Member Info for Jonah58

Fat fingers. 1% or more.

I agree we need security of long term feed supply at Roan. We have the 6 year ROM agreement which will fill 60% of Roan’s capacity which is a good start. I have no doubt other artisanal mining partners will come on board. We have secured tailings at Roan too. We have 300 M tonnes of tailings at Lechwe and Elephant, destined to have their own concentrator but geographically close to Roan, which has been purposely designed to accept a variety of feedstock.

Hernic was set up with less than 6 years feed but we have subsequently extended its life to twenty years or more. It’s the same model for Roan, I guess.

J58

PS. My figure for feed needed at Roan aligns more with Gotreal. 2.5 M tonnes per year max at grade 2% or better.

Mikie I agree that if all goes to plan we will be looking for further refining capacity, but I can't see us in any possition to buy Chambishi in the next two or three years. Simply too expensive. The only proviso is that we might be in a position to move in if cobalt prices rocket back up again and we are getting lots of cobalt via GlyLeach. I note, however, that the Chinese EV sales have knocked Tesla off the podium, and they don't use any cobalt in their batteries.

I strongly suspect, however, that IRH would be very interested in Chambishi. In which case we would have no direct interest in the refinery (unless the SpV bought it, of course).

Raider. Can I refer you to the latest presentation in investor/corporate documents/ presentations on the website. When fully up and running Roan will process oxides and sulphides from a variety of sources. The oxide concentrate is destined for Sable. On the slide it says the sulphide concentrate will be sold but I strongly suspect it will end up at Sable too until Sable’s capacity is filled.

You are right that Sable seems to retain some capacity for treating ore from project M and other local material but I suspect that this is pretty limited and will not be important in the long run. Its job is as a refinery capable of leaching and electro winning both types of concentrate. We are left to draw our own conclusions from the information that the sulphide circuit is being expanded.

I suspect production will be very much in line with guidance, which we have already been told. Nothing so far to suggest it won't be.

Thanks for these very informative links, especially the first one! I had found the second one. The Glencore links are extremely interesting. From what I can see, the GlyLeach process would not fit in this flow sheet, but I now have a much clearer understanding of what is happening at Roan/Sable and it looks very promising!

Gotreal, I was fascinated by your post which seemed to show documentary evidence that Jubilee at Sable is one of only six outfits either currently using this process or planning to do so in the near future. Where did this come from? Was it Glencore? As the Albion process is proprietary I presume we will be paying a royalty to use it. Thanks for sharing your research.

He doesn't need to do that BT. It's all in the most recent presentation., but if you're too lazy to read it: 50,000 tonnes per month through the 'oxide' circuit and 70,000 tonnes per month through the sulphide circuit equates to 13,000 tonnes Cu from Sable. Now, we don't know how much sulphide feed has been secured for Roan, but we do know that the recent 6 year run of mine contract will occupy 60% of Roan's capacity.

These figures are predicated on 1.5% grade so won't be quite as good if the grade is less.

The fact that we are expanding our sulphide capacity at Sable at a cost of over $5 M suggests to me that supply of sulphide ore to Roan is not going to be a problem. Finally, I note that this expansion is presumably for increased milling an oxidation tank capacity to accommodate the atmospheric Albion leaching solution, not the pressurised carbon in leach (CIL) modules you erroneously rteferred to.

As for eoy prediction - that will depend mainly on commodity prieces which, in turn, will depend on macroeconomic and geopolitical factors that none of us has a hope in hell of predicting. It's a complete lottery. On the basis that it's just a pointless game, I'll go for 12.73p.

Thanks Gotreal. A lot of chemistry there! Looks like we are expecting a lot of copper sulphide concentrate from Roan in the not too distant future.

Your prayers are answered, Happydays. Berenberg have increased their target from 9p to 10p!

Thanks Seis for your further thoughts about leaching sulphides from mixed ore (7 Jan). The sum set aside for expanding this facility at Sable seems quite large to me, though I am no hydromettalurgist. I wonder if we are looking to incorporate GlyLeach into this process to increase recoveries even more.

