Ozblue,
I'm sure you're very smart and educated on the whole mining thing yourself and your opinion is always appreciated.
You are very quick to hop on an "error" i've made. However you either deliberately took my post out of context to push a bias or you have misread the sentence. Nowhere did I say Etoile has a deposit over 1% - quote me on it. I'll quote it myself actually, "Etoile DMS Feed (1.2% Co)". I'll give the benefit of the doubt and say you accidentally left out the place where I mentioned it was DMS. If we really want to get into technical errors it should say "Etoile HMS" rather than DMS although they do the same thing.
I didn't pull numbers out my backside. I've got the the mining schedule of CHEMAF's Etoile mine and the processing flowsheet. They constructed 2 HMS plants right next to the Etoile Mine. The feed out of these HMS plants go to Etoile Plant and Usoke and another nearby plant owned by CHEMAF.
The plant is designed to process 365ktpa to produce 20ktpa copper and 3.8ktpa cobalt requiring feed grades above 6% Cu and 1.15% Co. The feed according to CHEMAF's technical report is from the HMS is considered "ROM". Although I mentioned in my previous post I don't consider this the traditional definition of ROM, however if WFE adapt this definition then possibilities are endless (we won't know until prospectus).
The HMS feed from Etoile as I mentioned was 1.2% Co. If you're looking for exact figures:
2008: 1.27% Co
2009: 1.40% Co
2010: 1.32% Co
2011: 1.12% Co
I can keep going.
If you're curious on exact mining out of Etoile deposit, 2008 it was 549kt at 3.63% Cu, 1.10% Co. 2009 it was 911kt at 3.10% Cu, 0.88% Co. etc. etc.
Once again to re-iterate you claim I'm building a story and not reality but you've completely left out the fact I mentioned DMS not the actual mine, reality is what I've said is factually and objectively correct. The Etoile DMS feed is >1% Co.
Also another bonus I forgot to mention now we are speaking about CHEMAF, I've done some digging into some news articles in DRC and the Plant Manager for CHEMAF is working with Jason on WFE's plant too, quite a smart bloke himself I've spent some time reading one of his research papers on dual precipitation. There's an image out there of him inside WFE's plant.
Please in future if you aim on coming in hostile to fact check me, read over what I've posted carefully and in context.
Not saying my post's are 1000% correct and be all end all, I've strived to be accurate with facts and sources included in all my figures and mention when they are assumptions, end of the day I'm also human and prone to mistakes. I'm sure there are some mistakes in there, hence why I've asked everyone to double check.
As for your claims on Katanga having 65% recovery, you've also taken the project out of context. The Katanga Luilu facility is for a mixed ore project hence the name "WOL Luilu Project" (Whole ore leach) means they'll be processing sulphides + oxides and waste tailing mixed together. The 65% figure you have taken from their technical report section 17.5 is only for recovery of sulphide ore within mixed ore, ditching out the oxides. Given the attention to detail Jason has on the feed that I've derived from AGM notes I doubt he will be accepting mixed ore like that, so there shouldn't be a froth floatation recovery loss (However I have included OPEX contingencies for it, although cant see any floatation cells in the plant). Katanga's project also is doing dual floatation.
What I do agree with is practice doesn't match with theory, I've kept track of all of Katanga's costs for their quarterlies. Last quarter they achieved a 54% recovery (compared to 65% aim), and quarter before it was 51% recovery. They'll achieve better recoveries as they stop processing waste ore and get into the good stuff in 2019.
If you look at a simple project that doesn't take in mixed ore such as Mutanda their cobalt recovery is 80%, or others such as NZC reckons they can get 70% recovery. FCC Leach SX Plant aims for 88% Recovery. ECS Floatation SX Plant is going for 70%.
Upon review I will agree perhaps 86% is too optimistic from my end. Given their focus here is just to produce cobalt I say theoretically 80% is more fair. So what this changes is the initial ore feed will have to be minimum 1.20% Co.
As for ASX prospectus's. I've seen delays upto 8months on some, I've also seen the opposite of recompliance done in under 3months. It's different for each company depending on components of the deal they're trying to do. Some are simple and straight forward, others like this have multiple parties involved. ASX have also made their CH1&2 re-compliance standards much higher recently which is great for shareholders - although I do confess I sometimes miss the wild days in 2015 where we would see an Oil and Gas company go into "revolutionary" tech overnight with no re-compliance, kept everyone on their feet.
No party really to blame...it is what it is.
Anyways I'll leave it there Oz. All the best on your trading/investments.
Thanks bud,
I've spent well over 100hours looking at this, but I think I'll keep the rest of the research reserved so it doesn't come off as "ramping". I'll wait until the prospectus comes out and use the facts presented there rather than more assumptions of my own.
On the positive the lack of information has forced me to do my own feasibility study on this myself and take extra levels of dilligence.
Plus there isn't any need to post daily on a stock that is suspended until new developments come out - so I'll wait until next years prospectus and contribute what i think of it.
Until then, I hope everyone here has a great holiday period + New years (including you and your family Ozblue).
Hopefully mods wont kill me for this but remember to spend time off posting daily on HC threads and instead quality time with family. And for those of us obsessed with markets always best to spend less time going back n forth with anonymous people online and spend more time researching things you own and finding the next winner or in my case the next WFE Disallowed. Remember posting multiple times, day on day on stock forums wont be paying the bills.
Cheers, have a good one guys!
