Member Info for LoveHandles

I am definitely in agreement with Mark Tovey in his Motley Fool write-up on EEE: “In light of substantial capital requirements and the euphoria surrounding the company currently, I have no plans to add Empire Metals to my portfolio.”

Given how strong the current “ramp” is (just watch all the rampers dump on this post) and geological/ metallurgical deficiencies I have highlighted in my various posts, at some stage there will be a good entry point for smart money to take the other side of the trade. It is fascinating to watch the set-up. Another repeat of Bluejay, with many of the same actors (and broker) who clearly know how to play the game. It isn’t necessarily a bad thing and doesn’t mean you can’t make money.

The Lac Tio mine and associated facilities are operated by Rio Tinto Fer et Titane (RTFT) who acquired an interest in 1989 and released the following Ore Reserve and Mineral Resource estimates as at 31 December, 2021 (Rio Tinto Annual Report, 2021):

Open pit Ore Reserves - 153 Mt @ 80.0% Ti minerals;

Measured + Indicated Mineral Resource - 11 Mt @ 84.9% Ti minerals;

Inferred Mineral Resource - 16 Mt @ 79.2% Ti minerals;

TOTAL Mineral Resource - 27 Mt @ 81.6% Ti minerals.

NOTE: Ore Reserves are additional to Mineral Resources. Ti Minerals are dominantly ilmenite.

And they have a fully integrated smelter facility running of hydro power.

Not even close.

The Kroll process is a pyrometallurgical industrial process used to produce metallic titanium from titanium tetrachloride.

The Kroll process wont have any applicability to Pitfield sandstone ore beneficiation.

The Hunter process was discontinued in the 1930’s.

You folks are like lambs to the slaughter for wiley promoters.

Best advice I ever read was not to invest in something you dont understand.

You make me laugh.

If the mineralogy at Pitfield was favourable, EEE would already be screaming it off of the rooftops. If the mineralogy were favourable, EEE would not need to refer to the CSIRO.

Why is EEE still drilling? Probably to find a patch of titanium mineralogy that might plausibly hold up to scrutiny as to whether there is a viable metallurgical process route.

Pitfield might or might not be the largest titanium element accumulation on the planet, but that has little bearing on whether it is of value.

And to be clear, EEE will need to publish actual polished sections/ QEMSCAN images to convince the market wrt to mineralogy, not just pronounce that “mineralogy is favourable”.

Otherwise it will be just as scandalous as BlueJay in the early days when they talked about their “world-class” ilmenite. It was never anything of the sort.

DYOR.

And if it is developed, it will be with a fully vertically integrated smelting/ syn rutile facility. Good luck with that for EEE.

Https://link.springer.com/article/10.1134/S0036029521090147

Ageos - there is no commercial resource until the mineralogy is detailed.

This could be the biggest titanium element accumulation on the planet, but all the "amazing" drill interesctions won't count for anything if the mineralogy is not favourable.

If they have good & commercial mineralogy, why aren't they talking about it?

Why spend all the money on drilling out "amazing" intersections, but not spend £5000 on additional mineralogy analysis and release it to the market before wasting shareholders money on more drilling?

I suspect there will be another cap raise prior to EEE ever really being open with the market on the mineralogy at Pitfield and the commercial implications.

Why involve CSIRO at such an early stage?

Likely because they know that the mineralogy presents issues.

Hey, but let's not let that get in the way of a good story.

Empire Metals (EEE – LSE, GBP62m Mkt Cap): completes 40 RC follow up holes on 'titanium bedded mineralisation' at pit field, WA, including 154m @ 5.5% Tio2. Tio2 is a chemical formula, not a mineral, if it was ilmentite or rutile we'd be reading about it, so probably anatase, which can't conc up high enough to be useable

Too funny - from Cambridge dictionary:

whopper

noun [ C ]

UK /ˈwɒp.ər/ US /ˈwɑː.pɚ/

Add to word list

humorous informal

something that is surprising because it is so much bigger than the usual size:

My nose is pretty big, but my Dad's got a whopper.

humorous

a big lie:

Amanda's told some whoppers in her time.

