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Chrome production is what you would have expected given the loss of the OBB contract. PGMs were also affected by that more than expected. They were having to supplement Inyoni with tailings which maybe were lower grade. A bit disappointing that the PGM JV won’t start production until next year so we are unlikely to see any benefit from it.

I guess it will be similar PGM production in Q2. At least what we do produce will get a very good price!

Have a look at the graph I posted:

Here's the cobalt price chart (cobalt hydroxide in light blue is the important one):

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/e5ibczquv2xxgjugxu2qg/Cobalt-price-chart.png?rlkey=z5189puwp5iavc2im8s541dva&dl=0

You can see that cobalt and cobalt hydroxide are currently about the same price at ~US$45,000 / tonne. That's because there's not much of a shortage of pure cobalt but there is a shortage of cobalt hydroxide.

Eagle, they produce cobalt hydroxide as a final product, which is about 28% cobalt I believe. The price used to be linked to the price of pure cobalt metal and you got paid a percentage of that. As you can see from the graph, that relationship has broken down because there is a shortage of cobalt hydroxide due to the export ban by DRC.

Further to my post about the improving cobalt price, here's an article from earlier this week:

https://www.fastmarkets.com/insights/cobalt-market-outlook-2025-drc-quota-system/

Bo, if you have to ask those questions maybe you need to do a bit more research.

It doesn't really matter if it was a buy or a sell, clearly there was a buyer and a seller to move that volume of shares. Veddis were selling so it could have been them exiting. Maybe we will get a TR-1 eventually.

No

I would say for a company that primarily produces PGM's, it's the key aspect!

I guess there would be a sizeable outlay to buy in the chemicals needed to precipitate the cobalt hydroxide so they would probably want to be sure of longer term production before committing to that. I doubt they keep that onsite just in case. That's probably a significant percentage of the overall cost / tonne. Possibly waiting to see how the price reacts after the export ban ends and the quota system kicks in?

I'm going to have to re-scale my chart if this continues!

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/0b9ckxa33l026imyxf6jr/SLP-PGM-basket-and-chrome-price.png?rlkey=ccumfgigv2sie5mi4rtrs39kk&dl=0

4ever, I know Jonny was monitoring the cobalt price because I asked him about it when I emailed him. He said at the time that there was no production planned but they review at board level on a quarterly basis so let's see. Even if it meant displacing some copper cathode production at Sable, it wouldn't stop the production of concentrates at Roan, either for storage or sale into the market.

This is from late 2022, just before the cobalt price crashed:

"· Jubilee achieved export quality cobalt production, allowing the commencement of the ramp-up of operations

· The Company will initially target the production of 50 tonnes of contained cobalt metal which is the equivalent of approximately 220 tonnes of final product, before ramping up to the 1 200 tonnes of contained cobalt metal annual capacity, which equates to 5 280 tonnes of final product

· This achievement forms part of the development and design of the much larger Northern Refining Project

· The cobalt, seen as a by-product to the Southern Refining operations, holds the potential to significantly contribute to overall earnings with targeted margins at capacity expected to exceed 45% and first sale of product targeted to commence end of December 2022"

Here's the cobalt price chart (cobalt hydroxide in light blue is the important one):

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/e5ibczquv2xxgjugxu2qg/Cobalt-price-chart.png?rlkey=z5189puwp5iavc2im8s541dva&dl=0

Based on the cobalt hydroxide price at the time of the RNS, the margin of in excess of 45% indicates a cost / tonne of ~US$17,000-18,000, indicated by the grey horizontal line. With the current price of cobalt hydroxide at nearly US$45,000 the margin would be in the region of 60%. If they could produce even at the initial target of 220 tpm that could equate to nearly US$6m per MONTH. An absolute no brainer.... if the price remains at current levels.

Today is the first day of the new DRC cobalt export quota system so it will be interesting to see what happens to the price. I would hope that the company is watching that closely too!

It looks like yesterday's seller must have been dumping the last of their holding. We seem to be recovering again, glad I added to my holding!

The PGM basket continues to push on to new highs, as well as platinum and palladium, rhodium has also been quietly moving up.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/apstgo7sblhdttdaz2mr1/SLP-PGM-basket-and-chrome-prices.png?rlkey=uyo1axfb6xh81ndbnyfcpgyq7&dl=0

Looking back at BlackRock's holdings over the last couple of years, it's clear that they have bought and sold quite regularly as the SP has gone down and up again. It looks like they want to hold enough shares to maintain roughly £6.5m of total value as part of their portfolio. With the SP at 96p, they can do that by holding just under 6.8m shares. If that's who was selling I doubt they have much more to sell to get there. It could always be another seller of course.

I doubt it's got much to do with metals prices, overall the basket is just off the recent high which was yesterday. More likely Institutional investors adjusting their holding and locking in some profit. I took the opportunity to add more. It's very undervalued considering the last time the basket was at this level the SP was not far off 110p. Since then PGM production has increased and the shares in issue have decreased.

Https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/c595dsu3uc7r7gvsytg1b/SLP-PGM-basket-and-chrome-price.png?rlkey=x0tahm1cc753lldxgoymuuf6a&dl=0

PGM basket still improving. Chrome has been steady although it seems like it may start to weaken due to oversupply.

I don't think they are expecting more significant results from the remaining assays:

"To date, all significant silver values have been associated with copper and/or zinc. mineralisation. Analytical results are still awaited for a number of reconnaissance drill holes but, as these holes do not contain significant copper or zinc values by pXRF analysis and appear not to be on the interpreted trend of the mineralisation, significant silver results are not anticipated from these analyses."

i honestly don't know why i bother starting a thread only for people to come along and **** all over it with completely unrelated posts!

I was looking back to what was said about the cobalt circuit back in Feb 2023:

"As a result of the successful cobalt production trials, the decision was taken by the Company to debottleneck and expand the cobalt refining capacity to increase Sable's capability to produce saleable cobalt hydroxide concentrate from recycled waste materials in Zambia. The debottlenecking of the circuit will be completed during February 2023 which, targets to increase the processing capacity of waste materials to an equivalent production rate of some 270 tonnes per month of cobalt hydroxide (75 tonnes of contained cobalt) from recycled waste alone. A further expansion is currently under review to target some 450 tonnes per month of cobalt hydroxide (125 tonnes of contained cobalt) from recycled waste alone. The capacity is feed grade dependent and can be increased by further preconcentration of the secured feed supply."

Just around the time of that statement the cobalt price dropped and they discontinued production shortly after so it's not clear if that de-bottlenecking that was supposed to be done in Feb 2023 was completed or not.

With cobalt hydroxide prices currently at ~US$43,000 / tonne, even the first stage expansion to a potential 270 tonnes / month would mean a potential revenue of US$11.5m / month. Even if they didn't complete it, it's got to be worth considering right now.

Https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/1y8j5i4ce9h8e6ze3azi8/JLP-PGM-basket-and-SP.png?rlkey=9pgdefjuo7isyf0v6rmyxqi5y&dl=0

Spot the disconnect....