Processing at the mine site and trucking is approximately 20km for processing:
1.The main product is vanadium which brings over $70 of the revenue. 13,000 tonnes.
2.The second product is illmenite as it seperate via gravity separation. ($250-$350 per tonne) accounts for possibly…up to 150,000 tonnes.
3.The iron ore waste can then be determined for export pending market prices are supportive.
All 3 products can either be exported or stocked piled at the mine site and if market prices are supportive then the extra transport can be spent exporting to the port. This will be subject to take or pay offtake agreements. Under a care and maintenance situation I don’t want to be committed as an investor to continually trucking 454km for final processing. I want to process at the mine site and then stock pile and ship quickly when market prices recover. The return trucking trip is only the 20km ant the mine site And transport is only paid one way from the mine site to port. It’s then the trucking companies decision whether they return for another load.
The main point here is that TMTs Yarrabubba resource the illmenite separates where as all the **anintha pits titanium does not separate and is bound to the iron.
What your theory is suggesting.
The illmenite is always trucked from the mine site because it reports to the non magnetic circuit. Final volumes can be trucked from the mine site. The original AVL proposal the illmenite did not seperate so to extract the vanadium at Tindewa the FETI concetrate has to be trucked all the way to Gearldton.
Then what you’re saying is that you want to truck 900,000 tonnes of iron ore upfront spending cash on trucking. 454km then you’re commited to extracting the vanadium for export of 13,000 which is far less by weight. Unless vanadium prices are $12 per pound they don’t support trucking the 900,000 tonnes of iron ore.
The Geraldton strategy only works if all 3 commodities prices are towards the top of their markets all the time.
The other question is how many empty trucks are burning diesel on the return trip? The trucks are committed to a return 454km trip because the Geraldton strategy relies on continual processing.
In mining that rarely happens and is very cyclical.
AVL Price at posting:
1.6¢ Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
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