Ann: Iluka 2022 Full Year Results Presentation, page-9

Hi skeletonmother,

In addition to ILU's forecast demand for RE minerals to feed the Eneabba RE refinery, I assume the Balranald UGM project has got up due to the extremely high grade of HMC in the ore, .5 mtpa of HMC from 1 mtpa ROM ore implies a +50% HMC grade, which is 5-20x typical mineral sands project HMC grades. CAPEX of $A480m and average production costs of A$1,125 per ton of VHM concentrate for a .5mtpa HMC project with 9.5 year mine life mean that the UGM technology would only be economic to deploy in such very specific high value, difficult to access deposits such as Balranald.

The budgeted CAPEX of $A480m against the NPV of $A400m gives a NPV/CAPEX ratio of .83, which being <1 would raise some concerns of some financiers, as would the relatively modest forecast IRR of 23%, particularly for a project dependent on deployment of new technology exacerbating the risk factor. As there is no mention of a financing package I assume it will be internally funded from ILU's cashflows, so the possible concerns of financiers are not that critical to the FID. GLTAH!