Oh dear Rob, you're losing it ~ DYOR before Investing, it is a great pity that you did not take your own advice; instead of believing all that rubbish that SF2' came up with. At least I finally managed to save Blueboy, who had enough sense to see that MEI's Brazilian grades made Makuutu look like the gilded Lilly that it was.
Now, I have always said that Belfast is a good idea, and it still is. But as several people have recently pointed out IXR still needs to raise some substantial cash to get it operational, even if the UK Govt foots part of the CAPEX bill. Where oh where do you think that cash is going to come from? Nobody in their right mind is going to buy Makuutu, and no financial institution is going to lend them the money without some sort of solid asset backing and achievable pay-back period.
Just on that "Pay-back period" how do you pay back US$108M in 28 months from producing <1,000t magnet material? Given current RE prices, and without including OPEX, that 1,000t will be lucky to bring in US$60M in revenue (
Ionic Rare Earths Unveils $502M Facility Plan, Paving Path to Sustainability - Mining Technology Insights). Getting realistic by including all OPEX costs (but not Interest charges), then Belfast may generate US$10M.pa profit.
So, getting back to raising "Cash". Assuming that the UK Gov't are generous and put up 50% in Grants ~ that will still leave IXR to raise about US$60M by CR ? or roughly Au$100M? Now at Au0.5c/share that would be an extra 20 Billion shares......... need I go further!
I had originally thought that IXR's only "real asset" (IP) would end up being sold / transferred into VMM, but perhaps Mr Smythe is now thinking it would be better utilized through LCM, after all, he already has considerable influence within the UK Government. But in the final wash it won't make that much difference for the remaining shareholders. The only question left for them, is will management give shareholders one final milking before euthanasia?
(20min delay)