3700 tons cobalt/yr will help hybrid cars

Seeing there hasnt been any action for a while i stole this from the BAR board
Thanks Topwon
Also an investor presentation has been released by BAR.FIS have to work on their PR skills

After reading the following two articles I did a little research and was surprised to see that BAR has a market cap. of $33-34M. Even when they share Mt. Thirsty output of 3700 tons/yr with Fission energy it still appears undervalued. Is the Tanking sp due to the difficult ground conditions at Mt. Thirsty?

According to an informative presentation given by David Weight of the Cobalt Development Institute, the world currently produces about 55,000 tons of cobalt and is broadly in supply/demand balance. Some 50% of supply comes from the politically unstable Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the world’s richest source of cobalt. The rest mostly comes as a by product of nickel and copper production and is hence somewhat price inelastic, meaning the primary economics of the mine are driven by nickel and copper demand not cobalt. Cobalt demand has risen at a steady 5.6% for the last ten years which if extrapolated forward would see demand in the region of 163,500 tons, before we add in additional demands for electric cars. Extrapolating figures back from a separate presentation given at the conference by Dudley Kingsnorth, Neodymium production is currently around 17,000 tons and typically represents about 16.3% of Rare Earth deposits. Pretty much all of it currently comes from China but several new potential mines were promoted at the conference, all looking for funding. In reality no more than two of these are likely to come to fruition with a probable production capacity of less than 30,000 tons, at the above Nd content guide that would yield just 5,000 tons of Nd, somewhat short of the additional 24,000 tons required. As Dudley Kingsnorth explained in a video interview on MetalMiner earlier today these Rare Earth mines and processing facilities take at least 10 years to go through environmental, feasibility and funding stages before a kg of metal is produced. In reality, Dr. Mintzer’s scenario is unlikely to become reality but the above projections illustrate the dramatic effect a new technology can potentially have on metal demand when supply is finite.


JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – The Mount Thirsty cobalt/nickel/manganese project, in Western Australia, had the potential to become one of the world's top cobalt producers with a net present value of A$450-million, ASX-listed exploration and mining company Barra Resources announced.
The miner said in a statement on Thursday that an independent study by a metallurgical and engineering consultancy firm, Simulus, has indicated that the project could reach a production rate of about 3 700 t/y of cobalt within its first three to four years of operation.
This would make the project, which was a 50:50 joint venture (JV) between Barra and ASX-listed nickel and uranium exploration company Fission Energy, one of the top four or five producers, globally.
Barra MD Dean Goodwin said that the results of the study strongly qualified the company's view that the project had outstanding fundamentals.
"On the metallurgical findings alone, it is abundantly clear that Mount Thirsty's mining and production potential will allow it to command from start-up, at least 3% to 4% of global cobalt production," he commented.
Metallurgical test work had achieved atmospheric leach extractions of 99% cobalt, 78% nickel and 98% manganese.
The project had a current inferred and indicated resource of 29-million tons of nickel, cobalt and manganese, with an expected life-of-mine of 15 years.
A project development strategy, devised by Simulus, suggested that the development of an atmospheric acid-leach plant at a cost of about $400-million, which would produce cobalt and nickel metal, along with manganese carbonate concentrate for shipping to third-party refineries.
However, the project was expected to deliver net cash flows of about A$1,65-billion for the life of the project.
The JV was planning to start a bankable feasible study (BFS) soon, which it wanted to have completed by December.
Goodwin noted that the project was also situated close to the bulk infrastructure required for a mining operation, including rail, road, water, gas and sea export infrastructure.