Member Info for RogB

It's been granted. Decision notice is up with conditions. Long document so won't copy it here

The interview is much more informative than the webinar yesterday. Quite a bit of discussion about route to market and Ti metal production. On the latter point much less bullish on going it alone, which from my point of view would be a difficult strategy to execute.

It probably appears in the thorium section, although not for the reasons AI has given you. It's nothing to do with what decay chain it belongs to but solely down to the mass of the ion. These are measured by icp-ms with different detectors (read the bottom of the RNS where all the boring info is!). ICP-ms is Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry - the ions are made in the plasma from the atoms in the sample and then the mass spectrometer separates each ion by their mass to charge ratio. It's difficult to separate different elements that happen to have similar isotopic masses. Thorium and Actinium both have masses of 227 so were probably assumed to be all Thorium.

@restingpilgrim

"RogB would you be prepared or have you already put a question with regards the collaboration with Murdoch and what do they expect from it on the investormeetcompany presentation for Tuesday."

I have asked as the RNS description of the work seems different to that written in the Corporate presentation.

Hi Pott,

There are several unique aspects to the ore:

It's massive with a long mine life, multi decades

It's at surface, no blasting just shovel it up

It's weathered so doesn't need crushing up to get at the goodies

The titanium is in the form of crystalline TiO2 ( anatase and rutile, different crystal structure of the same compound).

All this makes producing TiO2 highly efficient compared to the traditional ilmenite which is FeTiO3 and getting the iron (Fe) separate from the Ti and O is chemically difficult so requires energy, more processing steps, and produces a waste Fe compound to get rid of. In these respects it breaks the rules for TiO2 production not Ti.

To make Ti you start with TiO2, and then choose your process depending on purity, energy availability, risk appetite, track record etc.

The RNS / videos variably went from possibly TiCl4 production months ago, to a new electrochemical direct route from TiO2 for which existing processes at pilot scale are owned by Metalysis. CSIRO have a continuous Ti production technology so if SB wants to keep it local to Australia why not partner with them. In fact if you are sitting on 20% of the world's supply of TiO2 with good purity for generations why aren't they engaging the big boys?

At this stage it doesn't really matter as the TiO2 side of the project needs to deliver first, but that seems to be a safe proposition. Aerospace Ti or additative manufacturing Ti powders would add significant value products.

I would caution about being too excited about novel Ti metal production processes. It technically very difficult and has been and is the subject of much ongoing research over decades. Few of these approaches make it out of the chemistry lab to anything resembling a commercial or even pilot test stage, the scale up problems are enormous. The sciencedirect article from restingpilgrim is an example - I have access to the whole paper and disagree that it shows no oxygen in the Ti which is reported in the abstract.

The FFC Cambridge process is the most developed non TiCl4 process and has quite a history commercially - this is a reasonable short read https://www.saimm.co.za/Journal/v111n03p199.pdf . The process struggles to remove the oxygen to the required purity level for areospace and is the process is owned by Metalysis https://metalysis.com/our-products/?tab=titanium - they supposedly built a pilot scale process back in 2010 https://cdn.ymaws.com/titanium.org/resource/resmgr/newsletters/newsletter,_volume_2010_i.pdf but there seems to be lttle further reported. But in March this year they announced funding for another go https://metalysis.com/media-release/newest/metalysis-esa-funding-sustainable-titanium-supply-chain/ so I guess the first on failed.

BHP did build a piot plant for their Polar process https://cdn.ymaws.com/titanium.org/resource/resmgr/2005_2009_papers/Rigby_2005.pdf but eventually sold the technology to Metalysis.

The Murdoch research group dont appear to have any great academic track record in TiO2 to Ti processing so I was hoping that their project was to do deskbound technology screening and advise SB on what suits best and who to speak to. I don't beleive they will succesfully do what the university fluff article claims.

Anyway just my two penn'orth worth with my academic hat on.

Application Validated Date Thu 07 May 2026

Actual Committee Date

Latest Neighbour Consultation Date

Neighbour Consultation Expiry Date

Last Advertised In Press Date Fri 22 May 2026

Last Site Notice Posted Date Fri 15 May 2026

Latest Site Notice Expiry Date Fri 05 Jun 2026

Decision Made Date

Environmental Impact Assessment Received

Determination Deadline Thu 06 Aug 2026

Temporary Permission Expiry Date

27th Jan RNS mentioned "Non-binding Cooperation Agreement executed with the Mid West Ports Authority to enable formal discussions regarding future port access and use of port facilities." So that is indeed good news on the port.