"Everything suggests a cheap and economic route to market"

ahhh...not really.

Nothing by way of reliable external benchmarks or references suggest that.

"the smelter process is only required if there is low grade ore and high levels of contamination. we most very likely won't require use of a smelter to get to paint additive grade tio2 which sells for $2000/t"

ahhh...not really.

That's just not how it works.

Will leave it for others to continue posting Xmas "wishful thinking" for an alternative titanium processing technology to be commercialised in the Xmas stocking.

Sure Andii, "in-theory" they can try and target "target pure TiO2 that sells for $2000/t", which would require EEE to be building a smelter or similar as part of their project - not much change out of $1bn to build one of those...and that's on top of the cost of building a mine.

CONCEPTUAL ECONOMICS

- Assume mine reserve grade of 6% TiO2

- Simplifying assumption that worst case commercial ilmenite’s grade circa 50% TiO2.

- This would equate to ilmenite grade in-situ of 12%

- But it won’t be like that by the time they discard the siltstone size fraction (sub 63 micron) and lose titanium to other undesirable and unsaleable mineral species. So let’s generously assume 1/3 of the TiO2 is actually yielded after processing to saleable ilmenite

- So assume a mine that has 4% saleable ilmenite in-situ.

- Assume sale price of USD400/t CIF China (about current spot). [NOTE – SB mentions USD300/t assumed sale price for ilmenite in video interview - so $400 is overly generous]

- In-situ value of the saleable ilmenite is 4% of $400, so this run of mine ore has an in-situ value of $16/t

Now to the cost side of the equation:

- Sandstone & siltstone might be “soft sedimentary rocks”, but that doesn’t mean free-dig. They are "soft" compared to very hard igneous rocks of say, Chinese titano-magnetite mines.

- So we must assume some form of drill/ blast or mechanical cutting like Fortescue’s Wirtgen surface miners is required to mine the so-called "soft" sandstones and siltsones of Pitfield

- For now we will ignore the complex comminution and gravity, electric and magnetic separation processes that Pitfield ore will most likely require to yield saleable product. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT CONSIDERATION & can't be resolved until whole-ore minerlaogy is understood.

- Let’s assume in the BEST POSSIBLE SCENARIO mining cost of $15/t, somewhere between Fortescue and Rio Pilbara iron ore production unit cost.

So there you have it, a conceptual operating margin of $1 per tonne (at $400/t assumed price/ reality is that it would be lower than this), before G&A and a capital charge…negative NPV’s all around.

This is why the vast majority of the world’s ilmenite (that is sold as ilmenite) is mined from mineral sands deposits (such as Kenmare). Mining of sands deposits is much lower cost than mining any type of consolidated orebody (soft rock or hard-rock) because the sand material is easy to dig (it is sand). And for sure, there are some hard-rock titanium deposits mined around the world, but these generally feed directly into vertically integrated smelters. Will be interesting to see if Empire management opt to build a smelter or synthetic rutile plant as part of their Pitfield project studies...and how they would fund the capital cost of such.

"Otherwise there is always the traditional route, with 50 to 100 year tried and tested methods. And due to the low cost mining, milling and high grades, we would still be very competitive on a world scale."

There is no evidence presented yet to suggest that this deposit would have low cost mining, low cost milling, low cost processing (compared to todays existing producers) or even a saleable product, based on traditional methods. There is no evidence of any viable "new process" to get to higher value products. That is all merely theoretical at this stage. The company would be better off to stop wasting shareholders funds on drilling out the upside down Mt Everest, and rather focus their efforts giving the market some very robust technical data that supports a viable process route. Wouldn't be surprised if we see EEE do another CR before they have been able to articulate clearly to market mineralogy and a viable process route and saleable product. In fact, theoretically speaking, it may be the case that a feasible process route and saleable product may never be commercially viable.

From Catbert post yesterday: “SB further adds that the Titanium was precipitated out of the hydrothermal fluids into the sandstone and thus a reverse of this process is theoretically possible”.

