General discussion, page-10377

We can't start building anything for ages. We need to do feasibility studies based on results from further met testing and upgraded MRE. It's mine building 101.

You need all the information first before you plan what you are going to build, plus how big, based on markets offtake agreements etc.

Any company that decides to build a mine without all the required information is in the amateur class that no-one with any knowledge would touch with a barge pole.

Cudeco comes to mind as a company that went to mining without any feasibility study, and went bust fairly quickly. The equipment/crrushers broke as it wasn't rated for the ore hardness, the recovery was low and they never had a viable MRE to start with, just a guess and they were going to mine the high grade ore first.

Any company that thinks having a 'starter mine', (to pay for the real thing), is usually as dodgy as anything and will quickly fleece shareholders of their investment dollars. Always run from ANY company that wants to do this type of start up.

I'm certain that management here will not go down any dodgy path, they would lose all respect from the investment community if they tried, and they are experienced enough to know it.

I would expect a further cap raising or perhaps some type of partner/buy in for a small percentage of the company early next year when we have a lot more information.

When any type of feasibility study starts, management will have a good handle on ore body size, grade and metallurgy, so that planning for what size processing plant to be built and any expansion factor later can be built in. Earliest of any building of plant would be around 2027, with production start around 2028-30, depending on a number of factors..

Another 4m shares dilution next year for $25-35/sh, then major funding either late next year or early 2026 for plant, or perhaps partner with percentage of operation possibly 10M shares at $30-$40, with debt/govt funding/partner to make up rest of plant build..

No benefit for anyone in trying to raise $200m to start mine quickly, it's an absurd amateur notion...

No reason that we couldn't be mining in 6 years time somewhere around 25,000 tonnes of Nb2O5 with a cashflow of $A600M-$900M and only 80-85M shares on issue, without a partner. With one, probably only ~70-75M shares and we'd be the dominant partner by percentage ownership...

Of course all the above assumes we don't find a shipload more niobium (or anything else) and our neighbours don't find a major deposit as big or bigger than Luni. In that case there is likely to be a different set of possibilities all good....