Ann: West Arunta Project - Luni MRE, page-192

Argonaut downgrades WA1 price target

But although it looks like WA1 could be in the running to bring on Australia’s first niobium mine, WA stockbroker and mining expert Argonaut has shaved off a $1 from its previous valuation to $25.45.

“The 200Mt global deposit is an impressive accumulation of potentially economic mineralisation,” Argonaut senior analyst George Ross says in the firm’s latest research note.

“In our view, a large tonnage global resource is great on paper but delineation of high-grade material with strong metallurgical performance remains the main game.

“We would expect future iterations of the MRE to include greater detail on high grade zones within the resource,” Ross writes.

“The ‘high-grade’ subset of the MRE is larger, but lower grade than our predicted ~34Mt grading 2.6% Nb2O5. We anticipate future updates of the resource will include a higher grade ‘high-hrade’ resource.

“We still expect a future development would process between one and two million tonnes of ore per annum but continued success from metallurgical test results will be key to derisking and the entry of a strategic corporate partner could drive further investor interest.”