Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
LW: the straight answer is that I knew BM when he was at HUM, I have taken part in several placings at Cora so he picks up the phone and asks me if I am interested in the next one….. as he should. I am sure that he would do the same for any other PI (if the quantum is reasonable) and I would suggest people email him to better understand the quantum and parameters, you can’t expect to be on the list without asking to be.
There have been several shi**y posts on here today, but notwithstanding…. Cora’s biggest shareholders keep funding their corner, last time 7 odd pence, now 10 pence and BM keeps buying in. Suggestions that insiders are about to dump seem insane to me. I don’t want to disrespect BM but Cora is a one party town for him; he makes his living from Cora yet he still buys their stock with his hard earned ….. no idea what his salary is but he just put £30k in ; my guess is that this is a chunky amount for him and underlines his confidence in the project, as does the shareholder support that he has received in this and other placings….. I firmly believe that my interests are aligned with BM and our major shareholders……
I intend to be here for a minimum of another 3 years and expect to get to and beyond production and anticipate very big increases in resources in that time scale.
LW & OAPK have you registered your interests in partaking in placings with BM and/or Cora?
I have and I was offered into it.
There has been some good comment on here today; thanks.
2m shares have traded today. Not huge numbers in normal businesses but as 60% are with the top half dozen SH’s and many of the rest tightly held, quite a few…… Let’s hope that some of the trader types have left for good today and our news becomes better appreciated over the next few months.
Can’t disagree with that guess AG…… I would also like to see a revised exploration target of 2-3 moz …..
Roll on RNS!
LLInv….. the market for Lithium chemicals has long been very opaque.
Such is the specificity of the chemical
produced the historic producers like SQM, Albemarle,
Orocobre and Livent as well as the Chinese expansionists like Tanqi, Galaxy and Ganfeng have always negotiated long term supply (often 3 year) agreements with their clients that are unpublished.
With high demand most of the new capacity is mopped up by existing clients, very little production is sold on the spot market.
Where we do get to hear some prices is when a development project sign ‘option’ terms with an offtaker such as VUL or PLL…. In these circumstances it is in the projects interest to publicise even though the deal is only an option.
What is interesting is the situation that happened in Australia with Altura. It is rumoured that they had production contracts with the Chinese for Spod conc at $750 a ton. It is reckoned that the cost is around $400 but the incentive price more like $600 (that is to say the price needed for a mine to consider expansion). When there was a suspected glut in the market the Chinese are alleged to have offered $200 and cancelled orders and Altura went bust. Pilbara have now bought Altura and re-opened the mine and in the auction for spod conc last month achieved a price of $2,400 a ton. (Rodney Hooper estimated that for a converter to make a 15% profit the sale price for the finished chemical would need to be $30,000+)…… my point being that Altura’s experience has taught all suppliers, especially those developing new projects to contract with a floor in place and with the current demand/supply issues looking as though they will be ongoing for years to come it would be foolhardy to sign a 3 year supply agreement without protection.
Seems very logical to have a floor to protect us and a ceiling to protect them ….. we could also do with an upfront payment for 10,000 tons which could more than $100m. That would help us balance the books without a fund raise and lean us towards one particular off taker over another….. expensive business this ERev….. but only getting more so!
On the assumption that what is good for our larger shareholders is good for all LTH’s I guess this is all about calculating and hitting the short and medium term sweet spots (the long term will hopefully look after itself).
Cora want to build the biggest, lowest risk, scaleable, value plant in the shortest possible time in order to get to revenue. This will minimise dilution.
They were originally of the opinion that the optimum solution was a 40ktpa stand alone heap leach (70% recovery) costing under $20m and taking 6 months from commencement to get to revenue.
The recent drill campaign has shown results that have changed their minds.
They are now thinking carbon leach (90+% recovery) 60-70ktpa (my guess) $60m to build, 9-12 months to revenue but scaleable by addition of extra tanks and ultimately another crusher.
So, a slower path initially to a much bigger medium term project which will require continued exploration in order to maximise.
One final observation would be that this drill program has revealed a huge amount of consistent, low grade, (0.8-1.2g/t) oxide, pay dirt at or just below surface with a very low strip ratio which should be extremely economical to recover…. And this may also influence their thinking.
My local pharmacist told me yesterday that she thinks the govt have just about run out of the Innova test packs and they are now sending out Flowflex (nasal swab).
Gold on a gallop
LegalWolf: I agree. I would guess that the company has enough in the bank to cover regular costs for the foreseeable. However they will be conscious of not losing momentum.
I think my guess is similar to yours and that is if we get the MRE and the ‘indicated’ that we hope for then the Term Sheet will be drawn down with bank borrowing to finance not just the plant build but also a further 20,000+ drill program.
LW: from my understanding the Quirks have a history of taking exploration projects to production and when faced with a good offer for a maturing project they take the money and find their next investment. In that regards I would back their judgement as to the timing and value of any offer and so conclude that what is good for them is good for me. If they hold on for dividends so will I.
