Strategy - What happens next!!, page-188

@binwood

I don't think people are grasping the costs involved in a stand alone operation. I've recently been looking at the development going on at the Salamanca uranium deposit in Spain. They are sitting in the middle of a first world infrastructure hub near the coast, existing low cost power, roads, port, the deposit is extremely shallow (within 50m from surface), the flow sheet is simple based on a heap leach operation (just crushing and leaching, acid available cheaply and locally, no grinding), soft sedimentary ore, they plan to back fill waste into the mine pits so minimal tailings storage needed and their capital costs are approximately $96 million. Contrast that to the infrastructure required for a 2Mtpa hard rock lithium project starting at ~50m below surface (pre-strip, haul, crush, grind??, wet separation, waste containment). The pre-strip could easily run between $50 and $100 million alone depending on the planned scale of the initial development. DFS will make interesting reading and remember Capri needs to be paid back $6 million out of the new loan money. Esh