Look, I have a reasonable holding in IMA and I can easily see its value is far greater than current SP, but I am a little hesitant on its long term future, given what are the present day tenements.
I take today's announcements as the conclusion of Project MORE which has failed to deliver the two extra years at Boonanarring. Hence the moce to Atlas in Q4 of 2022.
At best we may have a smaller plant to process the lower grade resources (not reserves) to be found at Gingin and Boonanarring West, totaling 13mt at 6.1% HM and 11% Zircon, but these are subject to permit and on the other side of the highway. Realistically there are both timing and mining issues to bring this to market. But it is a possibility in a higher priced commodity world.
So we move to Atlas where a flat quarter can be expected as the plant is relocated at a cost of $25m. Currently, the assessment of additional resources at both Helene and Hyperion are awaited and they will be serviced out of the WCP at Atlas. All up the present Atlas WCP has 34.8m t tonnes @ 5.8% of HM, 9% Zircon, 6.1% Rutile, 7.9% Leucoxene and 45 % Ilumenite
Not as good as Boonnaarring from here on in at 31.6m tonnes at 6%, 15%, 4.2%, 12% and 46% respectively. Given the tonnage is much the same at B and A, one could think about a timeline as follows: Now till Sep 2022 at B, then a hiatus till January 2023 and conclusion of Atlas around Oct 2024.
Where to from here?
(1) Hopefully, we may have uncovered more pay-dirt here or elsewhere.
(2) We may have acquired another project
(3) We may have a smaller plant in operation at Gingin and B West - subject to permitting and CAPEX in relocating a highway etc.
(4) We may have commenced operations at Bidaminna. I had never heard of this before and it doesn't appear on their website under Projects., but a Mining News article of 2019 explains more as follows:
"Beyond Boonanarring, Image has a number of potential development projects in its portfolio, both dry mining and dredge mining prospects."One of my front-runners as a potential second operating centre in parallel with Boonanarring is our 100%-owned Bidaminna project as a dredge mining prospect," Mutz said.He said it was early-stage but the project had significant value-add characteristics."Bidaminna has a very healthy grade for a dredge mining project, has very low slimes, very high valuable heavy minerals (VHM) content, is coarse grained and is leucoxene rich," he said.He said these value-add aspects made Bidaminna "much more than an average minerals sands project" - just as Image is also demonstrating its above-expectation credentials."
As today's separate announcement notes, Bidaminna is a dredging activity where they will get through the tonnage much faster. It appears to be a similar mineral composition to the Atlas project but lower in Zircon and higher in Leucoxene and Ilmenite.
Auto, what other aces does IMA have up their sleeve by way of possible projects?
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