There is no other resource like ours in Asia, being in a western bloc country. We've also got short shipping routes to Asia. There are a couple of resources that resemble Speewah in South Africa, but they're much farther away.
Our deal reserves tonnage for Japan, then there is South Korea, China, Taiwan and India. Sumitomo is our distribution and marketing agent. We know where we are selling to and with whom. We are way down the track on that.
Sumitomo also included a reference to Japan Organization for Metals and Energy Security (JOGMEC), which has only participated once before in Australian mineral resources with Lynas Rare Earths Ltd. at Mt Weld. We hope to be number two.
Speewah's capex is less than A$250 million, making it low in capital intensity and high in criticality. For most rare earth projects, you likely can't move for less than A$1.5 billion as the processing is so complex.
- Target markets Japan, India, China, Taiwan, SK & they are well down the track of knowing who they are selling to.
- Shorter shipping routes to target markets than other Western block countries
- $250M vs $1.5 capex for other critical mineral process plants/mines
- critical mineral finance facility, NAIF & International partnerships in critical minerals grant - 3 avenues for some funding
- used in semi-conductor & ev batteries - noting there is no current substitute in these industries - I think this is an important point - vanadium in steel for example when the V price got too high alternate substitutes were used.
