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F79- there are 2 hard rock primary tio2 mines in operation currently. Lac Tio run by Rio which grades circa 35% tio2 and the Tellnes mine grading 18%. Almost all other Ilmenite production comes from mineral sand operators.
Minerals sands have a benefit in that as eroded rock it’s already at particle size which can be easily separated from other material. Hard rock deposits have the cost of mining taking into consideration strip ratio, the ore then needs crushing & milling before going through separation. In short grade has to be higher than mineral sands than due to higher costs.
5% tio2 grade will likely be 10% Ilmenite (it’s the most abundant source of tio2). Ilmenite at $300 per tonne means ore grading 10% Ilmenite has value (at 100% recovery) of $30 per tonne.
It’s highly unlikely that a deposit grading just 5% tio2 in hard rock will be economical, there just isn’t the margin when you factor in mining and processing costs.
You do raise one very interesting point though. That’s in there might be other minerals present. If there is ore which contains 10% Ilmenite and say 0.5% copper those minerals might be amenable to separation (gravity possibly likely with the specific gravity of Ilmenite circa twice that of copper bearing ores), giving EEE west you might call double bubble.
If you want examples of deposits that include multiple commodities including tio2 then you might want to look at VTM deposits and other such ilks. It’s not quite as straight forward as pure copper plays etc as you need to be able to separate the minerals from each other, however if nothing else it’s interesting part of mining to read up on.
Bedhead - if Tio2 is new to you then I’d suggest researching minerals sands, it’s such deposits which form the vast majority of tio2 feedstock. You should be able to find fair bit just by searching on google, however to start you off Ilmenite had tio2 content of circa 50% & price per tonne of currently circa $300.
Mesb, thought you might recognise part of it. It’s the results from Evraz material carried out years ago before they purchased 44million tonnes of the material and spent years on permitting.
They had sent pilot plant at one point to the USA, that was prior to Jangada getting involved and sure there’s an article or two online if you look, think even posted here before.
No idea where it’s been since USA, prrhaps decommissioned & put in storage. Maybe the one in kitwe is the same one put back together. Either way it’s been a particularly frustrating wait for any Pitombeiras material to be tested, but it is now finally happening..
We, or at least I, know that fodere tech has produced vanadium pentoxide from material grading 0.6%-1% vanadium and a 98% tio2 product from circa 30% tio2 feedstock. That feedstock also containing very high level of contaminants not seen at pitombieras…
I’m very confident that fodere tech applied to the concentrates current flow sheet produced (1% vanadium/42% tio2, with low contaminates) will produce similar results.
The larger unknown is if the current flowsheet can be amended and fodere tech applied without the ore having gone through the 2 stage dry and wet separation process. The change to the 2 stage prices between the PEA and technical report was the main driver of reduced recovery and higher costs between the two reports… RNS referencing improved recovery could be suggestive this is the case, however that’s something we need further data for..
Likewise if the vanadium and other materials are leached & treated out of the iron ore that should in theory increase the grade of contained iron from the current 62%, potentially increasing the value of that. Something else we’d need test work to see, but higher grade iron is both more valuable and attractive to offtakers..
Only numbers I’ve offered up to date is adding fodere tech to the current process for which we have the numbers. Using product fodere tech has got to and an added estimate opex of $100 per tonne against the product current flowsheet produced.
We don’t know how a new plant set up will look so the below won’t be correct, however the first set of numbers against each commodity shows their revenue in the technical report and then their weighting (%).
The middle number is exactly the same, but captures 100% of the vanadium value as if producing a V205 product which fodere tech would do by splitting it from the iron.
The 3rd set of numbers also envisages the 66k tio2 (42% grade) being processed into 20k 98% tio2 product for which se price should be nearer $2500 per tonne.
Like I said this is only demonstration as they don’t appear to be adding a fodere plant at the end of the process, but earlier on to also improve recovery rates. However it shows the affect of producing finalized vanadium and tio2 products, rather than selling as concentrated at concentrate prices, plus how such work should seriously reduce the weighting of iron in the commodity mix.
Current Just v205 upgrade
Iron $22.3m (50%) $22.3m (31%) £22.3m (21%)
Vanadium $8.5m (19%) $34m (48%) $34m (32%)
Tio2 $14.5m (31%) $14.5m (21%) $50m* (47%)
Total $45m $70.8m $106m
I think the polite comments would be Brian was tired from being up at 3am travelling.
The correct numbers I.e. those released in Technical report was 100% post tax IRR, $96.5m NPV and a 13mth payback using $120 iron price and $9.2 per lb V205.
It’s contradictory to talk about the great economics with a “9mth payback”, then saying you need $5 more per tonne sales price to be feasible!
It’s also not irrelevant. They’re looking to change the plant design by bringing in Fodere technology, that will alter the economics drastically and would also significantly reduce the weighting of iron within the basket of our commodities.
91% is the recovery, not the purity.
