Before you get too excited, this announcement is based on few samples and not on a comprehensive drilling programme to prove up resources. The proposal is to take some bulk "samples" and run metallurgical studies. That is all well and good and gives some insight as to the nature of the deposits but does not establish an economic resource. The deposit is worth zilch if it is not economic.
IPT specialises in looking for mineral resources on a wide front and proving up enough to attract a larger player to either buy it or enter a JV for further exploration. So far, they have not been too successful with this.
What MJ is good at is selling prospects and this announcement smacks of that - samples and a way to assess if further investigation is warranted.
Lake Hope is something of an exception that IPT was able to get hold of. The exploration and proving up work had already been done but the owner needed funding and commercial contacts to progress further. The real test of Lake Hope resides in establishing an economic process to produce HPA at 99.99% purity. Without succeeding in this then IPT is left with a lot of easily mineable clay that they cannot do much with. You need to note that they estimate that it will take 2-3 years before they hope to have a positive outcome on this research/development before they can start producing HPA (assuming funding is available).
I have owned IPT since 2021 and so I do not consider myself a long term investor. My approach is to identify resource companies (primarily gold) with interesting prospects and put a small amount into them and see how they get on. If things go well, then I increase my holding.
I went into IPT on the basis of its wide range of mineral interests and tenements although IPT's gold prospects are now low. Since 2021, it has been a pretty mixed bag, The Ni interests around BHP are still interesting but not delivering anything of substance. Lake Hope has good potential, but that is what it is, "potential", and MJ is not a proven player for me to catch onto his coat tails. There are still many tenement that may show prospects even if some have been sold to raise funds.
IPT is an explorer (they do not have even a PFS for Lake Hope yet) and the market knows that a lot more funding is required before an explorer becomes a producer. Credit is tight these days and likely to get even tighter. That is another reason why the IPT SP is held down.
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