The document "APPLICANT RESPONSE TO LLFA" rom Jun 12 isn't quite so upbeat as the recent ecology. It ends "However, given these works are generally undertaken under GPDO, and the level of detail and plans already submitted, the Company views the LLFA response to be disproportionate and unworkable. The net effect of such a condition would be to make the program unviable, due to cost/time delays and have serious consequences on the deliverability of the Redmoor Critical Minerals Project – effecting significant investment, jobs growth and the local and national strategies on Critical Minerals."

Hopefully these professionals will iron out the wrinkles soon and we can progress....

As you note you can convert analyse to rutile in the baking (calcining) treatment processing step. However, it will be fairly energy intensive. Rutile is the thermodynamically most stable phase as a bulk material. Analyse is a little less stable and more chemically reactive, especially photochemically where absorbing uv light can drive reactions. However, if the particles are very small, a few tens nm, the anatase form is more stable as the surface energies of anatase and rutile are different and smaller particles have more surface than larger particles. The effect drops off quickly with size as the surface area scales as particle radius squared, bulk volume as radius cubed, which eventually dominates.

I read it as permission to proceed if they stick to the plan already given by Cornwall Resources response.

There's a new response to the planning application:

Cornwall Council Lead Local Flood Authority

Comment Date: Mon 08 Jun 2026

The Lead Local Flood Authority (LLFA) has been consulted on this application. The details contained in the Cornwall Resources letter (dated 20/05/2026) have been noted.

The Lead Local Flood Authority suggests that the following condition is applied to the planning consent, if this is granted:

Condition: The surface water management for each drilling operations site shall be in accordance with the principles set out in the Cornwall Resources Ltd Surface Water Drainage Strategy and letter (dated 20/05/2026).

Prior to the establishment of any site and commencement of works, a Drilling Operation Surface Water Management Plan must be submitted to and approved by the Local Planning Authority. This must include:

1. A Surface Water Management Plan for each site. Each plan must clearly identify how surface water runoff from the site and the effects of silt and surface water on land, property, watercourses and the highway will be mitigated and managed throughout the drilling operations.

2. Details of pollution water quality and emergency control measures, including temporary sediment basins, sediment traps, silt fences, bunds or trenches.

3. A Drilling Phasing Plan and timetable.

4. Construction Site Plan showing compounds, material storage areas, temporary vehicle parking areas.

The Local Planning Authority must be informed of any variation from the details provided and agree these in writing before such variations are undertaken.

The approved details shall be implemented in accordance with the timetable so agreed and the scheme shall be managed and maintained in accordance with the approved details for the duration of the works.

Reason: To prevent the increased risk of flooding by ensuring the provision of a satisfactory means of surface water control.

I think the RNS was mainly about LCCM and they needed to pad out the uncertainty caused by that news so added some repetition of the good stuff ongoing at Redmoor and a new dozer for Cobre.

Comments from Historic Environment Planning (Archaeology) have arrived. Seems SML could do a bit more to satisfy them as they seem miffed to not have had feedback from previous pads.

Https://www.linkedin.com/posts/great-southern-copper_chile-especularita-activity-7465327474097188865-Or3b?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAnOWeYB_zNoEgPWi_STncQayxY9brvK8_w

Hopefully the link works but there's GSCU video on their LinkedIn page showing Sam describing the geography.

I agree ptun. It sounded like they could contribute to an offside scheme. Just need to establish what an appropriate level is for the BNG. I also don't see this as a major hurdle, just a short time delay possibly to approval.

The ecology response required an updated submission with a biodiversity net gain assessment as I think SML had assumed each drill pad was small enough for an exemption - but together they are too large and some more work needs to be done. I suspect, however, its a straightforward bit of deskwork for their consultants by the sound of it.

I guess it depends on whether Tun processing plant can process the different ores effectively. The concentrate that comes out still needs to be turned into APT and purified, a step which is apparently technically demanding. See SheffTon's quote from the Critical Minerals select ctte. Most of this processing is in China, just like rare earth. Also the more mixed the concentrate is the harder it is to produce quality APT, so mixing Redmoor and Tun material into concentrate may be counter productive and separate streams would be more valuable longer term.

For security of supply it's not just a case of having the mines, you need the processing of concentrate to be in a friendly jurisdiction. There's not much in Europe I could see but US can process. We used to have world class chemical industry in the UK. Perhaps there's scope for a plant to be built in the UK to service streams from both mines.

SML results got a mention on the morning miner podcast today. The preamble was more interesting though as government are meeting mining experts today to develop the critical minerals strategy.

https://www.research-tree.com/media/vsa-capital-morning-miner-200526-20-05-2026/id/27853/8df7919f-bf09-41b0-a91e-c7388af6b08b

I'm on T212 and most of my AIM trades in general go through in a batch at the same time as others. I think they get batched in an auction so that may be why a load of trades are reported simultaneously - all buys and sells appear at their same price.