Does raise an interesting point i’d not considered though. if fodere process splits the minerals, does it take out the other contaminants in the iron oxide concentrate & thus increase the iron content? Pure fe203 would be circa 70% fe content, that’d get a huge premium to std 62% fe pricing. I honestly have no idea on that regard, could be a nice bonus & definitely more attractive to offtakers.
BF - too many variables to be sure, but if large enough fodere plant can be built for both concentrates and it’s high purity vanadium and tio2 produced then my estimate could be extra $30m pa post tax. Really need more info. Definitely exciting though
Hey Mesb, of the regular posters here I thought you’d be happiest to finally see something on
Fodere.
Expected use of their tech has been cornerstone of my reason for investing to position I have and as a long term hold, frustrating it’s taken this long for company to discuss it, however I suspect there was caution before any testing was done and that testing required the pilot plant based in kitwe.
Was happy to see we’ve the rights for S America, something we speculated on after the ex-Tronox guy invested in fodere last year and not the rights for N America. Would hardly have been fair for Jangada not to have S America rights as part of investing when we were earlier holder!
Not sure at what stage the fodere tech might be applied, suspect that will form part of the bulk sampling. Does the existing flow sheet stay with material only then put through fodere plant? Can we bin off the wet separation part of the process which added capex, opex and lowered recovery from the initial PEA & apply fodere plant after just a dry process? Will fodere be used on both the non-magnetic (tio2), just the magnetic (vanadium/iron) or the 2 separate post separation piles?
I’ve no doubt that fodere tech will significantly increase/improve the economics.
At the moment we only get 25% credit for the vanadium & the 2 stage process lowered recovery of that.
The Ilmenite concentrate at 42% grade has a sale price of $220 per tonne. 99% purity tio2 has a sale price of nearer $3k.
Lot of value still available which fodere tech should unlock, hopefully things will soon start falling more into place and the excitement we have will spread!
Should get separate vanadium product using fodere tech. 100% vanadium credit rather than just 25% that we get in the concentrate.
Also note we’ve exclusive rights to the tech in S America. When the ex Tronox guy joined last year and got N America rights I did post saying hoped we’d get S America as part of our strategic investment.
I’m in the office today so can’t post much until after work. Will out something more coherent together then
It’s what I’ve been wanting to see for years. Definitely game changer.
As reminder of how new tech such as fodere can affect economics I’d suggest people watch the presentation below on alternative tivan tech. Can skip to 4 minutes 20 seconds in and watch for 5 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/r1BZ39B-p-o
For resurrections.
NT to buy for a while now and looks like little stock available above current ask.. Hopefully fortunes of us holders will start to revive soon.
Hopefully news on pitombieras offtake soon with otter deals having been done in recent months.
New project/s news also expected soon.
Plus the investments both Bres and Fodere should be progressing with their own respective updates soon..
Good to re listen to that interview. Brian was very bullish on some of his commentary there, almost total opposite to current sentiment.
It would be very embarrassing if after those comments he can’t bank a 100% IRR project.. We know iron ore price fluctuates, but point of tio2 plant was to reduce reliance on iron ore and the logistical savings from a local offtaker further strengthens the economics.
$40 opex including logistics per tonne of iron/ore vanadium concentrate to port pecem.
Come on Brian, awful market at the moment. Time to be a hero.
Now Anglo American are signing offtake deals for iron ore in Brazil..
Deals being done elsewhere Brian, hope you’re busy sorting something for Jangada!
https://www.bnamericas.com/en/news/brazils-bamin-signs-iron-ore-sales-contract-with-anglo-american
Opex
Mining/processing (non-logistics part) works out at circa $30 per tonne.
Trucking to port pecem $10 per tonne
Shipping to China Inc port services $34 per tonne.
So if selling locally as they’ve said hoping to the opex is circa $40.
Vanadium credits are supposed to be $45 per tonne, which if selling locally covers all the opex including logistics.
The project economics produced 100% post tax IRR. It’s hardly a marginal project, just needs the financing of capex!
Mesb, no worries mate. With Brian we’re used to poor communication almost designed to reduce any excitement or positive expectations!
SP reflects that in last 12-24mths company hasn’t done anything to draw Jangada to attention of potential new shareholders, newsflow has been light and communication poor. Net result is value accrued to pitombieras by market is now just circa £5m.
In regard to advised progress and newsflow there really is only room for improvement. SP should respond positively then as is often the case with companies that been a sleep starting to wake up.
Good to see they’re bumping up the price for new investors. Expect higher still for any IPO..
My own estimates is circa $1.8m-$2m cash, with expectation we sold the last of our Valore shares as not mentioned in latest update..
Also add it’s not binary on pitombieras. We’re supposed to be getting a new project, as working on for a while I’d hope more than just an unworked tenement… Can’t assess until we know details, but pitombieras was a new project 3 years ago and got us from 2p - 10p SP in 12mths…
Much better to be using cash on own projects. Fodere and Bres might be great investments, but more value should be added on own projects.