Although Sable has the capacity to smelt ore (it was producing sulphuric acid by roasting sulphides when we bought it) I can find no evidence that we have been using this energy demanding process since we acquired the refinery. We have been producing copper by leaching, solvent extraction and electro winning. To do this, the ore must be ground up and we have been told by RNS that physical separation facilities are installed at Sable. Without them, the cobalt circuit would be impossible.

With regard to project M I do not know if the grading of the ore is done at mine site or at Sable, but suspect the latter.

We do not produce blister copper, so the Glencore operation referred to is a completely different process.

If no conviction, then presumably Slater invested about £40 million of his clients money on a whim. Even if this is a small (ish) proportion of the total fund value, it seems an odd way to behave.

I’ve had another look at the presentation re sulphides. There is no mention of processing tailings (yet) at Roan and project M is shown as producing oxides only. But the 50 kt per month front end is shown producing both, with the 25% sulphide concentrate being sold into the market. There is also a hypothetical box indicating future acquisition of sulphide containing material to fill up Roan’s capacity.

I note the deal reported in the August RNS in which we have secured extra ROM and waste material and I assume it is this stuff that contains the sulphide ore.

Turning to the recent placing I quote “Expand the sulphide recovery circuits at the Company's Sable Refinery to accommodate increased sulphide concentrate production from newly acquired projects (c.US$5.7m”.

If this newly acquired project was from a deal that fits into that ‘hypothetical box’ then I would have expected an RNS about it, suggesting that the August one is what we are talking about.

Finally, if the August deal was some JV, then the other party could retain some financial interest in the sulphide concentrate. In which case we would have to buy it from ‘ourselves’ to refine at the expanded Sable refinery.

I’m still very confused by the copper sulphides strategy. We will have considerable processing capacity at Roan but where is the feed coming from? Tailings? Artisanal mining of the transitional reef?

Also, the presentation states a sulphide concentrate will be sold into the market, but a sizeable chunk of the 13 million raise is destined to increasing sulphide processing capacity at Sable. Does this imply we will be buying sulphide concentrate from ourselves? Thoughts from cleverer people than me welcomed.

Looks like my innocuous post thanking Seis for his research on Munkoyo and Bond got deleted. So, thanks again!

Berenberg’s current forecast is self admittedly conservative. There is much we don’t know about project M and progress or otherwise at Roan. Leon did say that current guidance for copper still stands.

Agree that Slater’s increased holding is encouraging.

Details about the SpV and planning for the overburden project due within 60 days of the Dec 12 RNS.

I continue to feel sanguine about the current situation and excited about the future.

Good one ‘Space Brother’.

You would have to engage with Seis who is far more knowledgeable than I am about Chambishi metals, Butter. But there has certainly been talk of a new operator at Chambishi, an unpaid tax debt holding up negotiations. As for price tag, I have no idea. We bought Sable for $12 million in 2019 with a capacity of about 14 K tonnes of Copper. Chambishi has an annual capacity of 27,000 tonnes Cu cathode and 6,000 tonnes of Co. The price tag must be considerable!

Sorry about typos. Fat fingers and a sticky keyboard!

Thanks, Butter, for posting links about Chambishi metals. Seis has pointed out on several occasions that this refinery (90% ERG, 10% KCCM) would be a great fit for JLP's strategy going forward though clearly we are in no position to buy it outright.

The value of Chambishi to ERG is its unique (in Africa) ability to produce LME certified copper cathode and, especially, cobalt metal. As ERG's main African operations are in DRC, they were importing cobalt concentrate from DRC to process at Chambishi. When the previous administration imopesed a 5% tax on imported feedstock in 2019, ERG responded by putting the facility on care and maintenance which persists to day. Sale of the facility is hampered by a legacy tax debt. In 2022 and april 2023 HH's administration said it was on the cusp of resolving theses issues and Seis has drawn attention to comments about a possible sale of Chambishi in their communications about the Mopani/IRH deal.

I would have thought IRH would be very interested in this. Alternatively, perhaps, with the apparent cooperation between Zambia adn DRC to esrablish a complete battery amnufacuring chain, ERG might be let off the hook.