At the end of the AGM, Dave emphasized the importance of the
PFS report (Q1 2025) over the MRE in coming weeks.
As the Royalty terms states:
- US$3.5 million upon delivery of a pre-feasibility study for Storm and submission of permitting documents for a development at Storm.
This metric is guaranteed to be delivered in my opinion, early next year. Plenty of engineering studies by Ausenco, ALS Metallurgy, Sacre-Davey, Nexus Bonum, APEX Geoscience & others appears to be actioned for the PFS. Plus, a director like Rocky focusing on the report. A robust PFS not only satisfies the royalty milestones but also serves as a catalyst for potential partnerships, funding, and de-risking the project for investors.
As I mentioned, Dave was tight lipped on the scale of the updated MRE being either below, above or on target for hitting the 400,000 tonnes Cu Taurus target.
The Royalty package terms states:
- US$4 million upon delivery of a resource increase in the JORC compliant resource for Storm to at least 400,000 tonnes of contained copper at a resource grade of at least 1.00% Cu.
Given Storm is 17.5 Mt of ore at 1.2% Cu why are they happy to drop the grade to 1.0%Cu? It just allows the cutoff grade to be lowered to get more material (tonnes) into the ore classification for this Taurus target. Hence, maximizes resource tonnage while balancing operational feasibility, even at the cost of slightly diluting the average grade.
Therefore, to get the >400,000 copper metal units what is required, you could do the following,
- Given the maiden resource indicated the shallow copper mineralisation within the Storm Deposits is open in all directions (being laterally and vertical extensive) then extra tonnes can be found at Cyclone, Cirrus, Chinook and Corona. Hence the focus of the 2024 exploration program.
- Secondly, include the new prospects of Thunder, Lightning ridge, Cyclone North, Cyclone South and The Gap will add more copper metal units.
One option is for the new prospects (Lightning Ridge, Thunder, The Gap, Cyclone South/North) to add the required metal units, as in Table 1. In this concept, the Maiden Resource quantities are unchanged while the new prospects add 11.5 Mt @ 1.71%Cu or 197,000 cu metal units.
As you can see in Table 1, I am estimating the tonnes (via the aerial view of the resource map above, this is a risk) and using elevated copper grades (yellow cells) to achieve the >400,000 Cu metal unit target.
Conceptually, this is how the metal units could be achieved. Obviously, the table values are guestimates but since no-one has done this yet then this is a start. I do admit the copper grades on some prospects are high, but several Central - Southern Graben mineralisation zones are extremely high in copper. eg. South Cyclone 23 metres @8.5%Cu, The Gap 8 metres @ 5.3%Cu & Thunder 49 metres @3.0%Cu.
Another option is to be conservative for copper grade at the new prospects (Lightning Ridge, Thunder, The Gap, Cyclone South & Cyclone North - average of 1.20%Cu) but significantly increase the Storm Maiden Resources by 30% (from 17.5 Mt to 23 Mt of ore).
Therefore, an overall resource of 34.2 Mt at 1.18%Cu to achieve 405,000 Cu metal tonnes can be achieved under this scenario.
Disclaimer: This analysis is brought to you by Met2020—where data meets enthusiasm, not geology degrees. Using AW1 announcement data and a sprinkle of "educated guesses" (read: guestimates), the yellow cells represent input values, not gospel truth. While I’m not a geologist or mining engineer, I’ve done my best to piece together a plausible concept.
It’s a start, not the final word, on what’s required to hit the 400,000-metal tonne copper target. As they say, "The known near-surface copper deposits may be the ‘tip of the Iceberg’… but let’s not forget, icebergs can melt under scrutiny, so DYOR!"
Okay, now start the debate or scrutinize for alternative scenarios.
