RE: Update from DP on Telegram & ADVFN this morning1 Jul 2023 13:09
And another one, from today:
"An update on things.
At the moment we have announced that the preliminary results for ATS are very promising. The lab is now looking at optimising the process to see what is the best way of extracting the metals. That word “best” does a lot of work: we are looking at 3 metals, we can vary the quantity, type and strength of reagents, use different types and sizes of tanks, different temperatures and grind size etc. All will produce different outcomes at a different cost. What is best for one metal might not be best for another. The process that has the highest upfront capital cost may have the lowest operational cost.
The important thing is that we get it right. Every improvement in recovery will fall to the bottom line. If, for example, it costs $70 to produce metals currently selling for $100, then a 3% improvement in recovery would increase our profit from $30 to $33. If we can then find a $3 cost saving, we are spending 67 and making 33, so our margin has risen from near 40% to near 50%. That’s a huge simplification but you get the point: getting it right now yields huge benefits later and they fall to the bottom line. That is also the best way to hedge commodity and cost volatility.
We have an extremely skilled and experienced metallurgist looking at our entire process and he is currently - here’s the key word - OPTIMISING it prior to making his final recommendation. I don’t have a precise timescale. It isn’t imminent but it is soon. And when it arrives it will include quantitative data that we will share via RNS. There is no point revisiting the preliminary announcement because we know from the optimisation work going on that has already been superseded. And any recovery figure would be misleading: you can always increase the amount you recover by leaving it in the tank for longer, or increasing the strength of reagents etc.
What matters is the percentage you recover using the optimal process that balances recovery, cost and time.
The final report is going to set out a clear approach to bringing Empire into production in the most financially robust and environmentally sustainable way, and then it will be full steam ahead. We will announce data then.
Of course we need funding. That goes without saying. But chatting to Ryan has been an education for me. Like most PIs I perhaps focus too much on headline grades. They are important: you cannot produce copper if you don’t have it in the first place. But metallurgy and operational efficiency are even more important: they dictate what you produce and at what cost. For investors it is boring: work in a lab that takes many months without any output that can meaningfully be shares with investors. But it is the stage where a dream becomes a concrete plan. Or, to use the phrase Ed Conway uses in his book, where the ethereal world becomes the material world.
We are coming to the end of that process. And we will update fully when we have that final
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