Ann: Enhanced development option for Alvarroes, page-17

Hey all, good to see the band getting back together to pick over this latest offering. Here's my thoughts:

3,000 tonne P1 requires 30,000tpa of feed, so 6,000 tonne P1 would need 60,000 tonnes. Based on 150,000tpa of ore, at a grade of 1.1% and a recovery of 95%, you would get 35k-39k tonnes of 4-4.4% feed out of this proposed plant. The PFS used 4%, the Mt Cattlin tailings process used 4.5%, and I’m sure the FS will consider the trade-off in cost for that production, so it will be optimised somewhere in that range.

This means that, assuming a 6,000 LCE plant is going to be built, there will need to be another 21k-25kt of refined ore to be provided. Mt Cattlin? Separation Rapids? A bit of both? From the 121 Mining bio, we know that they are looking to finalise "Binding agreements to secure feed sources for L-Max® Phase 1 Plant" this quarter. It sounds like Alvarroes will be one of those suppliers, based on this quote that @vmp pointed out: "Furthermore, a more definitive arrangement to the current binding ore offtake agreement between Lepidico and Grupo Mota is being evaluated with the intention of providing a sustainable framework for operations."

Since Alvarroes will be enough supply the base case 3,000tpa plant, I imagine they have to complete the trade-off study, which is expected this quarter, which will confirm what size plant they are going to build, before signing any more agreements. Once they decide to build for 6,000tpa (which seems likely, as Joe expects to be signing agreements to supply from multiple feed-sources), then they can go ahead and sign deals to take more supply.

How that plays out between Galaxy and Avalon seems to be anyone's guess. Will be interesting to find out.

A$15m was budgeted for the concentrator, but that will need another A$3m to handle the feldspar and quartz processing. Given that this appears to be opening up a new revenue source, there will be trade-off about it being worthwhile, but you would assume it will be pursued. Additionally, if I’m reading this correctly, it means the mine won’t need a tailings facility, which will reduce both capex and opex. Again, a trade-off will be done in the study, but I doubt they would bring it up if they weren’t confident in it being the right path to go down.

It sounds like the Outotec cPlant could be used at other LPD deposits like Peg 9 and Moriarty, as well as potentially being plonked at any other spodumene operations as @Welsho54 suggested. Anyone that has some tailings they would like to monetise can potentially get one of these installed. Will be interesting to see how this develops.

The timeline for the FS appears to have slipped again: “The Company is currently conducting a feasibility study for a Phase 1 L-Max plant, scheduled for completion in the December 2018 quarter.” In the half-yearly report this was “The Feasibility Study for the Phase 1 L-Max plant remains on track and budget for completion by September 2018.” We’ll see if there is an updated corporate presentation and if it shows a new timeline, but I imagine it has to be expected.

If you suddenly have to consider the sale of two new by-products, possibly raising a bit more money, and altering the design of the concentrator plant, you’re going to need more time to work it all out. I would classify this as a good type of delay.

Fingers crossed there's a few more exciting announcements like this over the next couple of months.