some basics - sdl vs. fmg, page-37

Hi Crazyclown,

Thanks Mate, and Thank God, I landed safely in the so-called City of Balikpapan, East Kalimantan. It is not as bad the weather here, not that hot, and not as hot as the mode of conversation on this thread at the moment.

Yes you are right, the numbers are just presented as they are from the Public Domain of ASX Database, in a summary Table form, to the best I can, directly from those Press Releases or Reports or News.

Please bear in mind that the 'Basic Referencing Comparative Analysis Table' "Only" tries to compare the "Period of Pre-DFS Release up to DFS Release" as this is currently where SDL sits on the timeline of the Project Life.

Whatever FMG reported at that time of Pre-DFS to DFS Release were taken as is, and same is true with the available information from SDL up to this day (ie. still Pre-DFS Release).

If you want to check out, you can easily access those information, especially FMG from the period of February to May 2006 (as this was roughly the time when the Pre-DFS and DFS Release happened with FMG). Please go to the Company News under FMG and SDL - usually via a Trading Account (I got it via ETrade, but if you have Commsec you should be able to access them as well, or the other trading platforms).

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Just to comment on the SDL CAPEX number of US$96-CAPEX/ton/year ---- You notice that in their report they put a Payback Period of <4 years (or less than 4 years).

For the sake of quick calculations - You divide US$96-CAPEX/ton/year by say 3.8 years, then you come up with US$25.26-CAPEX/ton (allowance to pay CAPEX for 3.8 years; pls. notice the "years" as unit is cancelled, leaving "$/ton" unit.) - which on accounting terms should equal to the "DA" component of the EBITDA number the Accountants declare. (EBITDA means Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation, & Amortisation).

This means "roughly" that on their economic model (which we don't have access, and 'As an Outsider' - we would "NEVER" have access on it) - they have an allocated US$25.26/t to pay their "DA" component (assuming that <4 years equals 3.8 years as we guessed roughly).

You would then add the allowance for Interest on Borrowings of the Monies that SDL would be borrowing (I), PLUS the Taxes + Royalties (T)- that the Governments of Cameroon and Congo have to collect; And then of course the Profits for the Share Holders and the Extra Money that has to go to the Company's Bank Account as Cash reserves (E).

I don't know the details of those numbers because we don't have any reference BUT you can just figure out by "back-calculating" roughly using the OPEX Estimated Operating Margin of US$43.47/t.

This "roughly" would be US$43.47/t - US$25.26/t = US$18.26/t as a leftover money for the rest of EBIT (ie. Interests, Taxes+Royalties, and Earnings for Shareholders/Company).

That's the best estimates I could think of using "back calculations" of the "Published Numbers" from Public Domain Information.

"PLEASE NOTE: IF ANYONE COULD COME UP OF A BETTER 'PARALLEL COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS" FOR SDL REFERENCING IT TO THE CLOSEST KNOWN IRON ORE PROJECT - THEN PLEASE DO SO."

I really would like to compare SDL with another similarly sized Iron Ore Project so that we have a sort of "Reference" and validate how the SDL Project lines up. Should anyone has that access of any comparable data and capability - Please come forward!!!

Thanks very much.

Cheers.