The Illuka takeoff agreement is for NTU to supply a 25% TREO xenotime concentrate to the Eneabba RE refinery, so the upcoming DFS will be based on production of a beneficiated xenotime concentrate supplied from the proposed Wolverine underground mine.
I did an earlier post on the economics for a Wolverine UG mine that included some estimates on trucking costs Post #:64493324.
Annual production of TREO from Wolverine is estimated to be around 5,000 tpa, so a 25% TREO conc. should weigh in at 20,000 tpa, which would require 400 x 50 ton B Double loads from Browns Range to Eneabba, a distance of approx 2,700ks. Based on an old AUS government estimate of bulk freight rates of 6.8c/ton/km, that would amount to approx $184/t to truck the concentrate to Eneabba.
While that figure looks pretty daunting, due to the high value per ton of the Wolverine xenotime conc. at around $4,000/t at current REO spot prices, the transport costs works out to less than 5% of the value of the end product. So no deal buster ... IMHO the bigger issue will be the cost of the underground mining so anything that improves the economics of that, such as the Wolverine deeps drilling results released today, will be a bonus for Wolverine DFS. DYOR & GLTAH etc.
NTU Price at posting:
4.1¢ Sentiment: None Disclosure: Held
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