Roundtable Discussion; The Future of Mineral Sands. Watch the video here.
Some coverage from the forum. No interview with Ricus in this one but there may be more to come. There is mention of Jubilee giving a presentation to the delegates before a visit to site (about 21 min.)
https://youtu.be/zq027tZO6fQ?si=YjJ4UN8ZUScsuN9N
This was from the project status update RNS on 6th November:
“ We have reported exciting soil sampling results from both the Mukai and Mushima North copper projects in Zambia this summer and similarly at the Jacks Project at the back end of 2022, following an initial drill programme. Management has proposed drilling programmes for all three projects which the Board considers to be justified. The foundations we have laid in 2023 will stand us in good stead as we progress to the exciting drill-discovery stage and has generated joint venture interest in a number of our projects, THE FIRST OF WHICH we hope to finalise soon at Konkola West."
The fact that we haven’t seen any drill plans for this season yet suggests to me that they are working on another JV.
"The funding provided by IRH to the SPV will take the form of a shareholder loan. Repayment by the SPV of the shareholder loan is contingent upon the SPV first achieving a threshold cumulative net earnings with the SPV's repayment of the shareholder loan limited to a maximum percentage of net earnings, ensuring that the majority of earnings are distributed to the equity holders of the SPV."
Some more detail on the above would be good. It might be quite a while before any re-payment happens, depending on the earnings threshold, and it would be good to have an idea what that maximum percentage of net earnings actually is.
Https://x.com/FinInsightZam/status/1786331473672347846
This might be worth a watch if you can find it anywhere. I know that Ricus was interviewed for this. Hopefully it makes it onto the internet eventually.
Assuming all goes to plan with the initial modules the only thing throttling back expansion (apart from funding) is the speed at which the modules can be rolled out. The raw material is almost endless. I'd like to see the manufacturer looking to expand capacity at some point.
From the website:
Innovative Modular Technology – 2,000 tonnes per annum of copper per 20,000 tonnes per month copper processing module (assuming feed of 1.5% copper grade), as depicted in the diagram for Project M Copper unit cost per tonne US$5,281 in FY23 Estimated capital for 50,000 tonnes per month copper processing module = US$6.5 million. The estimated capital for a 20,000 tonnes per month copper processing module would be approximately US$3 million Modules targeted as part of Roan upgrade with additional modules considered under current long-term RoM agreements
Modules from order start of build to ramp up is something like 4-6 months from memory. Have a listen to recent Roast podcasts where that is discussed.
The first KoBold drill should be over 350m by now, so news potentially within 2-3 weeks.
Still hoping to hear more from Zambia before then, with drilling season kicking off across the country now as the ground dries up after the rainy season. Both African Pioneer (FQM) and Arc Minerals (Anglo American) have said that drilling is imminent in NW Zambia where Tertiary have the Mukai and Mupala licenses.
Why is travelcard only interested in Arc in particular do you think? There are lots of juniors out there whose licenses he could be calling into question but he ignores those and has spent two and a half years trying to stick the knife into this one! What a sad excuse for a human being he must be!
It does say they target the processing of in excess of 260 million tonnes of waste rock material. The initial 350 million tonnes may be the whole waste dump, which would likely contain a proportion of material which is not economic to process. I guess in sampling the material they have a more accurate estimate of what can actually be processed. Just my guess.
"But I AA only punched one hole last year for stratigraphical analysis only. "
Actually what they said was that the FIRST hole they drilled was a stratigraphic hole but that it was drilled to investigate a deep anomaly, which showed up on an AMT (audio magnetotelluric) survey which Anglo have conducted themselves. This type of survey gives deeper ground penetration than the airborne EM survey that Arc has already carried out. A large EM anomaly showed up in the same spot as well as the Cu-Sc anomaly.... that's three different survey methods showing an anomaly in the same location.... co-incidence?
Assuming the modules work as has been forecast then the only thing stopping expansion is the speed at which the modules can be rolled out. If that happens then we should expect the same kind of exponential growth that we have seen in chrome. Small scale miners will be queuing up to get involved. The partnerships with IRH will provide early cash flow to get things moving.
On another note, I was looking at the area around Thutse and there are lots of old open pit mine workings around there, I think there’s still massive potential for growth in that area too.
This is just about at the placing price (468,750,000 shares placed @ 0.08p). It was always likely to drop towards that without more news to clear out the placing shares. I'll probably add more this week if I get the chance.