Let’s underscore the words “theoretically possible”.

Cambridge dictionary definition:

“in a way that obeys some rules but is not likely:

It is theoretically possible.”

History Never Repeats…but in the case of AIM titanium promotes, it well might…/

…some familiar names.

https://www.alignresearch.co.uk/finnaust-mining/finnaust-mining-curious-case-large-shareholder-stock-sales/

https://www.marketscreener.com/quote/stock/BLUEJAY-MINING-PLC-15082161/news/FinnAust-Mining-Plc-completed-the-acquisition-of-60-37-stake-in-Bluejay-Mining-Limited-from-Roderic-38071912/

Conceptual economics – no doubt will cause more Empire ramptard arm-waving than a Village People concert:

- Assume mine reserve grade of 6% TiO2

- Simplifying assumption that worst case commercial ilmenite’s grade circa 50% TiO2.

- This would equate to ilmenite grade in-situ of 12%

- But it won’t be like that by the time they discard the siltstone size fraction (sub 63 micron) and lose titanium to other undesirable and unsaleable mineral species. So let’s generously assume 1/3 of the TiO2 is actually yielded after processing to saleable ilmenite

- So assume a mine that has 4% saleable ilmenite in-situ.

- Assume sale price of USD400/t CIF China (about current spot).

- In-situ value of the saleable ilmenite is 4% of $400, so this run of mine ore has an in-situ value of $16/t

Now to the cost side of the equation:

- Sandstone & siltstone might be “soft sedimentary rocks”, but that doesn’t free-dig.

- So we must assume some form of drill/ blast or mechanical cutting like Fortescue’s Wirtgen surface miners.

- For now we will ignore the likely complex comminution and gravity, electric and magnetic separation processes that Pitfield ore will most likely require to yield saleable product.

- Let’s assume a mining cost of $15/t, somewhere between Fortescue and Rio Pilbara iron ore production unit cost (very very generous, I know)

So there you have it, a conceptual operating margin of $1 per tonne, before G&A and a capital charge. You can’t stop the music…negative NPV’s all around.

And this my friends, is why the vast majority of the world’s ilmenite (that is sold as ilmenite) is mined from mineral sands deposits (such as Kenmare). Mining of sands deposits is much lower cost than mining any type of consolidated orebody (soft rock or hard-rock). And for sure, there are some hard-rock titanium deposits mined around the world, but these generally feed directly into mine-mouth smelters. Will be interesting to see if Empire management opt to build a smelter in their project studies. You can’t stop the music, nobody can stop the music…gotta love the Village People.

John Candy was mahoosive!

...and died of a heart attack in his sleep at age 43.

Summer or Winter solstace?

Mahoosive...in the ground...and that's where it will ALL REMAIN on the balance of geoligical probability...except for the samples of drill core.

Looks like the stock standard Competent Persons Statement required in any RNS disclosure for an exploration Company.

I wouldnt put much faith in that - will be similar to the ones BlueJay used.

Par for the course for a listed mining company.

The better mining companies use fully independent Competent Persons to sign off such statements, rather than a direct employee of the company.

And the chap who signed-off is a geologist - doesn't mean he has a clue about ilmenite mineralogy and impacts on down-stream processing and commercial viability. This guy is simply signing off on the "amount" of material drilled so far or the drilling methodas and QA/QC. Doesnt appear to have experience in the ilmenite space:

"Mr Faragher is an experienced exploration geologist with over 25 years’ experience working across multiple commodities including copper/gold, base metals, uranium, iron ore, bauxite and diamonds."

Irrelevant article Luke2.

Need to know the minerlaogy of Pitfiled ilmenite to know if it can even go into such complex industrial processes.

ilmenite is not like gold or copper - it has a very wide range of mineralogical and chemcial variations - and knowing these with precision is the only way to understand whether your deposit is actually worth ZERO or has some This paper touches on some of those issues.

http://www.scielo.org.za/pdf/jsaimm/v108n1/05.pdf

Once EEE release their minerlaogical data, I will be all too happy to post on this thread as to how it compares with other commerical ilmenites globally.