showed very little sensitivity to tin price. This is the latest in a series of positive announcements from the company and helps to reiterate the scale and robustness of the project given the tantalum o
ABU DABBAB RESOURCE UPDATE Event Gippsland Limited has released a new Ore Reserve statement for the company’s Egyptian Abu Dabbab tantalum-tin project. Implication Following a successful reverse circulation and diamond drilling programme, a substantial portion of the Indicated and Inferred Resources have been upgraded to the higher Measured and Indicated categories. This upgrade has seen the combined Indicated and Measured Resources increase by 30% from 25Mt to 32.5Mt, whilst the total Mineral Resource increased by 11% to 44.5Mt. These figures were based on a 100g/t Ta2O5 cut-off. The Measured Resource is now 15.2Mt grading 290g/t Ta2O5 and 0.143% tin. There is a further 17.3Mt grading 250g/t Ta2O5 and 0.078% tin in the Indicated Resources and 12Mt grading 200g/t Ta2O5 and 0.030% tin in the Inferred Resources. The pit shell has been optimised and currently contains an undiluted mineral resource of 29.09Mt grading 270g/t t Ta2O5 and 0.113% tin with 22.8Mt of waste. This results in an attractive stripping ratio of 0.826:1. Valuation Other than a small change to the stripping scenario, there have been no changes to our modelling. The Net Present Value of the company remains A$331M, equivalent to A$0.61/share. The target price is unchanged at £0.27/share, based on 90% of the NPV. Recommendation We retain our Buy recommendation with an unchanged target price of £0.27/share.