Member Info for Mikea1boy

I own shares via a nominee account. What are the mechanics of my voting ? My broker advises I have to contact Sirius to get a list of the resolutions. Once I have got this I can advise the Broker how to vote my shares. I contacted Sirius who gave me their Registrars number . The Registrars told me to contact my Broker . I had gone full circle !!

As I understand it the extra funding is needed to finance an unexpected requirement to increase the diameter and wall thickness of the conveyor tunnel . Can anyone explain why this very large increase is necessary? The tunnel will be driven through the homogenous Redcar Mudstone formation and one could expect it would not have been rocket science to calculate the required dimensions and build cost of this tunnel. Why has the original plan been changed and what else has been miscalculated ?

What I guess will happen is that it will be sold for a song to a mineral processingly ( is there such a word ? ) smart operator who will invest millions in research into how to improve recovery to say 80% from this unique orebody.

Where Wolf made their mistake ( and it was nothing to do with Mr Harrison ) was in budgeting for a recovery of 65%. They probably did not even achieve half of that because of the intimately associated muscovite and kaolinite.

Then and only then will the new owners invest in a new plant ( froth flotation springs to mind ???) and make their fortune. Because of its history it may be difficult to find investors .

However, one day it will happen. Mark my words. It is a wonderful resource which needs a more technically aware Board of Directors than the current/past
crew.

Sorry Martina07.The problem is not the mining and geological side of the business.It appears to be exemplary. It is the failure of the processing equipment. it is not fit for purpose .It is not a conventional tungsten ore body and that why it is still there in the heart of a historical metalliferous mining area. The old boys could not process the ore body and it looks like neither can the new boys. One day.......

Martina07
You are so right...but next time the new owners will have spent a lot of cash sponsoring research to solve the mystery of how to process this ore before investing in a new plant. When they have the answer ( which they will definitely obtain) they will make their millions .

Re the comments made by DEvonwolf and Ophidian. The Wolf geologists may well have been brilliant but it is not a geological problem it is a mineral processing problem . The mistake I made in making my investment was I knew about the fines problem at Hemerdon and incorrectly assumed it would become common knowledge to any serious mining company. Again incorrectly I assumed that nobody would invest £150 M without having cracked it. What a fool I was. Wolf management have a lot to answer for ...but dont blame their geologists.

I would like to think OPhidian that you right and that there is hope and the tide will turn ....but sadly I think they have the wrong equipment and even if it was built to German standards instead of the poor quality it appears to be it would make no difference. It is the wrong equipment

Sadly my losses are even greater but an investment in Sirius Minerals at the same time has more than compensated

The problem is very simple and has been known about since time began. The muscovite mica and kaolinite minerals found in this deposit have a layer lattice structure down to atomic size. They can be broken down by mechanical energy to infinitely small particles . Here I guess they could make up to 35% of the orebody in the kaolinised material and falling considerably in the hard granite where only the mica will be present.
One of the inherent problems in processing of wolframite ore bodies is sliming whereby the wolframite ore can be broken down in conventional processing because of its crystal structure into infinitely small particles. Hey hoe we have a problem ..possibly unique to this body...in which 3 of the constituent minerals can be broken down during this conventional treatment into very very small particles. No wonder recoveries are so low.

It cannot be beyond the mineral processing industries research bodies to come up with a new idea. How about this for starters ? For over 50 years the kaolin business in the USA has been separating sub micron impurities from kaolin deposits using froth flotation techniques. Perhaps similar ideas could be used to split the wolfram from the kaolin and the mica ???

Sadly Devon Wolf. It is probable that the two platy minerals in the soft part of the deposit ( The clay and the mica) because of their ability to shear to infinitely small particles ( like the wolfram ) is the reason why the recovery of Wo is so poor .The hope that recovery will significantly improve when only hard rock is processed may be whistling in the wind as the mica will still be present in abundance in the hard rock as will small but significant amounts of clay.

Not sure about that WR 43 but it could be the case ??

White dragon the problem with "seasoned Australian miners " is that they have and had no experience in extracting a metal from a kaolinised ore body . Probably nobody has and therein lies the problem. It appears that conventional metalliferous mineral extraction techniques do not work successfully in this type of ore body.This was quite predictable. Why else would such a well documented rich resource be "unmined " for over a 100 years .? Surely it cannot be beyond the wits of man to devise a system to separate wolfram with its unique and well defined physical properties from its associated minerals ?

White dragon the problem with "seasoned Australian miners " is that they have and had no experience in extracting a metal from a kaolinised ore body . Probably nobody has and therein lies the problem. It appears that conventional metalliferous mineral extraction techniques do not work successfully in this type of ore body.This was quite predictable. Why else would such a well documented rich resource be "unmined " for over a 100 years .? Surely it cannot be beyond the wits of man to devise a system to separate wolfram with its unique and well defined physical properties from its associated minerals ?

Sorry day trader. Read the mining section .The open pit depth is 260 m. You are confusing the proved and drilled 400m depth of mineralisation with the final dimensions of the open pit.

Ultimate open pit depth is 260 metres. Top 50 metres is kaolinised. Pit slope angle is say 50 degrees. If it is "nowhere near " 25% what is it then ? Excuse my lack of technical knowledge.

Thats about 25% of the mineable open pit orebody ...and the mica will always be there