= 27,275t of Xenotime and 160,900t of Monazite. Zircon will not be mined due to metallurgical difficulty and high capital expenditure.
Monazite is 65% REO and Xenotime is 62% REO giving
16,910 tonnes of REE xenotime mineral and 104,585 tonnes of REE monazite material
total REE mineral is 121,495 tonnes
Recovery of 70% and concentrate grades of 6.25%
Likely recoverable REEs from Xenotime:
Dy 2%: 338t x 70% = 236t Er 1.2%: 202t x 70% = 141t Y 12.9%: 2181t x 70% = 1226t Tb 0.37%: 62t x 70% = 43t
Likely recoverable REE from Monazite:
La 18%: 18,720 x 70% = 13,100t Ce 38%: 39,500 x 70% = 27,600t Pr 4.2%: 4368 x 70% = 3057t Nd 14.9%: 15,400 x 70% = 10,800t
If you assume the company mines the entire indicated resource over a period of time, they will have a throughput of 386,860,000 mt over the life of mine.
Over a 20 year mine life, the plant would need to process 19,343,000t of ore each year which is simply impossible. But assuming it was, annual production would be:
12t of Dy @ FOB $1040/kg 7t of Er @ FOB $160/kg 61t of Y @ FOB $145/kg 2t of Tb @ $2000/kg
650t of La @ $25/kg 1200t of Ce @25/kg 152t of Pr @ $115/kg 540t of Nd @ $115
As the current concentrate is only 6.5%/TREO, CUX would likely only receive at best 16% of FOB:
Dy $1,900,000/pa Er $179,000/pa Y $1,415,000/pa Tb $$640,000/pa
La $2,600,000 Ce $5,100,000 Pr $2,800,000 Nd $9,000,000
Total = $23,000,000 revenue.
Cost of production: even if you assumed they could match Lyc or Mcp, which they cant, COP is $15/kg
= $39,000,000
a loss of $16,000,000m
But obviously you cant process 20mt of ore a year, so the actual project economics are far worse than this fanciful, yet uneconomic example.
CUX Price at posting:
6.0¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Not Held
A personalised tool to help users track selected stocks. Delivering real-time notifications on price updates, announcements, and performance stats on each to help make informed investment decisions.
(20min delay)