Others have questioned whether the Term Sheet funding is a little ‘close to home’. I raised this with BM. Firstly, Cora will need to find a chunk of its own cash to secure bank finance for the plant build. It is in everyone’s interest to minimise dilution. A proportion of the TS raise has been set aside so that PI’s can come into the raise on the same deal as the Quirks pound for pound reducing the Quirks £ input. Secondly, the Quirks have extensive interests and a good reputation in West Africa and have contacts to several banks; it is in Cora’s interest to have a TS with ‘equity’ investment in principal in place with the Quirks when it is negotiating bank borrowing (which I suspect he will be doing in the coming month).
My conclusion is that we will be much stronger with these guys in our team. They know mining and are prepared to put their money where their mouth is whilst leaving space for the smaller PI’s; I am happy to tag along for the ride.
I don’t think that you are too far out with the numbers there Tony but what I would also hope for over time is upgraded indicated resource of 100koz + a year that would part replace the gold mined but also enable the plant to be extended. We are currently awaiting a resource upgrade on approx 7km of the 30km strike length on our tenements in the knowledge that a lot of the 7km is open an all directions.
To my knowledge most of these ‘deals’ are ‘in principal’ that is to say they are non contractual without comeback on either party if the producer can’t fulfil either quality or volume. Headline grabbing, yes, but if you were running a $2bn battery or car plant relying on a contractual quality and volume of a specialist chemical it is good for nothing.
Too many of these projects are propelling their sp north on the marketing of these ‘deals’…… jury is still out with EMH but the truth is that we have not pumped the sp int he same way that VUL, PLL et al have.
Does anyone know of a business that has the capacity and experience to deal with potentially hundreds of thousands of £10-15 online LFT orders, with associated unique paperwork, packing and distribution and a post delivery check system and be set up in time for 22nd October?
I agree with all you write AG. I guess what I am saying is that some Cora punters need to understand the difference between indicated and inferred and also that a mineral resource estimate is far from either, especially when comparing with other projects.
Hopeful of 700koz indicated.
If there is a further 3-400koz inferred then brilliant.
If the mineral resource estimate goes to 2-3moz also excellent. But I fear some punters are expecting 1-1.5moz indicated and I think they will be disappointed.
All that said, this is bubbling up nicely!
I am concerned that some on here have unrealistic expectations of the incoming resource update. Daniel is right, the upgrade will be INDICATED not inferred (as was the original 265koz ) and anything over 450koz satisfies the requirements of the Term Sheet and allows us, subject to the DFS and the banks, to proceed with building a mine.
I personally hope for as much as 700koz indicated but who knows.
I would also like to see a mineral resource estimate upgrade as we should have demonstrated a shed load more paydirt than the original which was based on 25% of the 40km of known mineralised zone and also was restricted to within 100m of the surface.
I doubt it Rum. Cora should have the final drill results by now and I expect them to publish them this week. The final set of drill results will have been sent to the resource consultants who will collate all 40,000m plus historic ….from this two or three updated numbers should emerge (exploration target, qualified mineral resource etc) This process is external and independent and outside the company’s control. I am expecting a mineral resource upgrade before the end of the month.
Plenty of good stuff in the presentation, much of it reported here already.
A couple of extra’s if I may.
When the CEO was talking about the company cash being circa £37m within the context of sales of LFT’s he said ‘will strengthen this position further’ the implication being that he is anticipating that sales of our LFT's will cause our cash position will go up…..
Delta variant now dominant on the planet and AS believes that Avacta are globally unique in publishing their LFT performance data derived from fully sequenced Delta samples. He commented that this should allow us to win market share in a crowded market.
AS has been surprised by how much interest there has been in the biotech of the affimers that underlie the Covid LFT diagnostic. Avacta has come to market will one of the best tests using a novel platform; that is attracting interest.
AVA3996 should be the second pro drug in clinic by the end of the year.
Tony, he didn’t say.
Don’t know what was said in London.
Manchester was a small quiet affair over dinner with
4-5% of the shareholders represented.
The company expect to get the balance of the assays over the next few days, ideally before the weekend but there will be work to do before any ‘drill’ RNS is released so unlikely this week but don’t rule it out.
The bulk of the work will be to compile all the results of the 40,000m, lay them over the historic drill assays and come up with a new ‘resource’. Nothing that we didn’t know. Lots to do.
More important to me was to learn more about our major shareholders and what their strategies have been in other successful mining projects. If you read up on that you will find out that they invest for the long haul. They don’t like dilution so they pay their corner at every raising. They like to see early and efficient progression to cash flow. They see the fastest way to value is re-investment of early revenue into the expansion of resource and production.
All in all I would say that their aims and ambitions are aligned with mine…… don’t know about you lot.